2012 ESP Handbook - Alabama Education Association

Creation of ESP
History of the AEA-ESP 1975 - 2012
• AEA Board commitment of $30,000 to hire one
staff person to determine interest among
support personnel, 1975-1976.
• 1,700 AEA-ESP members signed up the first year.
• All services and benefits of AEA were made
available to ESP members.
• ESP became a self-supporting division of AEA the
first year by AEA Board action. (Article XII in
AEA Constitution).
• ESP State Constitution was developed and
adopted.
• A statewide organization was formed with a state
executive board of ESP leaders elected at the
annual ESP Delegate Assembly.
• The AEA president, AEA executive secretary, AEA
associate executive secretary, and the director of
field services assigned to ESP were made
members of the ESP State Executive Board.
• ESP locals were created wherever enough
members were signed up.
• A standardized local constitution was approved
and sent out by the state executive board for
locals to use.
• As a result of the first year’s recruitment success,
three field staff were hired to assist the ESP
division director in recruiting and organizing ESPs
across the state.
• In 1978, a total of eight field staff, in addition to
the director of field services assigned to ESP, were
hired to continue increasing membership in ESP
and services to ESP members.
• In 1981, an additional four field staff were hired
to continue the growth of ESP membership.
• AEA Constitution was amended in 1981, making
the state ESP president a full member of the AEA
Board of Directors. Peggy McDanal was the first
state ESP president to sit on the AEA Board of
Directors.
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• In 1981, the AEA Constitution was amended to
place two ESP members on each of six AEA
commissions for a one-year term. In 1985, by
constitutional amendment, ESP commission
members began serving a two-year term.
• On May 2, 1981, the ESP State Delegate Assembly
voted overwhelmingly to unify with NEA, making
ESP members active-ESP members of NEA with
full rights and benefits. Alabama was the first state
to unify after the NEA Representative Assembly’s
action creating ESP-active membership.
• In 1981, Peggy McDanal, ESP state president,
became the first support person to serve on the
NEA Board of Directors.
• ESP became a vital link in AEA’s A-VOTE political
action program, and its members have been
instrumental in many of the successes achieved
in elections from the governor’s office to the
legislative races.
• ESP has become the voice for education support
professionals in Alabama.
• In 1985-86, AEA restructured staff so that 37 field
staff began to service active and ESP members.
• In 1986, ESP members were elected to the
Teachers Retirement System Board to fill two
positions designated for ESP by the Alabama
Legislature.
• ESP State Executive Board established the
following awards: ESP Doris Strode Champion
Award, ESP Pioneer Award, and the ESP Shining
Star Award.
• In 1993, Doris Dortch, former ESP state
president, received the second national NEA-ESP
Member of the Year Award.
• ESP membership is now over 25,000.
• In 2003, ESPO changed its name to ESP
(Education Support Professionals).