SCHENECTADY COUNTY NAACP to screen officer candidates Dormant local chapter is being reorganized BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
State and regional representatives of the NAACP on Thursday night and Saturday morning will screen candidates interested in running for office of a reorganized Schenectady County chapter. At least one candidate, Paul Webster, has announced his intent to seek the presidency of the county chapter. The Thursday meeting is set for 7 p.m. at Niskayuna Town Hall, One Niskayuna Circle. The Saturday meeting is 10 a.m. at Bethel AME Church, 540 Mumford St. Copies of election packets and the constitution of the National Association for the Advanced of Colored People will be provided at the door. Hazel Dukes, president of the state chapter, and Anne Pope, chairwoman of the Northeastern New York region, will co-chair the meetings. Neither was available for comment on Tuesday. Webster, 45, was serving as acting chairman of the nominating committee. He said he has resigned this position to run for president. “I temporarily accepted this position in order to facilitate the administrative functions necessary to complete the task at hand,” Webster said in an e-mail. “Now, with a full committee, time, date, location set and copies of the materials prepared for the group, I resign as acting chair in order to allow the committee to conduct its business in a transparent, open and honest fashion, as set forth in the by-laws and Constitution of the national organization.” Webster, of Niskayuna, said he is seeking the presidency to move the local chapter forward. “There are many civic, social justice and economic issues affecting people of color in Schenectady County that need some attention,” he said. “The NAACP can be instrumental in helping people find common ground on these issues.” Webster is statewide director of community outreach for the New York State United Teachers, a 600,000-member union representing teachers. He also is secretary of the Schenectady County Industrial Development Agency and a board member of the Hamilton Hill Arts Center. In 2007, he ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for county Legislature in District 3. “I am not interested in any political office right now. My focus is building our community and working in coalition with others to make Schenectady County a better place to live for everyone,” Webster said. In addition to the presidency, other elected positions are those of vice president, secretary and treasurer. Webster said the local chapter can have up to three vice presidents. Late last year, the former offi cers of the county NAACP chapter were ruled ineligible because the organization had gone dormant and was not performing its role in the community. The state NAACP Conference revoked the local chapter’s charter in early December. The Schenectady County NAACP chapter was...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01001
Gee....after what...40 years or so, I didn't think the NAACP was really needed anymore...no?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The Democrat party needs them to represent the party interest and organize them to get out and vote for democrats in lock step, and to harass the police and such.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
After an uncertain start, the Schenectady County branch of the NAACP likely will have enough candidates to fill all its officer positions. Angelicia Morris, chairwoman of the nominating committee, said a few people have expressed interest in the posts for the group, which is reorganizing after years of inactivity. “We are making great progress,” Morris said during an informational session held Saturday morning. “They are folks from the business sector.” Full interviews will be conducted from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at Hamilton Hill Arts Center, 409 Schenectady St. “It’s going to be open and transparent. We don’t want to go back to the days of ‘hide and seek,’ ” she said. The local group is waiting for the regional directors from National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to respond with a list of members and when they joined, so it can determine who is eligible to hold an officer position. “That is being worked out,” Morris said. Some interested candidates were found not to be eligible because they haven’t been NAACP members long enough. Paul Webster plans to seek the president slot, and the chapter looks to fill openings for fi rst vice president, second vice president, secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer and assistant treasurer. Elections are scheduled tentatively for April 14.
Must be they were able to find enough democrat committeemen to fill those posts after all.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
This is all about one thing; to have another Kratz front group that can sponsors phony debates that only Kratz attend. With all the real County scandals we get "news" story after story on this nonsense. And then they wonder why nobody reads it anymore.
SCHENECTADY Re-formed NAACP chapter to name candidates for office BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
After a rocky start, the nominating committee of the newly reconstituted Schenectady County Chapter of the NAACP will present candidates for office to members Tuesday night, a committee spokeswoman said. Members will vote for officers April 23. Candidates are running for president, first and second vice president, secretary and treasurer, said nominating committee Chairwoman Angelica Morris. She declined to name the candidates. Initially, there was only one candidate for the five posts. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Bethel AME Church, 540 Mumford St., Schenectady. “We will make our recommendations to the general membership on Tuesday,” Morris said. At this meeting, an elections committee will be established and rules outlined as to how to nominate candidates from the floor at the April 23 election meeting, Morris said. Also, an NAACP state representative is expected to discuss who is eligible to vote in the election. The current ruling is that only people who joined the local chapter before April 1, 2008, are eligible to vote, Morris said. The nominating committee found that the April 1, 2008, eligibility rule limited the available pool of candidates for office, requiring it to seek state clarification on its screening procedures, Morris said. Paul Webster, who is seeking the office of president of the local chapter, said in an earlier interview that many people joined or rejoined the local chapter after the state revoked the local chapter’s charter. The chapter lost its charter and its officers were ousted in December due to inactivity.
Promise, peril for NAACP Schenectady County chapter said to be fastest-growing in country
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published in print: Tuesday, August 18, 2009
SCHENECTADY -- As a social worker in this city's school district, Ebony Belmar has seen some of the "racially tinged" problems students face in their quest for a good education.
"Racism is in the structure of American society," she said. "A black president is not going to eliminate racism. Racism is all about power." Even after the election of 2008 sent the first African-American to the White House, the nation's oldest civil rights organization will always have its place in society.
"I think it's needed now more than ever because racism is so subtle," said Belmar, who was born in Costa Rica.
She is among the dozens of men and women who recently have joined the local NAACP, boosting membership sixfold to 90, according to Paul Webster, who was elected the organization's president earlier this year.
That pace has made the Schenectady County chapter the fastest-growing one in the Empire State, Webster said. His rise capped a bitter power struggle last year that led to the ouster of the old executive board over charges it failed to follow the procedures mandated by the state and national organization, including accurate record-keeping for meetings and sending delegates to meetings beyond the local level.
Belmar should prove a valuable resource because the group plans to work with the school district in battling two wrongs that torment young people: suicide and bullying.
Webster said "the ongoing crisis" with the Schenectady Police Department is also another hot-button issue for his organization, which is at a crossroads.
In many ways, its travails mirror the plight of the national NAACP, which over the last few years has been criticized for not being as relevant as it was in the past.
Detractors often point to the election of Barack Obama and the gains blacks have made in society. At the same time, the community has been hard hit by the recession, a problem compounded in cities large and small by chronic crime and crumbling neighborhoods.
Webster said the membership and leadership are poised to restore the local civil rights organization's role as a community resource and advocate. He shrugged of the notion the Schenectady group has lost its luster.
"We're still relevant as long as there is discrimination and bias in the nation," Webster said. "We need to make inroads in bringing people together." In some cases, that healing process will have to start at home following the fight for power. Webster faulted the Schenectady County chapter for "doing its own thing" during the past four years.
"If you have a chapter that is disengaged from states and nationals, then they will be ineffective," he said. "It would be foolish to ignore the years of services and experiences of (former chapter Vice President) Fred Clark and others bring to the table."
Logged
This is all about one thing; to have another Kratz front group that can sponsors phony debates that only Kratz attend. With all the real County scandals we get "news" story after story on this nonsense. And then they wonder why nobody reads it anymore.
