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Agenda - Year 2

July 15-19, 2024
The Fort William Henry Hotel and Conference Center
Lake George, New York

Monday, July 15

7:00 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:15 am
Welcome and Logistics

Presenters: Ron Gross, NYSUT 2nd Vice President and Jennifer Kaseman, NYSUT Director of Constituencies and Program Services; Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office

9:15 am - 9:30 am
Move to Separate rooms
9:30 am - 10:30 am
LAP Overview

The Local Action Project (“LAP”) is about building power within locals. This session will provide an overview on the steps teams will take over the next two years to build power and accomplish their goals. Participants will review pillars of LAP- Organizing, Social Justice, Political and Community Engagement and how each relate to their project. Teams will explore the differences between strategic planning from year one and the campaign planning that will be the focus for their work in year two.

Presenter: Loren Fountaine, Labor Relations Specialist, North Country Regional Office; Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office

10:30 am -10:45 am
Break
10:45 am -11:45 am
Remembering Your Why and Assessing Year 1

Do your vision, mission, and values:

  • Build local capacity?
  • Inform the selected campaign?
  • Benefit your members?
  • Impact your recruitment, engagement, and development of new and current members?
  • Do they need to be tweaked?

In this session, participants will be asked to review the work they did last year surrounding their vision, mission, and values.

Presenters: Deb Lloyd-Priest, Labor Relations Specialist, Southern Tier Regional Office; Jennifer Romer, Labor Relations Specialist, Capital District Regional Office

11:45 am -12:30 pm
Building Your LAP Team and “Go To” Structure

How will you move your LAP campaign? Participants in this workshop will reflect upon their current leadership structure. They will analyze their local data to create a strategy to “expand their bench.” This will be essential to moving their campaign and other LAP initiatives.

Presenters: Loren Fountaine, Labor Relations Specialist, North Country Regional Office; Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office

12:30 pm - 1:30pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Campaign Planning 102

Campaigns are 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. A tenet of LAP is the ability for the locals to create and sustain campaigns around issues that are important to their union and the community they serve. This workshop will familiarize participants with core components of a successful campaign.

Presenters: Jennifer Kaseman, NYSUT Director of Constituencies and Program Services; Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Team Time
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Gallery Walk/Reception

Presenters: Jennifer Kaseman, NYSUT Director of Constituencies and Program Services; Loren Fountaine, Labor Relations Specialist, North Country Regional Office

6:00 pm
Welcome Dinner

Tuesday, July 16

7:00 am - 8:30am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 10:30 am
Identifying Your Issue and Campaign Demand

The first step in developing a campaign is identifying an issue and determining the demand. Participants in this session will review the best practices for choosing and issue to organize around and help them create a campaign demand that will resolve or mitigate an identified issue.

Presenter: Loren Fountaine, , Labor Relations Specialist, North Country Regional Office; Bob Ringwood, , Labor Relations Specialist, Central New York Regional Office

10:30 am - 10:45 am
Break
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Campaign Preparation

Before you plan your strategy, you will need to assess the political and community landscape. In this session, you will learn how to make political assessments to determine support for your local’s campaign demand and how to conduct a power analysis to determine members of the community who can lend their support to help you win your campaign demand. Locals will have time to review their specific political landscapes and conduct a power analysis around their issue and demand.

Presenters: Regional Political Organizers

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Team Time
12:30 pm - 1:30pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Target Identification and Developing Your Strategy

Once you have determined your issue and campaign demand, you will create a strategy for winning your campaign. This session will walk you through the steps needed to create a strategy that will move the decision makers to “yes”.

Presenters: Rose Hennessey, Organizer, Western New York Regional Office; Ada Martinez, Organizer, Headquarters

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Team Time
6:00 pm
BBQ with the Officers

Wednesday, July 17

7:00 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:30 am
Intro to Tactics

Participants in this session will discern what makes a good tactic based on their issue, goal/demand, target, and strategy. They will examine the best practices for developing, analyzing, and escalating tactics to achieve their goal.

Presenters: Deb Lloyd-Priest, Labor Relations Specialist, Southern Tier Regional Office

9:30 am - 10:30 am
Digital Tactics

This session will focus on the best practices for digital campaign tactics that use social media and other digital communication tools to organize members/community and move decision-makers.

Presenters: Jennifer Kaseman, NYSUT Director of Constituencies and Program Services; Tom McMahon, Labor Relations Specialist, Tarrytown Regional Office

10:30 am - 10:45 am
Break
10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Member Messaging Tactics—Creating 1 to 1s to Bolster Your Campaign

This session will examine the significance of 1:1 conversations. Participants will have an opportunity to develop 1 to 1 conversations to move members or communities into action relevant to their campaign.

Presenters: Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office; Jennifer Romer, Labor Relations Specialist, Capital District Regional Office

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Team Time
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch and special guest speaker
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Political Action Strategy and Tactics

In this session you will learn the power of your relationships and how to move decision makers from marginal support to full support on your campaign. Locals will brainstorm tactics to move political targets in their campaign.

Presenters: Regional Political Organizers

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Community Engagement/Mobilization Tactics

This session focuses on what you have learned throughout the week and understanding how to apply that learning to your campaign plans along with your own relational resources. Locals will brainstorm tactics to engage the community in moving targets in their campaign.

Presenters: Regional Political Organizers

3:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Break and Team Time
6:00 pm
Dinner on your own

Thursday, July 18

7:00 am - 8:30 am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:30 am
Internal and External Communications

Communicating effectively within your union and to the outside world is crucial to running a successful advocacy campaign. In this session, participants will create a communications plan based on their campaign objectives. Participants will then identify the best practices for key campaign communication tactics.

Presenters: James Morrison, NYSUT Director of Communications; Ben Amey and Emily Allen, Media Relations Representatives, Communications

9:30 am - 11:30 am
Escalation/Timeline/Goals Part 1

Participants will demonstrate how to identify specific goals in their campaign timelines. The overall goal of these tactics is to apply pressure on the targeted outcomes. Participants will have an opportunity to take inventory of their tactics and determine the placement of tactics on their “campaign mountain.”

Presenters: Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office; Bob Ringwood, Labor Relations Specialist, Central New York Regional Office

11:30 am- 12:30 pm
Team Time/Consultation Time
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Guided Team Time Escalation/Timeline/Goals Part II

Participants will demonstrate how to identify specific goals in their campaign timelines. The overall goal of these tactics is to apply pressure on the targeted outcomes. Participants will have an opportunity to take inventory of their tactics and determine the placement of tactics on their “campaign mountain.”

Presenters: Steve Lagnena, Labor Relations Specialist, Suffolk Regional Office; Bob Ringwood, Labor Relations Specialist, Central New York Regional Office

3:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Break
3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Budget Building

In this session participants will review the new system to help your LAP team resources your LAP plan. We will review the worksheets and discuss best practices when thinking about your resource requests.

Presenters: Jennifer Kaseman, NYSUT Director of Constituencies and Program Services; Jeff Lockwood, NYSUT CFO, Director of Finance

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Team Time/Consultation Time
6:00 pm
Special Event TBD

Friday, July 19

7:00 am - 8:30am
Breakfast
8:30 am - 9:45 am
Team Time/Consultation Time
9:45 am - 10:00 am
Break
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Lessons from our 3rd Years

This workshop will feature our 3rd year graduating LAP locals.  The 1st and 2nd year teams will have time with each of the 3rd year locals.  The 3rd year locals will be giving advice and lessons “from the trenches.”  1st and 2nd year locals will also have time to ask questions of the 3rd year locals.

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Plenary and Closing Remarks