Ron Breyer
2021-2023
Unlike his predecessors, Ron Breyer was not voted in as President-Elect by the CalRTA Delegate Assembly. Instead, he assumed that position in a special election by the Board after the untimely death of Rich Gipson, who was elected to that position by the Delegate Assembly in 2019. Breyer took over the President-Elect position in November 2020, which gave him less than six months — rather than two years – to prepare for the CalRTA Presidency.
Ron Breyer wasted no time in setting some critical goals: First and foremost, he wanted to secure the position of President by recruiting a strong leader to follow him. He also felt it was necessary to continue to move CalRTA into the 21st Century in terms of utilizing and becoming comfortable with electronic communication, updating outdated Bylaws and Standing Rules, preserving and strengthening Divisions within the Association, and generally embracing new ideas which would benefit the Association in the post-COVID era.
Breyer deems his first big success was in securing State Government Relations Chair Suzie Dixon as a candidate for President-Elect, knowing she would be more than ready to assume the CalRTA Presidency at the end of his term. The residual effects of the COVID shutdown, however, proved to be more challenging. Restoring CalRTA as a fully functioning organization post-COVID was complicated, since several Divisions, which had completely shut down during the pandemic, had to be restarted. One of the biggest challenges was educating CalRTA’s leadership, including himself, in the art of electronic communication and virtual meetings – at the Division, Area, and State level — yet the association as a whole made great strides in this area due to the efforts of the CTC and the superb leadership of CTC Chair Sue Breyer, who regularly and extensively created tutorials, scheduled workshops, and often gave individual mentoring to Division, Area and State leadership.
Division “restarts” had mixed results under Breyer’s leadership. Several Divisions which had shut down during the pandemic had difficulty finding new leaders and seemed ready to dissolve. However, after Breyer and other CalRTA leaders conducted numerous virtual meetings with these struggling Divisions, several were “rescued;” although two were dissolved, their members were absorbed by other Divisions in their Area.
Leadership in a virtual environment evolved during Breyer’s tenure. Conducting Board meetings virtually via Zoom stretched the comfort level of many CalRTA leaders. They needed to adopt a brand new mindset to allow these meetings to function effectively, and with great cooperation from Board members, these virtual meetings proved successful (and often timesaving). In May 2021, under the presidency of Dr. Jim Mahoney, CalRTA held a 100% virtual Convention; Breyer followed suit in September 2021, with CalRTA hosting a virtual Fall Leadership Conference, both of which were highly successful events.
Health insurance moved to the forefront in 2022 when our primary insurance vendor, EJS Insurance Services, Inc., was bought out by AMBA, which used a more aggressive approach to sell this insurance. However, CalRTA has since seen a slow but steady increase in membership because of a special contract with AMBA that entices people to join the Association in exchange for insurance at a reduced cost.
Also during Breyer’s presidency, CalRTA and CalSTRS established a new positive relationship, the result of a change in CalSTRS leadership. New CalSTRS CEO Cassandra Lichnock wished to communicate regularly with CalRTA and the consortium of education retiree organizations to help address issues among these groups. Under the leadership of former President Jim Mahoney, GRC Chair Suzie Dixon, and President Ron Breyer, this relationship is now well established, and the groups meet regularly on a quarterly basis.
President Ron Breyer, with the assistance and cooperation of the Board, the Directors, and the State Committees, built upon CalRTA’s strong advocacy reputation and prepared the organization to deal with the new problems and issues facing the organization post-COVID. Most importantly, Ron Breyer leaves his presidency highly gratified that he has left the organization in good hands with Suzie Dixon at the helm, a CalRTA leader more than qualified to lead us into the future.
CalRTA President Ron Breyer (2021-2023)