Colorado Alliance History

20th Anniversary – Sept. 18, 2003 

      • Summer 2001: Ellen Gollenback, Pres. Colorado AFL-CIO sent a letter out to all locals asking for a retirees meeting – Invited National Alliance Representatives Dana Kennedy, a community person and Western Regional Field Coordinator from Arizona, & Bill Holayter, Regional Board Member and a Machinist from Oregon to make a presentation and asked us to form a Colorado chapter.  From this meeting an Advisory Committee was established.
      • The Colorado Alliance had to have temporary officers as well as an Organizing Committee and write By-laws.

     

    • Temporary Officers were:
        • President Eric Boyer – from the Teachers and member of the Gray Panthers
        • 3 Executive Vice Presidents –
          • Dean Ames, from the Machinists
          • Charles Carter from NARF, Government Employees
          • Jerry Solano, from AFSCME
        • Bob Knapp, Secretary from the Steelworkers
        • Treasurer Jim Dugan from the Machinists

       

    • The Organizing Committee was Chaired by:
        • Barbara Johnson, from AFSCME
        • Jerry Solano, also from ASFCME
        • Frank Lay from the lronWorkers
        • Charles Carter from NARF
        • Harvey Hoffman from CWA
        • Darrin Duffield from the United Food and Commercial Workers.

       

    • Wrote By-laws from scratch
    • By-laws committee was chaired by: Bob Knapp, Secretary from the Steelworkers
    • Members were:
      • Bob Young and Jim Hague, from the Pipefitters Union
      • Eric Boyer, from the Teachers Union
      • Dean Ames, from the Machinists
      • Jim Dugan, from the Machinists
      • Bill Smith, a former President of the Colorado AFL-CIO from the Machinists Union
    • Committee met about every two weeks. It took several attempts and almost two years to get by-laws approved
    • After numerous discussions with the National Alliance, the Colorado Alliance organized as a 501(c)(3); today we are
      organized as a 501(c)(4) and have a dues structure that does not require local union participation based on per capita, and we can endorse Candidates approved by the CO AFL-CIO.

 

    • September 18, 2003: Colorado Alliance founding Convention — the charter was installed, the By-laws were approved and permanent officers were elected, and the Colorado Alliance for Retired Americans became the 12th State Chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans. There were 34 members and 6 guests at the founding convention representing 17 different local unions.
    • Today, there are 39 State Chapters of the Alliance for Retired Americans representing about 4.4 million retirees
    • Steve Adams was the President of the Colorado AFL-CIO and installed in the new Colorado Alliance officers.
    • The permanent officers elected were:
        • Frank Lay, President, lronWorkers
        • Fern Osborne, Executive Vice President – a community person as our By-laws require one of the four Executive officers come from the Community
        • Bob Knapp, Secretary, Steelworkers
        • Pam Difatta, Treasurer, United Food & Commercial Workers

       

    • October 2003: One of the first things the Colorado Alliance did was have a demonstration in front of Congressman Ben Beauprez to stop the privatization of Medicare, had 35 members picket
      • National sent whistles
      • Police had to get the three Colorado Alliance representatives in the building: Fern Osborne, Dean Ames & Charles Carter
      • Fern said there were rocks behind locked doors, and staff didn’t know anything about the bill so she explained HR 1 and SB 1

 

  • 2004: The Colorado Alliance started a Lobby Committee, and they meet every Friday during the Legislative session
    • Hired 3 Coordinators –
      • Mike Kindig the Labor Advocate editor and he always
        had an Alliance article in the paper
      • The next one was Bernadette Horchner, a former CO AFL-CIO COPE Director,she organized a trip to Aspen made the arrangements for some vans and the funding. National Alliance wants us to go to Aspen where the Sen. John McCain (R) is having a public meeting. His remarks regarding Social Security needed to be addressed We met in a park close to where McCain was speaking had lunch There was a group that came from Denver and Colorado Springs had about 40 Bernadette was also successful in starting to get the Alliance to go to Colorado Springs
      • The third one was Ann Ragsdale she organized a lot for events for both the C-3 & C-4 examples are Birthday Celebration for Medicare and Social Security, adventure golf a fund raising, field trips to Sen Udall’s office, Colorado state capitol, phone banking and many more. She was with us for about 6 months as contract was filled.

 

    • December 2009: One of our greatest losses was the passing of Fern Osborne, our Executive Vice President. She was a great advocate for all seniors.

 

    • Some other important dates:
      • June 14, 2012 – Founding Convention of 501(c)(4)
      • November 12, 2015 – Organization was moved to 501(c)(4)
      • February 11, 2016 – Resolution to dissolve 501(c)(3)

 

    • The founding convention had 41 members sign in and a poster was made with those names and the charter. Of those 41, there are 14 still alive:
      • Steve Adams, Colorado AFL-CIO President who got a 20 thousand dollar grant for the Colorado Alliance called the Heinz Account of which 10 thousand was paid in rent to the AFL-CIO
      • Dean Ames, first Vice Chair when we were an Advisory Board, he chaired the founding convention, worked on the By-laws with and has served on our Executive Board all 20 years.
      • Jay Burgess
      • Charles Carter
      • Ken DeBey, has been very active over the 20 years He was part of the Advisory Board and has served on our Executive Board since.
      • Pamela DeFatta
      • A. Neal Hall
      • Barbara Johnson
      • Robert Knapp
      • Frank Lay, first president who did a lot to help us get started, he also served on the National Board for some time, used some of his allowance to pay for things that helped the Alliance, and after he resigned he has continued to be an active member and has served on our Executive Board.
      • Andrew Luna
      • Larry Rasmusen
      • Moses Rodriquez
      • Wayne Smyers
      • Gerald Solano, at the founding convention and was assigned to a committee, he is still working and living in Pueblo and attends many meetings.

 

  • Other people in the Colorado Alliance’s history include:
    • Mark Johnson, a member from IBEW Local 113 in Colorado Springs who was their BA 20 years ago. He helped pave the way for the local topay 100% affiliation on their retirees.
    • Bob Young, former Treasurer
    • Allen Weisheit, succeeded Bob Young as Treasurer
    • Ed Augden, President
    • Carolyn Boller, Executive Vice President and former aide to Sen. Udall and Rep Skaggs for many years