local bargaining unit. In 1993 MEA and MFT successfully introduced legislation providing for a constitutional amendment directing the state fund public employee pensions on an actuarial sound basis and secure pension assets only for the purposes for which they are intended. In November 1994, Montana voters overwhelmingly adopted the amendment (CI-25) which is now Article 8, Section 15, Montana state constitution. Huge victory that continues to protect Montana's public employee pensions today. As they worked together in common cause, Feaver and McGarvey built a personal friendship that compelled them both to push and pull their respective unions along toward merger. They recognized their two unions were significantly more powerful and impactful working as one . . . so why not merge? https://www.mfpe.org . . . https://mfpe.org/about-mfpe/history/ . . . In 1993, the unions held their first joint professional development conference. A year later, the unions merged their locals in Missoula as an experiment and trial run for a possible statewide merger. With the backing of AFT president Albert Shanker and NEA president Keith Geiger, the MFT approved a resolution expressing its intent to merge in 1996. MEA followed suit a year later, and a joint merger committee was established to write a constitution develop transition procedures. In 1998, national merger between the AFT and NEA seemed imminent. While the AFT executive council approved the merger, delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly failed to approve merger by the necessary two-thirds majority. This appeared to imperil the MEA-MFT merger, but Feaver and McGarvey declared their intention to merge regardless of what the parent bodies' said. The NEA and AFT quickly established national guidelines for state and local level mergers, with the MEA-MFT merger providing the first test case. In 1999, the unions merged their political action committees and staff. From March 31 to April 1, 2000, 400 MEA and MFT delegates met in Helena to approve the merger, establish a dues structure, and finalize a budget for the new merged organization. Officers were elected in May. The merged entity's first president was Feaver, and the first vice president McGarvey. In 2001, the MEA-MFT—representing 61 percent of the votes in the Montana AFL-CIO—threw its support behind Montana AFL-CIO president Jerry Driscoll in his bid to unseat long-time incumbent Executive Secretary Don Judge. McGarvey succeeded Driscoll as president. In 2005, MEA-MFT organized the faculty at Montana Tech, the last major institution of higher education