Facilitators: Elizabeth Vignaux and James Morrison

Is the structure of your current leadership effective? Does the current model service your local well in the 21st century? In this workshop, participants will examine their current leadership, the functionality of that leadership, and how to identify future leaders in order bring them into the fold of the Association.

Facilitators: Loren Fountaine and Tammy Romania

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In this session we will review the basics of transactional and transformational leadership to help you shift your local from a servicing model to an organizing model. We will model and discuss best practices for collection and storage of membership data and its use in internal organizing and building an effective union.

Facilitators: Joan Deem and Rose Hennessey

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By working together in solidarity, NYSUT members defeated the anti-worker billionaires’ attempt to destroy unions after the Janus V AFSCME Supreme Court decision in 2018. Then came the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic in 2022 with all the complications of remote learning. Amid this confusion, we have seen schools and school board meetings become the public stage for a rapidly growing sense of unease, distrust, and division across this nation. And yet – our union continues to thrive because of member power and activism.

As we know, no union is ever static - leadership changes and members retire. In the face of a public sector workforce that is open shop, it is imperative that we cultivate diverse and novel opportunities to empower the voices of our newer generation of union activists and stewards. In this workshop, you will learn best practices for new member organizing. You will also be trained in established methods aimed to transform your local association into a union culture of long-lasting and meaningful relationships. Be prepared to answer tough questions, role play, and create an organizing calendar for the 2022-23 school year to help cultivate our next and best union leaders and activists.

Facilitators: Christine Sarni and Alex Castillo-Kesper

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Good communications within your union is crucial to engaging and retaining your members. In this course, we cover how you identify your communications objectives and then how to put together an effective communications plan. First, we will cover the basics of what type of content you should be communicating the best channels to use to reach your members. This will include a discussion of your core local union brand and best practices for using social media and other channels.

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This workshop will help members dissect and understand the political landscape in their region. Locals will learn how to develop systems and structures from within to become more politically involved and effective in local, state, and national advocacy and electoral campaigns. We will review the process of setting up legislative and political action committees, endorsement processes, and Vote-Cope drive to prepare your local for future political and issues campaigns.

Facilitators: Regional Political Organizers

Building a war chest and capacity VOTE/COPE contributions

Good advocacy and political work take dedicated local leaders, volunteers, and funds to uplift this advocacy. Building on the earlier overview of our VOTE-COPE program, we will present best practices in VOTE-COPE campaigns on how your Local can utilize these methods. We will analyze your Locals' current VOTE-COPE campaigns and plan and execute a way to enhance your VOTE-COPE efforts to power your Locals' advocacy.

Building your political action plan

Locals will learn how to develop systems and structures from within to become more effective at advocacy within their district, specifically with school board members. We will review the process of setting up a legislative and political action committee and endorsement process to prepare your local for future political and issues campaigns. Local leaders will leave this session with 3 to 5 critical skills to increase their ability to communicate and be heard by their school board members.

All things school board (attending meetings, candidate ID and recruitment)

Locals will learn the powers and limitations of their school board, address common misconceptions, and learn key differences between responsive and dismissive school boards. Locals will begin to learn tactics to identify and recruit candidates for school board and how to build and maintain relationships with existing school board members.

Facilitators: Regional Political Organizers

• Building a war chest and capacity VOTE/COPE contributions
• Building your political action plan
• All things school board (attending meetings, candidate ID and recruitment)

Facilitators: Regional Political Organizers

Not all Campaigns are Political. Campaigns can be constructed around any or all of the LAP Pillars- Organizing, Social Justice, Community Engagement, Political Action. This session will familiarize participants with the core components of a campaign and identify worthy issues. Campaign construction may be used for a variety of situations including but not limited to funding, negotiations, non-contractual issues, contractual issues, school budgets/budgeting, Board of Education elections, coalitions and addressing concerns in the community. We will focus on building grassroots campaigns by examining the answer to four key questions: Why are you doing it? What are you planning to do? How are you accomplishing it? Who are you engaging?

Facilitators: Steve Lagnena and Christine Sarni

Facilitator: Ron Gross