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Being part of the state member organizing team I heard a lot about how damaging the Janus decision might be for unions. Throughout the school year our previous President talked about the struggle of getting employees to sign their continuing membership forms and knew from our building rep numbers that we had 41% of spots unfilled (Artifact 3). There were several meeting this spring where we didn’t even a quorum to make decisions. I read the article Union 101 by Cynthia Kopkowski and she stated “Through involvement—taking on issues that affect both the classroom and the contract—a community of educators grows stronger (Artifact 8).” This really resonated with me and I decided that I wanted to tackle the issue of strengthening our local union.

I worked with the newly elected President, Second Vice President (in charge of membership forms), and the local State Organizing Director because they are knowledgeable about what is going on in our local/state union and have resources for member engagement. Additional stakeholders throughout this project include all members of our local union. This includes para-educators and teachers at the elementary, middle and high school levels across our district. I selected them because if we stand together we will have a large voice and be able to make important changes together.

It is important for our stakeholders build a strong local union because “A strong and healthy union relies on the participation of all of its members (Kopkowski, Article 8). We are all in this together and need individual members to be invested in the process.

Unions work hard to ensure the work place is safe for ALL employees and it fights to improve the rights of everyone. The essence of a union is to promote and support diversity, equity, and cultural competence.

At this time I don’t have any intention of broadening the scope of my plan. I’m just beginning to get my feet wet in the pursuit of strengthening member involvement at the local level.

I chose door knocking our members and directly asking them to participate because I have been knocking state workers doors and making phone calls across the state for almost two years now and I have seen how people will step up when directly asked to participate in something. Working in a school district where there are more than 15 buildings makes it difficult to constantly stay connected to what is going on in each building. Identifying leaders in buildings is a way to help us all stay connected and ensure that voices are heard.

My two overarching competencies I chose were group process and technology. I chose group process because a union is a group and we are a large union. We fight for the rights of all employees to help ensure diversity, equity, and cultural competency in the workplace and so it is important that I understand how groups works together to be successful. I chose technology because in this day and age it is the best way to provide information and stay connected with others. I knew that in order to successfully door knock and keep track of our data I would need to use functions of the NEA VAN (online platform) that I had not tried before.

My diversity, equity, and cultural competency that I chose was to collaborate purposefully. It is vitally important that members in a union have leaders who are able to work with groups and individuals across cultures to improve goals and help make changes.

In the association pathway I chose building capacity of others. I chose this because door knocking allows me to engage association members in discussions and identify potential leaders in buildings across our district. Through the “ask” at the doors about whether they would be interested in being a building rep and representing the voices of members I am helping empower individuals to become leaders.

I will work with the local President and utilize the member organizers to help in door knocking our member doors to try and reach as many as possible. The individuals who work as member organizers for the state all come from different backgrounds and have had a variety of experiences. Some are vice presidents or secretaries for their own local union and they each work in a different part of state government. We are a varied group of individuals who work toward strengthening the union across our state.

The state organizing director is helping us fund our door knocking and BBQ in August. In order to receiving funding I need to have a plan of contact (Artifact 5), track our data (Artifact 6), keep track of who comes to the BBQ and how we follow up with members throughout the school year. Our local President had to ask the board for permission to provide our portion of the funding for the BBQ.