Time to Run with the Wind
I can’t believe how time has flown this year! It seems like only yesterday that I was addressing my first in-person MEA RA with the message that MEA is still strong, stable, and solid. Many of you who attended the 2022 MEA RA may remember my Maine Fun Facts. Well, that trend continued this year with a nautical twist per the RA theme/logo of Lead the Way with MEA and my recent love of sailing. Those of you who did not attend missed a great time, and I encourage to think about running for a delegate seat next year. As for this year’s trivia, here’s one to spark your interest.
When a sailboat catches the wind from the stern of the boat, it is called?
- Chasing the wind
- Running with the wind
- Hoping for the best
So, imagine that I have given everyone the proper wait time for responses… If you guessed letter B, you are correct. And it was the theme of my remarks at the 2023 MEA RA.
MEA remains strong, stable, and solid, but we need to position the organization to harness the wind and run with it to evolve and gain positive momentum to best support members and public education. To do just that the MEA Board of Directors doubled-down on its adopted strategic foci this year.
To highlight our challenges and opportunities, I updated the MEA RA delegates on this year’s progress towards those strategic foci: membership growth; diversity, equity, inclusion & justice (DEIJ); and local capacity & member engagement.
Membership Growth
MEA has maintained its membership numbers over the last five years. During that time, MEA did grow and shrink, ending with about the same numbers as five years ago. While stability is good, growth is essential to maintaining our strength and power. We must continue to engage new hires and early career educators to not just maintain our numbers but grow. Forty-three percent of locals grew by one member this year while only 33% did last year. Our percentage of locals participating in new hire events declined slightly from 26% to 21%. New hires events and/or back to school meetings can be effective in providing exposure for the MEA/local associations to potential members and the work we do on educators and students behalf.
In addition, the number of locals that participated in early enrollment declined by almost half. Early enrollment is a key program that allows educators to join the MEA for free until the next school year. These early enrollment memberships often offset losses due to retirements and/or resignations from the profession. I strongly recommend that all locals consider participating in an early enrollment campaign next year. The window opens every April.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice
MEA remains committed to our DEIJ journey. We have been focusing on how we can best assess our own practices and processes in addition to how we can support our diverse membership. To this end, a new budget line item for DEIJ work was included in the proposed 2023-2024 MEA budget which passed the MEA RA on May 21. Both the MEA Board of Directors and staff continue to engage in DEIJ trainings and conversations. To help support this work, MEA is working to secure an NEA grant to help do a racial equity audit and survey membership on needs and processes. The results of that work will help inform the future work of the organization in this area.
Local Capacity & Member Engagement
Our most important resource is our members. Investing in our locals and engaging our members is key to building power and influence both locally and statewide. To stay connected to our member and learn what you care about, we polled our members in December 2022. We learned that 88% of our members view MEA and their local associations favorably up from the poll results we received in 2021. The poll also reenforced that there is a substantial connection between how members see the union as powerful and valuable and if they have been talked to by union representatives. One-on-one conversations are vital to the success of our union. Please keep up the great work and continue sharing all the good work you are doing in your locals!
We also continue to look for new ways to communicate with our members and have over 1100 downloads of the MEA App. We are analyzing how we deliver professional development and are working on a schedule of professional development for all members, including early career educators. We are working to provide more ways for our members to connect to the organization and see value in membership.
The MEA RA is a great chance to participate in the organization and guide the direction of our work. If I did not see you at the MEA RA, I hope to next year!
Wishing you a great, relaxing summer.
Best,
Rachelle
