Subseries: WEAC Staff and Officers

Conversation, August 20, 1974, with Charles Frailey, Research Director of the WEAC, at the WEAC office in Madison
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Frailey discusses the changes which have occurred in the WEAC since he joined and the impetus for these changes. He also talks about the differences between the WEAC and an industrial union. He states that the Association could accomplish much more if it analyzed activities before taking action and that there will always be a basic conflict of interest between administrators and educators on economic grounds.

Conversation, August 20, 1974, with Ed Gollnick, WEAC Human Relations Director in his WEAC office
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Gollnick talks about changes in the Association since he came in 1963, and changes occurring in the professional position of teachers over the years. He also talks about how teachers view themselves and their professional responsibilities, and how the public views them.

Ed Gollnick (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: He discusses the problems which result from school curriculum. He states that school boards are not representative of minorities and that parents often blame teachers when they are not at fault. Gollnick says that lack of communication between teachers and the public is a major problem, and gives Hortonville as an example.

Ed Gollnick (continued)
Physical Description: One side only. 30 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Talks about Hortonville. He says that school boards are not necessarily representative of the people, and that people let boards represent them until they do something totally contrary to their wishes. He believes that people should be shown what is in their best interest. He states that the WEAC did not choose Hortonville to set an example for the rest of the country and talks about the problems with striking there. He also talks about the state-wide teachers' sympathy strike and its failure.

Conversation, August 19, 1974, with Don Krahn, Director of Field Services, in the WEAC Office in Madison.
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: He talks about the state-wide sympathy strike and other measures taken to help the striking Hortonville teachers. He discusses problems in the profession such as unemployment and teaching standards and states that teachers should decide what the standards for the profession should be. He also says that many problems occur as a result of poor communication between teachers and the community, and that the PTA is not effective enough to solve this.

Don Krahn (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of censorship and sex discrimination. Mr. Krahn talks about some of the difficulties he encounters when trying to settle problems which involve interactions with other agencies. He states that often the Department of Public Instruction will either water down rules until they are ineffective or will put cases off. Also discussed are teachers organizing for self-interest and for potential social improvements, and the Hortonville situation.

Don Krahn (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of the importance of the WEAC as an instrument of social change. Krahn states that the private sector workers could learn from the public workers, and gives examples of how both groups could effectively bring about social improvements. Discussion of unemployment, and other problems in the teaching profession, also of social questions such as private ownership and welfare. Krahn talks about his background, the changes in the WEAC and in the attitudes of its members since 1963.

Conversation, August 22, 1974, with Morris Andrews, Executive Secretary of the WEAC, in his Madison office
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of Hortonville and the problems the WEAC faced in striking there, also of what was learned from the strike. Andrews denies the charge that the WEAC deliberately chose Hortonville to stage the strike, and gives reasons why he would have preferred not to strike there. Discussion of teachers' training in which Andrews states that educational schools are not providing adequate training, and that teachers themselves should control the requirements for teaching.

Morris Andrews (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: He states that teachers are basically idealists and that this is reflected in their teaching. He claims that conflicts result when teachers try to decide what they are going to teach, and that some people want the schools to be used as a means of propaganda. Discussion of the advantages which teachers have over other organized groups and their political potential as the second largest group of voters. Also, discussion of Andrews' background.

Morris Andrews (continued)
Physical Description: 35 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: He states that the WEAC should be run by the teachers who are its members. Discussion of why the WEAC hired him, and of Hortonville, in which he explains the WEAC's reasons for employing the tactics it did. Also, discussion of the principles of leadership and democracy in which he states that internal dissent keeps an organization moving, and brief talk on the U.S. system of government. Continuation of discussion of teachers leading themselves in which he gives the failure of the state-wide sympathy strike as an indication that teachers want to lead themselves.
Note: Background noise.

Conversation, August 30, 1974, with Lauri Wynn, President of the WEAC, in her office
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Wynn tells how and why she became involved with the WEAC and talks briefly about her education. Discussion of life in the ghetto and of how the black community feels about her position within the WEAC.

Lauri Wynn (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Continuation of discussion of the black community. Discussion of how she handles her role as leader and how she deals with other people. Examples of how she has dealt with specific problems in the past. Discussion of changes within the WEAC, specifically, unionism in which she states that the WEAC had to make a shift when it began to engage in political action. She states that political involvement and social change are the most significant areas that the WEAC has made changes in within the last three years.

