First off Im not in this to make any money neither is anyone else. Secondly as far as I know there has been some talk as to shopstewards recieving a monthly stipend for there duties. I do not know how much this is going to be it may be a little as $10.00 a month, I just dont know. The reasoning for this is so the stewards can be held at a much higher level of responsibility and provide some type of reimbursment for there out of pocket cost such as cell phone bills and time lost attending union functions while not on duty. This is something that 250 should have done with our 1.2 million a year that we pay them and never did. For those of us that are shopstewards I can atleast speak of the folks in my county anyway we make sure we are available to assist our people at all times even off duty. This for some of us has resulted in cell phone bills of up to and over $400 a month. So it will be nice to recieve some type of reimbursment for those cost.

Now for the statement that was made by me. Nate and his little buddies came down to my county on a fact finding mission. Which they said was just a friendly visit to give everyone a chance to have an open dialouge and learn about each others point of views. Well Nate brought down his little secretary who very eficiantly took down notes of everything that was said. During our conversation the topic of NEMSA's finacials came up I do not remember the exact conversation but Im sure someone will post something in response to this with it since they wrote everything down that was said. I did make the statement that there are alot of people who stand to make alot of money. The intention to this statement was that yes there will be people who will earn a salary when NEMSA takes over and that yes it will be benificial to them. Just as your paycheck is benificial to you, without it you could not live. The part about it being alot of money well I just suppose anything more than I make is alot of money to me. As the conversation was rapidly progressing from subject to subject and everyone was throwing things out I never got the chance to clarify my statement. Later that day I had heard that Nate and his crew had gone to another county to do the same thing and brought up what I said. I do not know why it was brought but as soon as I heard that I immediatly called
Nate on his cell phone to try and explain to him with what my intentions were when I made that statement. Nate said he understood what I had ment and I asked him not to tell people that I meant something else or something he may have assumed I did. I dont know that Nate ever did that or set the record straight with the others who were with him. I do know that they knew I called him becouse I think they were still with him when I called. Instead they put a negative spin on it and used it against me and said I called backpedaling. THANKS NATE.

The bottom line is I made the statement not anyone else from NEMSA. I was misunderstood and what I said was taken out of context. My intentions were never malicious and by no means did I intend to imply that NEMSA members were just out to make a ton of money. I tried to explain my intentions but I guess that it is my fault for not paying close enough attention to what was going on around me and what I was saying and trusting that a fellow coworker wasnt out to smear my name in the effort to win a couple of votes.

If I didnt respond to your post it was probly becouse I didnt see it for whatever the reason was. I was not trying to avoid you, thank you for being patient for my response. If for some reason this does not satisfy you curiosity or if you have the need for further explanation please feel free to page me at 408-924-9850 I will return your call as soon as possible.

Thanks
Dave

Ahh.. but I have to laugh. FYI Dave.. I had never met Nate before that day and I was taking notes for my own purposes, not for IAEP. I still have them in my possesion and noone from IAEP has ever seen what I wrote while I was observing them and NEMSA in action. Interestingly enough, they never even asked to see my notes. 

 I wish I could post on the NEMSA website and tell you in the forum I'm sure that you check.. but since I'm no longer "allowed" to log on.. I guess I'll just have to live with this. I suppose I could call you, but really what's the point.. it's already been made and confirmed by you anyway. However, in looking at my notes.. we were actually on the topic of money and how much the shop stewards were offered and the financial situation of NEMSA for quite a long time.... I'm sorry you didn't find "the time" to explain yourself during that topic... honestly, how would you expect a comment like that to be taken? Can you really blame anyone that was there for taking it at the face value that it was presented in?

Hope the voting went well for everyone. And now things can get back to normal for you all.