BFT LOCAL 434
  • Home
  • About
  • Executive Council
  • Blog
  • Giving
  • For Members
  • How Unions Work
  • More
    • Financial
    • Insurance
    • Newsletter
    • FAQ's
    • Documents >
      • Donation Request
      • Expense Report
      • Professional Dev. Request
    • Executive Council Guide
    • Links >
      • IFT Member Benefits
      • Landrum-Griffin Act (LMRDA)
      • Facebook Group
      • AFT Member Benefits
      • Know Your Legislators
      • Board of Education
      • District Main Page
      • Contact Your Legislators

Union Works 

The Nuts and Bolts of Union Membership
Read the bold parts for the general gist. Read the rest for the nuance.

A Message from Our President

1/30/2015

 
State of the Union Address (pun intended) 

After serving last year as your president, I am still happy and proud to hold this position (believe it or not). We are continuing our process of powering forward, engaging our members and creating a community of activists. Even though we had a disappointment in the recent election, I view last year as a success for many reasons. Below are some of the main accomplishments of your local over the past year. 

Young Members Focus Group--We created a Young Members Focus Group last year to be able to give a voice to our younger members. 

Union Activism –AFT Convention--We sent four teachers and one paraprofessional to Los Angeles in July for the American Federation of Teachers Convention. At this convention, we were awarded the Pride of the Union Award for having over 90% of our teachers as union members. 

New T-shirts—--We now have the same color tshirt at West and East! Having the same color on both campuses (in this case, red, white and blue) helps to show solidarity. 

Labor Day Parade—We had a great turnout this year and even went to the picnic afterwards. Next year we will be building a float and hope to have even more of you attend. 

PERA—We have sent several teachers to receive training on the new evaluation tool, and we continue to work on a regular basis as a committee to finalize the upcoming evaluation tool. 

LEAD—We recently applied for an AFT sponsored program called LEAD—Leadership Education and Development. A team of five union leaders will be receiving training on how to better mobilize our members and engage the community. 

Negotiating Committee—We had a record 17 people run for the negotiating committee, and we have a strong new team with several younger members. We are going to begin meeting before Christmas, so be on the lookout for a survey. 

Political activism—We had an event after St. Clair County Institute to get our members together to eat and then go as a group to vote early in the Nov. 4 election. We also have attended several fundraisers for candidates whom we supported. 

Parties—We sponsored two successful parties—one in the winter and another in the spring. Both were well attended.

Community Activism –Turf for the Teams—We are proud to be a major donor for this project, and we will continue to support our members and any improvements that can benefit them. 

Fall Social—We sponsored a fall social at Silver Creek a few weeks ago. This was a created to meet the negotiating committee as well as ask questions about evaluations. 

Even though we accomplished much, I still feel we have much work to do. We must be politically vigilant, and we must continue to power forward together. This year, we hope to continue our Young Members Focus Group as well as create professional development workshops for our members. We would like to offer professional development on evaluations as well as ELIS and finances. We also want to be more transparent as we move forward into negotiating our contract, and we want to help you as much as possible in every way we can. We are all in this together, and don’t ever hesitate in seeking us out when you need something. Thank you once again for the privilege and honor of being your president. 

Yours in Solidarity, 

Cyndi Oberle-Dahm

    Categories

    All
    Get Informed
    Get Organized
    Get Represented

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    November 2021
    February 2021
    September 2020
    June 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

    ​Editor:

    ​Lucas Spriggs

    Proud alumnus, union member, and educator in District #201 since 2006.

    Contributors 

    Brandon Hentze, Ph.D.

    Dr. Hentze is the author of High Finance with Hentze, a monthly blog that provides news about District 201's current financial state.

    Lucas Spriggs

    Lucas Spriggs is the author of the Union Works newsletter, which includes posts in three series: "Get Organized," "Get Represented," and "Get Informed."

    RSS Feed

Home

     About
     Executive Council
     Blog
     Giving
​     Scholarship Information
     Scholarship Application
For Members

Insurance
Newsletter
Documents
Financial



Member Links

     Facebook Group
     IFT Member Benefits
     AFT Member Benefits
     Know Your Legislators
     Contact Your Legislators
     Board of Education
     District Main Page
     Landrum-Griffin Act
     
Site maintained by the Public Relations Committee.
​
Icons by Freepik: ​http://www.freepik.com/ 
Website born on January 29, 2015
Photo used under Creative Commons from MicroAssist
  • Home
  • About
  • Executive Council
  • Blog
  • Giving
  • For Members
  • How Unions Work
  • More
    • Financial
    • Insurance
    • Newsletter
    • FAQ's
    • Documents >
      • Donation Request
      • Expense Report
      • Professional Dev. Request
    • Executive Council Guide
    • Links >
      • IFT Member Benefits
      • Landrum-Griffin Act (LMRDA)
      • Facebook Group
      • AFT Member Benefits
      • Know Your Legislators
      • Board of Education
      • District Main Page
      • Contact Your Legislators