Vice President – Candie Dyer I have attended all the state board meetings, wrote two to three articles for each newspaper. I Went to the state convention and helped and did the PAC table. Went to the national convention to represent our state. Made certificates for the stewards and trainer for our state. Represented the state board in Holyoke for their District 2 meeting. Went to legislative with Cortney to meet with the Congressman and Senators of our state to explain what our issues are and to see if they would support us. Getting gifts for the guest speakers at the upcoming state convention.
Secretary-Treasurer – Les Hawkins This year certainly started with a significant learning curve for me as I assumed this position as the new CORLCA Secretary Treasurer. It was always rumored that no one knows the extent of this position until they accept the responsibility of filling the position of Secretary Treasurer. And I can assure you this is true. Most of the responsibilities are tied to stringent timelines and therefore need to be promptly completed. For a full time Secretary Treasurer, who devotes all their time to this position, this timeline is easier to adhere to. However, when this position is part-time and must be scheduled around another career, it poses a unique challenge to completing tasks within the required timeline. I often found myself working into the wee hours of the morning to stay in compliance. There was also the challenge of learning the ins and outs of this position. Many of the tasks performed are either required monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. This poses its own set of challenges as tasks are not completed often. I found myself refreshing the proper way to do the task so as to complete it correctly. Unions are heavily regulated by the Department of Labor, and they require compliance with all their rules and regulations. This is required no matter how large the organization, from the National organization down to the smallest state organization. This includes all the districts and local units as well. There are also the policies, regulations and constitutions of each of these organizations to comply with. The State Secretary Treasurer works closely with all these units to insure they are all in compliance. The State Secretary Treasurer also maintains close contact with and works closely with all other state officers to maintain that the state organization continues to operate under the guidelines listed above. With that being said, why would anyone aspire or agree to be the State Secretary Treasurer? Well simply put, it is a passion for most who fill this position. Out of all the National or State Board positions, the one consistently with the lowest turnover rate is the Secretary Treasurer position. This goes to show the level of commitment and desire to see this organization succeed that each person in this position has. I am proud to stand among this group. I am also proud to represent you as the CORLCA Secretary Treasurer. I thank each of you for your continued support as we continue to make this organization, especially the CORLCA, stronger. Duties completed by this office over the last year include but are not limited to the following: Compliance with DOL and IRS regulations. The LM was filed with the DOL along with all other required filings. The 990 was also filed with the IRS along with all the required filings and reports dealing with employment taxes and was properly accompanied with the proper monetary payments. End of year forms were completed and sent to the IRS and also sent to all employees. Department of Labor compliance and Taxation training was available and utilized. The National office provides training for State Secretary Treasurers. One was held for newly elected Secretary Treasurers, one yearly training session for all Secretary Treasurers, and new this year as a result of a resolution presented at the last National Convention was a special training session for Presidents and Secretary Treasurers together. I was able to attend all three training sessions and would love to visit with anyone about the specifics of these training courses. Please contact me directly for more details as I will not include this information in this report. The National Office also has a committee that is available to answer questions that we as State Secretaries and Treasurers might have. Over seeing the funds of the CORLCA is a huge part of this position. We currently hold eleven Certificates of Deposit and have funds available for operation outside of these CDs. I will again not get into details with this report as it is already lengthy but will be more than happy to discuss any and all concerns on a one-to-one basis. There are, however, a couple of points that need to be presented in this report. Most of the money spent by the CORLCA can fit into five broad categories. They are as follows: 1. State Convention. 2. National Convention. 3. Board Meetings/Administration. 4. Preparing, Printing and Disbursing information for the Membership. 