On October 29th, at the SEC Disability Employment Awareness Month Celebration, the SEC will announce the formation of a Veterans Committee. The Veterans Committee principal founder is Susan Schneider, veteran and union steward in OCIE, HQ. Veterans are recognized by the EEO office as an affinity group, and the committee formation has been supported by Chairman Cox and Human Resources and is being sponsored by Commissioner Casey. (Note - the Veterans Committee is not a special emphasis program, which are designated solely by the President through an Executive Order and supported by the EEO office.)

Mrs. Schneider stated, “We have two federal holidays to honor veterans, Memorial Day which honors military veterans who lost their lives while fighting to protect our nation’s peace and freedom, and Veterans Day which honors living veterans who have served honorably in the military, in war time or peace time. With our military receiving more attention in various areas of the media I felt it was important for the SEC to honor and recognize our veterans with a committee and speakers program. As a veteran I also wanted our employees to understand the true meaning of these holidays so they weren’t just seen as a paid day off with great sales at retail stores.”

“My vision for the committee is to educate employees about veterans and assist our SEC veterans in any way they may need. I would also like to see the committee organize guest speaker programs twice a year to coincide with Memorial Day and Veterans Day and have special events throughout the year that will benefit our veterans as well as local and foreign serving military personnel and they families.”

NTEU joins the Veterans Committee in honoring SEC veterans and invites all veterans and employees with family members who are veterans to submit your name and branch of service. Chapter 293 would personally like to recognize and honor our veterans on Veterans Day and throughout the year. Thank you for your service.

The first meeting of the Veterans Committee will take place at noon on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008. For more information on the Veterans Committee please contact Susan Schneider at [email protected] or [email protected].