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Messages that Matter
Find the message from the President and Executive Director each time the Newsletter is published on this page.
President's Message
This time of year is so different for everyone! If you’re a student, you’re headed into a new school year. If maybe it’s a new school so you’ll have new classmates, new teachers, new experiences. If you’re school personnel, you’re preparing for new students,
maybe a new position, a new work location, new colleagues or perhaps a new boss. Feelings may include curiosity, trepidation, and/or excitement. My fondest hope for everyone is that, whatever your circumstance, it’s all good.
For many of us who have retired, it’s the time of year when we wake up that first day of the new school year and say, “Oh how wonderful! My alarm didn’t go off at 0 dark thirty because I don’t have to get up if I don’t want to. I don’t have to go to work! Gee, I wonder what I’ll do today?” Then you remember you can do anything you want, anytime you want, with whomever you want, for as long as you want, anywhere you want. It’s a great feeling to know you have opportunities to volunteer with the MRSPA and the locals in your schools, animal shelters, hospitals, libraries, and probably a trove of other places. You might get involved in your local retired school personnel association and decide to tell colleagues and friends about the Maryland Retired School Personnel Association, asking them to join. You might tell them about the dues deduction discount for people joining and paying by having their annual dues automatically deducted once a year from their retirement/pension check. You yourself might be interested in the gift card you’d get for every new member you recruit that signs up for dues deduction.
At the Maryland Retired School Personnel Association, work has continued through the summer. We are continuing with our media campaign to get our name out there and introduce who we are. People don’t join if they don’t know you exist. We are moving forward
with our strategic plan, which will help us work smarter, not harder. Committees are still meeting and preparing for the work in the coming year advocating for legislation to protect our pensions and the health and safety of seniors, serving our communities and
connecting with friends, colleagues and retired school personnel across the state. We’ve been a proud organization for 80 years and want to continue our work with and for retired school employees.
As we welcome the 2025-2026 school year, I want to again thank you for your membership and for your efforts to help us grow our numbers. I believe there is strength in numbers. Thank you for all you do in your communities and for your schools. Thank you for your
ideas, creativity, and all you do.
Onward!
Betty Weller,
MRSPA President
Executive Director's Message
As I shared in my message this summer, MRSPA is working toward rebranding and planning for the future with the goal of grow ing our membership and moving MRSPA successfully into the mid-century. We know that most members join MRSPA for the pension protection advocacy. The MRSPA Legislative Committee meets regularly during the General Assembly session, reviews bills, takes positions, and provides testimony or input on bills that relate to our Legislative Priorities.
One of the goals in our Strategic Plan is to create a list of MRSPA members who have a personal relationship with a state legislator, county or city council member or executive, or local school board member. The committee would use this list when they need some one to reach out to a particular official on a particular topic or piece of legislation. Members with personal relationships might be asked to communicate with an official by email, by phone, or in person. Or they may be asked to be part of a panel of members who meet with or provide testimony on a piece of legislation.
We are trying to locate two members who have a relationship with each elected or appointed official for our list. We know that some of our members are elected or appointed officials. But we may not know of others. We know that some of our members taught those officials or those officials’ children or even grandchildren. We know that our members go to church or other religious institutions with officials. Our members are also in the same community groups or associations with officials. We just do not know which member and which official. So, if you are reading this, and you are an elected or appointed official in the county/Baltimore City/ state of Maryland, we would like you to let us know. If you taught or are in the same club as or the same church or religious institution as an official, and you would be willing to contact them about a legislative issue, we want to know.
If you worked with any current official and are willing to possibly contact them for MRSPA at some future time, we want to know. If you are willing to help MRSPA and our Legislative Committee to contact elected or appointed officials that you know personally, please send an email to mrspa@mrspa.org and tell us your name, the name of the official(s) you know, what their ti tle/position is, and their email address, if you have it. We would also like to know how you know the official (work, church, taught, etc.) or if you are the official. Thank you in advance for helping us create our list of contacts for county/city/state officials!
Wanda Ruffo Twigg,
MRSPA Executive Director