Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/939681
PETA joined community partners in a local Stuff-A- Bus toy drive. From left to right: Andrew Ramirez, Marcia Saldana, Kathy Vanderzee with son Benjamin Vanderzee, Chris Vanderzee and David Cuestas. " The truth is you can have the best bargaining team in the world, but they're not going to get the results they should without good organizing and strong membership engagement." — PETA PRESIDENT KATHY VANDERZEE is year, a new Membership Engagement/Organizing Committee surveyed PETA members to see how they felt about their union, what their values are, what their expectations of PETA are, and what could be improved. e committee found that members value family above all else, then work, and that they want advocacy and support from their union. Surprisingly, union leadership concern about member involve- ment turned out to be a two-way street: Members said they want to feel more involved and more connected to their union. Vanderzee credits her predecessors for laying the groundwork for many of her efforts to build those connections. This year, PETA recruited new members at a three-day orientation, and Vanderzee worked with the school district's new teacher coordinator to make sure she is a part of any orientation for potential members hired throughout the year. "We want people to hit the ground running with a connection to PETA," she says. PETA also decided to provide more opportunities for members to see the value of their union and to get together, by offering associa- tion-sponsored workshops. With assistance from NEA, they held what proved to be a very popular workshop on student loan forgiveness, which PETA expanded to invite other CTA locals in the surrounding High Desert area. Vanderzee says she's planning to bring in CalSTRS representatives to hold a retirement workshop in the spring. S h e s a y s s h e a l w a y s m a k e s i t c l e a r w h e n s o m e t h i n g i s a n association-sponsored event, in most cases not open to the public, and that participants' membership and dues support is helping make it all happen. She and other PETA leaders use iPads at workshops, school visits and other events, where members or potential members can check their PETA/CTA/NEA information and update it if needed. While many CTA locals have organizing committees, which often focus around bargaining crises, and mem- bership committees, which largely focus on member recruitment, PETA took the innovative step of com- bining the two into the Membership Engagement/ Organizing Committee. Vanderzee wants members to view member engagement as every bit as important as the bargaining team. "Bargaining i s hugely important," sh e says, " but the truth is you can have the best bargaining team, the strongest spokespeople, the best budget numbers crunchers in the world, but they're not going to get the results they should without good organizing and strong membership engagement." PETA' s Membership Engagement Organizers were "on fire" with ideas after attending sessions on member 56 cta.org CTA & You M E M B E R E N G A G E M E N T