5. Training. Should anyone have any questions or concerns or ideas concerning the financial state of the CORLCA please contact myself or any member of the State Board. We would be happy to discuss anything with you and would be pleased to have you address the entire board at any regularly scheduled board meeting. Reports are required to be sent to the national office. These reports are compiled and sent often electronically, but on occasion hard copies are also required. Such is the case for the end-of-year report. This report contains numerous items and is lengthy to compile. It holds all the information passed on from the State Convention to the National Convention. For example, it holds the certification of all state delegates elected to represent the state at the national convention, all resolutions passed at the state level that are forwarded to the national level, along with numerous other reports. State convention requires significant planning and often proceeds with few if any hiccups. This is accomplished because of numerous hours of preparation beforehand and lots of work behind the scenes. Many members sit on committees and without their help the convention could not operate. Elections are held at each convention. They are heavily regulated by the DOL. All “I’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed. If they are not, a new election could be required. Lots of work goes on behind the scene to have an election from renting po boxes to checking those boxes to preparing and sending out ballots to ultimately collecting and counting those ballots. A big thanks to the election committee. Payroll is also one of my duties. We have guidelines in place to make sure that any payment made is approved. Vouchers are used for payroll. Expenditures are approved at board meetings. After approvals are made, checks are written and sent out. It surprises me how often I need to change contact information in the database. I guess with almost 1200 members there is always someone moving. I spend some time correcting addresses and also trying to locate correct contact information. Thanks to each who notifies me when their contact information changes. We welcome all the new members. When a new member joins with us, their membership must be processed. They are first processed at the state level and then sent on to the national level for further processing. This is a list of duties performed during the course of the last year. Often, unique responsibilities fall outside of these listed above. The awesome thing about being your State Secretary Treasurer is that things often arise that do not fall into these listed duties. I just do what needs to be done. I have increasingly appreciated the aspects of this position. I have begun to tell everyone this is my career and running my route is just a side hustle. This year has been one of growth but also fulfillment. I appreciate your trust in me and will continue to commit one hundred and ten percent to being your State Secretary Treasurer. I have absolutely fallen in love with this position and look forward to several more years as your State Secretary Treasurer.
Assistant Secretary-Treasurer – Charles Harper Many hours of my past year has been spent in training: four days in New Secretary/Treasurer, three days in refresher training, and three days in joint President and Secretary/Treasurer training. It was great learning about this job because it involves a lot of little jobs. Some have to be done according to the Department of Labor requirements. I have had the good fortune to attend all board meetings and be the Board Representative to District 1’s meeting. I have spent time researching and tracking down members who are not receiving our Union mailings and ballots. Most of my time has been spent updating information on our website, checking links and tracking down useful information to add to the website. Both Les Hawkins and I have worked on maintaining the Union’s database. This is a wealth of information, but the State has to do its part to keep it up. I also helped to create “The Book”, emergency information “just in case.” I have written articles for all of the issues of the State Paper since June of last year. I have helped Les out by preparing a couple of the many reports the Secretary/Treasurer is required to make for the NRLCA. Occasionally, I find the need to send out forms. I also am available for assisting Les with his work. Please note that this report was written at the end of April before many of the preparations for State Convention and year end reports.
Executive Committee – Natalie Gardner As your Executive Board Member, I have fulfilled the duties that are required of me during this last year, and will continue to do so. I have attended and participated in all meetings that have been scheduled or called on short notice as well as zoom meetings. I attended the District One meeting in Fort Collins in March of this year as the Board Representative, and on April attended the Western States Conference. Last August I attended the National Convention. I have written articles for the CORLCA paper, and any additional articles that were required of me. I've done my best to listen to and help any fellow union carriers that needed to "release steam" or had questions. If I didn't have the answer, Iwould find it out or refer them to the proper person to handle the issue. I do continuously work on trying to get fellow union carriers moreinvolved in our union. With today's issues, as they are, the union needs all of our support. Executive Committee – Tammy Smith I have been a committeeman on your CORLCA board for the last year. I have attended all called meetings and written an article for the CORLCA paper as required. Was the board rep. at the District 3 meeting in Commerce City. Attended the WSC in Henderson NV. It is an honor to represent all rural carriers by listening, thinking, and voting what I believe is best.
