Page 38 - April2021_Magazine

Meeting Points
Why every member should want to attend the Lodge 7 monthly general meeting
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Unit 650 Detective Erin Jones walked into the Chicago FOP Hall with two vivacious bodyguards in tow. Her 5-year-old daughter Maeve and 2-year-old daughter Teagan joined Jones at the Chicago Lodge 7 general membership meeting on March 24 and were as captivated as the 500-plus members who formed a standing room–only crowd.
“At this point, I figure they have been to more meetings than many of our members,” quipped Jones, who works out of Area Five.
The days of sparse attendance and even more meager at- tention at Lodge 7 general membership meetings seem to be fading in the rearview mirror. Maeve and Teagan have seen that this is the place to be to get up-to-date, job-protecting, reliable and believable information about how Chicago Police Officers can take charge of their futures.
And the way the energy in the room has provided a cathartic reinforcement of the brotherhood that makes being a Chicago
copper so gratifying is worth the spice of attendance. So is the fire and brimstone President John Catanzara and the Lodge 7 executive board exude from the podium, which perpetuates this union’s growing omnipresence.
“Well, it’s important to stay up on what’s going on with our contracts and to make sure that the board has our best interests at heart,” commented Jones, who apparently won’t let the lack of a babysitter deter her from attending. She noted how she has become more involved because she felt the previous Lodge 7 administration wasn’t moving the union forward.
“I think it’s been more open. It’s more inclusive. It’s more in- volved,” she continued. “I think there was this whole idea before that if you weren’t part of this club, you weren’t welcome here. Now, with the board that has taken over, they have made it more open to everybody.”
Open meeting seems to have become a mantra for the Lodge 7 general membership gatherings that alternate between after- noon and evening time slots each month. They’re happenings,
Hundreds of members packed the FOP Hall for the March 24 general membership meeting to get the latest information about how Lodge 7 is fighting for better working conditions.
38 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ APRIL 2021