Kelly Adams
1981-1983

President Kelly Adams chose as the theme for his administration, “Forward.” A major accomplishment of this biennium was to strengthen CalRTA’s legislative program. This was accomplished by 1) The employment of a full-time legislative advocate (Murdoch, Mockler and Associates) in December of 1981; 2) The strong efforts of the State Legislation Committee under the direction of chairman Ruth Q. DePrida; 3) The initiation of a statewide membership program of writing or telephoning urgent communications to the legislators and to the governor.

These combined efforts resulted in the successful promotion of Senate Bill 1562 which provided for a variable annual appropriation to be paid quarterly in different amounts to teachers who retired prior to 1975. Another success was Senate Bill 638, which provided that annual income from school lands be distributed to retired teachers, the first payment scheduled for October, 1984.

New state standing committees were established during this term: 1) Insurance Committee, consisting of a chairman and a representative from each area; 2) Public Relations Committee, consisting of a chairman and four members; 3) Nominating Committee, consisting of a chairman and a representative from each area. Other committees were deleted: the Sacramento Legislation Team; the Pre-Retirement Committee; the Retirement Housing Committee; the State Meetings Site Selection Committee.