Executive Committee – Pam Smith I have attended all board meetings and helped make decisions for our colorado association, please read the colca paper you will find out about the way we voted and what onI was appointed to attend dist 7 spring meeting , I always enjoy going to dist 7 meetings, I have been to my district 3 meetings one was combined with district 2 and was a bit different than what we were used to this spring meeting icouldn't attend as i was at district 7 meeting , It was a crazy day for meetings as 3 districts were the same day.I also went with our vice president to go to the district 2 meeting.I went as i being the lazion wanted to hear how it was going ,and to maybe bring back ideas to my district meetings. I hope this next year will be a great year for all of you.
Executive Committee – Amy Stauffer This fiscal year was my first year on the CORLCA as an executive committeeman. It has been a learning experience to find out what this job entails and try to be a member that is both productive and gives a slightly new dimension to the board. As members of the board, we help to facilitate the State convention to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch. This can be harder than it seems and requires us to keep a close eye on the planning. To sometimes revise how we have always done things and to learn and grow in our ever-changing society. It also requires effort to handle and do all the last-minute work and details needed to make it enjoyable and educational. We also are involved with the National convention by dealing with the delegates for Colorado and participating where needed at the convention. Western States conference is also something that we help to promote. Promoting and supporting PAC is another important job that we deal with and sending our members, president and vice, to meet for PAC in Washington D.C.is another way we do that, as well as securing items to sell and donate to this cause. We have the very important job of making sure everything is being done according to the constitution that governs us and that we are careful and watchful of the budget and eliminate any wasteful spending whenever possible. This year I was sent down to help facilitate District 6 for their annual district meeting. They had one of the best turn outs they had had in some time with five (5) members attending. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as an executive committee member and to represent the Colorado rural letter carrier’s union.
District Representative – Theresa Mecom My second year as DR found myself certifying more Local Stewards, getting 6 new Area Stewards onboard, handling the dispute process for the April MMS, processing grievances, and being present for investigative interviews and Labor Management Meetings with the District Managers. I attended Western States in Henderson, Nevada, will be attending the State Convention in June in Holyoke, CO, and plan to attend my fourth National Convention in August in Texas. From July 5, 2025 to present, I have handled 77 grievances and 68 PDIs; 1 was a Class Action, 28 were discipline, and 48 were contractual. To date, I was able to get $44,062.31 in grievance payouts for carriers. I organized two Labor Management Meetings with the District Manager, Doug Smith and Acting District Manager, Yan Fedulov: one in December of 2025 and the most recent one in April of 2026. Topics like workplace environment, vehicle distribution, hiring/retention, and Emergency Placements were discussed. I have certified seven new Local Stewards and conducted four Local Steward Enhancement Trainings this year to ensure our Stewards are in compliance with their yearly trainings. I also was able to get five Local Stewards promoted to Area Steward and have two part-time ADRs in addition to our full-time ADR, Greggie Byrd. We had 130 disputes filed from the latest Survey, and all were met on by myself and my labor counterpart on April 28, 2026. I was very excited to be able to resolve these disputes within a week of their submissions. We had three Impassed and the rest had resolutions at the local level. I have attended multiple District Meetings the CORLCA has put on as well as Booster Meetings for the State. Moving into the rest of 2026 and 2027, my focus is to still get carriers as much information regarding RRECS as I can. Mapping has proven to be the most efficient way to ensure the carriers are getting an accurate evaluation. Union membership is still at the forefront of my agenda. I am always recruiting membership into the NRLCA so the carriers can get information related to contract negotiations, RRECS, Step Fours, Arbitrations and updates from the National Office. I want to thank the Board for allowing me the opportunity to serve the membership. I look forward to serving the carriers as I continue my career with the National Steward System and the Postal Service. With appreciation, Theresa Mecom, District Representative for CO/WY