Lauri Wynn (continued)
Physical Description: One side only. 20 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Talks about the importance of personal contact with members of the WEAC. Discussion of social issues and mention of some of the issues the WEAC has become involved in and of teachers' reasons for joining the WEAC.

Conversation, August 13, 1974, with Donald Dickinson, WEAC Organizer, at WEAC Leadership Conference
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of his background, some of the changes which occurred since he joined four years earlier, and his work. Discussion of the Hortonville community and of the strike in which he accuses the board of having planned the firings and charges their lawyers with union-busting. Also talks about the actions the WEAC was taking against the board, how parents could become involved in the educational process, and Milwaukee's disaffiliation.
Note: Background noise.

Donald Dickinson (continued)
Physical Description: 48 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: He talks about the NEA and the requirement that members belong to all levels of the organization, and of the need for a strike fund. Discussion of the NEA as a union and reasons why it would not affiliate with the AFL-CIO. Description of the Hortonville negotiations in which he accuses the board of failing to bargain in good faith.
Note: Background noise.

Conversation, August 18, 1974, with Bruce Oradei, WEA Organizer, Lobbyist, and Political Consultant, at his home
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of his background, how he became involved in the WEAC, and description of the nature of his various jobs with the organization since he became a staff member in 1969. Brief comparison of the WFT and the WEAC. Discussion of Oradei's negotiating experiences and of curriculums, in which he states that the power structure of a community will set up curriculums which suit their purposes.

Bruce Oradei (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion on the use of property tax to pay for education, of lobbying, and of some of the issues that the WEAC is lobbying for. Also, explanation of why the WEAC helps other groups to lobby for things that do not directly concern the WEAC. Discussion of the WEAC's involvement in social issues, and the problem of unemployment in the teaching field.

Bruce Oradei (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of Hortonville and of failure of the WEAC's strike strategy there. He charges the board with never having intended to negotiate. Discussion of the effects the strike had on the WEAC in which he claims that it did not damage the WEAC, since few districts would be willing to go through the expense that Hortonville did. Discussion of sex discrimination and also of organizing. Also, brief discussion of the changes in education.

Conversation, August 16, 1974, with Jermitt Krage, WEA Organizer, at a DePere bar
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Krage talks about the use of community pressure to solve problems and gives examples where such involvement has been effective. Discussion of the changes taking place under the direction of the new Executive Secretary, Morris Andrews, of problems in education, and what the teachers are doing about them. A brief comparison of the AFT and the NEA. Also, discussion of the problems of inner city schools and of the Milwaukee disaffiliation and brief exchange on how the courts are used in cases of discrimination.

Jermitt Krage (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Talks briefly about the NEA's movement towards political action. Discusses the Milwaukee disaffiliation, the educational goals which teachers and administrators hold, the importance of men's athletics in schools, and the WEAC's relations with the press.

Conversation, undated, with Veronica Sullivan, senior secretary in the WEAC office, at a Madison restaurant
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of the negotiations between the WEAC staff and administrators and of the differences between the administrations of the present Executive Secretary, Morris Andrews, and his predecessor, H. C. Weinlick. Also, discussion of Lauri Wynn, President of the WEAC, and the Executive Board.

Veronica Sullivan (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of public employees, their buying power and prohibition from striking. Talks about the view of teachers as servants and second class servants, and why teachers choose the profession. Discussion of the Hortonville strike, the increasing militancy of the WEAC, and the changes she sees for the WEAC in the future.
Note: Difficult to hear.

Conversation, August 29, 1974, with Kay Scholl, WEAC secretary and negotiator for WEAC staff union, in a Madison restaurant
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Scholl talks about her relationships with and feelings toward other members of the staff and the administration. Discussion of the changes accompanying the new administration in which she says that the new administration is more liberal than the old one.
Note: Noise and music in background make it difficult to hear parts of the tape.

Kay Scholl (continued)
Physical Description: 60 minutes 
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of the new administration continued. Scholl says that the administrators try to build up the confidence of the staff, and that they are always willing to answer any questions of the staff. She talks about the staff involvement with Hortonville, and claims that there was a boost in morale as a result of it.
Note: Background noise.

Kay Scholl (continued)
Note: Due to tape or machine malfunction this recording is largely inaudible.