Assistant District Representative – Greggie Byrd Hello Everyone. This is my report concerning my activities for this fiscal year. As a Full-time Assistant District Representative within the National Steward System (NSS), I continue to try and help administer and enforce our collective bargaining agreement. Within the course of the 2025 – 2026 fiscal year, while working in 2 different postal districts my driving miles has been approximately 7,081 miles thus far. The totals for the number of grievances, PDI / Investigative Interviews are on page 3 of this report. One of the Challenges that I think will remain the same for years to come is in both districts the people you have to contact and work with operate differently based on instructions given to them by those above them. This past year when asked, I continue to try and help train and mentor our new and more seasoned local and area stewards. As Usual in both districts that I represent, I continue to try and recruit local and area stewards. The reason for this is, the cornerstone of an effective steward system is recruitment and training. With the help of our Director of Labor Relations and Director of Steward Operations who provide and participate with different type of trainings such as monthly Zoom meetings and yearly enhancement trainings, we try to be ready but also equipping our present stewards so they will Represent our carriers and hold Postal Service management accountable to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The two National Officers, along with our Executive Committeemen for the Western Area, not only use their primary role of overseeing the enforcement of our contract through our NSS, they continue and try to make themselves available to us for some much needed support. Again, Please See the Attached Breakdown of My Steward Activities So Far This Fiscal year Labor Relations: What are the Issues? Workplace environment issues continue to be on the rise in both postal districts here in the Western Area. What I have seen is that it is very hard to have a stable the place environment when a lot of our offices are without a consistent managerial team of some sort, to help assist our carriers in their day-to-day needs and questions. Carrier’s not being paid, not being able to get time off, not being allowed to map their routes, and being harassed for the sake of “making the numbers”. As stated in years past NONE OF THIS HAS CHANGED VERY MUCH! It just seems to move from office to office. A lot of my time is spent on the phone with carriers and managers answering questions about different labor relations issues, especially RRECS. One of the other things I got the privilege of doing this past fiscal year was attending two hiring events down in the state of Colorado. One was held in Longmont, the other was held in Brighton. These events can at times be very helpful in getting the word out that the Postal Service is hiring and in need of employees overall but especially in the rural craft. One of the best things about these hiring events is that postal management can assist a potential employee in getting into the system quicker then the person trying to navigate online maze by themselves For those of you who may not know, I am once again helping out in the state of Montana which is now a part of the Montana, Idaho, and Oregon districts. Once again this year I did attend some of the hiring events that was held in both Bozeman and Belgrade Montana. At these hiring events my primary responsibility was to assist potential new hires in the rural craft by helping them understand what the craft was about, what we do, how we are paid, and how we differ from other crafts within the Postal Service. While there with postal management, we work together to get these individuals the current information necessary for them to apply for the available rural carrier jobs in that area. I did attend Western States ( WSC) this year in Henderson Nevada Last Year I traveled to the National Convention in Orlando Florida, and the Fall DR & ADR training that was held in Las Vegas Nevada.
Assistant District Representative Keith Cutler What a year it has been, I have learned and grown so much this year. With my position as ADR came a lot of new responsibilities and opportunities for growth. On the last day of July 2025, I officially became Assistant District Representative of CO/WY. I went to DC for training hosted by John Adams. I got to see where the magic happens at our National Office and meet many of the great people who were once in my shoes but have now given me this opportunity. I attended training in Las Vegas in November for the DR’s and ADR’s. The training was hosted by Nicky Phillips and Kirby Rickets. Michael Gan our attorney, spoke and gave us a real life outlook into how what we do at our level affects everything at step 4. Michael is a true asset to our union and is someone I always enjoy listening to via online National meetings because of his insight and perspective. National training meetings are held every month, and I try to make every one I can of these voluntary meetings. We welcomed Kirby Rickets to Westpac this year and I attend every Zoom meeting/training session he graciously puts on for us. I always walk away from those meetings with something new, be it something I didn’t know or a perspective I haven’t heard before. District Representative Theresa Mecom, my mentor and the true reason I am here hosts monthly zoom meetings as well, where we connect with our local team of stewards. We spend time going over what is happening in our district and sort of give each other a heads up about what could be coming down the pipe. It’s a great opportunity to connect with other stewards and stay informed about our district. I went through training to certify new stewards back in October. When I got into this and was going through my own certification training, I never thought I would be on the other side of the training. Now, I am mentoring stewards and helping them get through the very challenges that I went through as a new steward. One of the new responsibilities that I received when I became an Assistant District Representative is that I meet on step 2 grievances. I have met at step 2 and one of the people I meet with is the former District Representative Ron Liles (he is now the USPS step 2 Rep). The idea though is to settle at the lowest possible level and most of my grievances are handled at step 1. Of course, with that comes sending files up to step 3 Rep Patricia Owens. Thanks to Cindy our former Step 3 Rep teaching me about sending files up to step 3 I have yet to be scorned on a messy file from Patricia. I did say yet… I have found that teaching carriers how to advocate for themselves in their step one discussions has been fruitful for both the carrier and the union. It has absolutely reduced the number of unnecessary grievances by empowering the carriers. Empowering the carriers is what makes us a union. A more knowledgeable union member or non member willing to advocate for themselves creates a stronger union culture and solidarity. This April I was given the opportunity to learn about disputes and sat in with Theresa Mecom and Ron Liles as they went through the dispute process. That was a long day. But I am thankful for the chance to learn. It was impressive to see the amount of knowledge Theresa has on rrecs and the amount of work done on it in such a short amount of time. I have organized Labor Management Meetings with local Postmasters with the intent of bringing a strong confident union presence in offices that haven’t had that in a long time. I attended district booster meetings this year put on by CORLCA and was the guest speaker at them with Question-and-Answer sessions to follow. The number of grievances doesn’t always tell the whole story. As I said before, I spend a lot of time coaching carriers how to negotiate at the step one discussion and that does reduce the amount of grievances. But for the sake of giving out some numbers which I know all my colleagues do, here we go. I have attended 45 investigative Interviews since July of 2025 several were as a local steward only 3 of my grievances were for discipline because I take the time to teach step 1 negotiation or I help negotiate at the step 1 discussion in person as a local steward. I had 4 grievances as a local steward and 24 as an ADR since July 2025. Six of my grievances have been class action. I still carry my route full time and manage to answer the calls from carriers at all my assigned offices on the same day they call me, even on Sundays. I am thankful to everyone who has been a part of my path to get where I am now. Humbly, I am thankful to the board for the opportunity and to the membership for making this possible! Here is to another great year!
Editor – Todd Hohn The past year I have attended all the board meetings; however, due to a lack of hiring at my office or poor management, I often missed a portion of the Saturday portion of the board meeting because I was working. I had a board member take minutes during the Saturday portion of the meetings I missed and then took over when I arrived. I then typed them up together and sent out to board members to look over for corrections.I edited, designed, created the layout, and mailed five issues of the Colorado Rural Letter Carrier paper to all CORLCA members in the past year—July, September/October, December, February, and May. I continuously worked with the state secretary-treasurer to keep up on changing addresses with our membership. For the July 2025 issue of the paper, I mailed 1115 copies (+29 from 2024) to CORLCA membership (postage $736.04 – $71.50 more than 2024); September/October issue 2025, I mailed 1124 copies (+37 from 2024 – postage $743.29 – $77.77 more than 2024); December 2025, I mailed 1138 copies (+21 from 2024 – postage $750.64 – $67.19 more than 2024), February 2026, I mailed 1143 copies (+31 from 2025 – postage $753.86 – $67.25 more than 2025); and for the May 2025 issue I mailed 1160, (+25 from May 2025 – postage $765.10 – $70.88 more than 2025). With the price of postage going up, the amount of postage for the year went up an average of $71 each issue compared with 2024-25. On the other hand, membership grew again this year, with an average of 29 more members for each issue than 2024-2025. That accounts for a small fraction of the higher postage, but it also accounts to more dues income to benefit the association. Working with Secretary-Treasurer Les Hawkins, conversation and research are on-going about ways to lower the cost of postage; for example, 16-page issues instead of 24 and eventually adding a barcode to the mailing, which would offer a benefit of lowering the postage. The CORLCA continues to maintain a very happy and successful relationship with Sunset Printing.
