From Rachelle Bristol
Educate, Empower, Excel – 2024 MEA RA
Another year has passed since the last MEA RA, and a lot has happened at MEA, as well as in Maine. In April, Maine found itself in the path of a complete solar eclipse which has not occurred for over 60 years. To celebrate that milestone and the “Educate” theme of our RA this year, I would be remiss if I did not offer a fun fact about solar eclipses. In addition to the temperature drop that occurs as totality approaches, did you know that in Italy, it is believed that flowers planted during an eclipse are brighter and more colorful?
As for MEA, there are many milestones that we have achieved together this year due to the empowerment of our members, another part of our RA theme this year. The word “Empower” has embedded in it the idea of power. Power can mean multiple things and must be harnessed to make change. There are four basic ideas of power in our organizing world – power over, power to, power within, and power with. The most important one is the shared power that grows out of collaboration and relationships and is the foundation of the Union movement.Collective action yields collective rewards. We join a union to align ourselves with others who think like us and want to make the same change. MEA has leveraged its shared power with its members, staff, and leaders to meet many benchmarks and strengthen the association.
What did MEA use its collective power to do this year? How did we move our strategic foci forward?
As many of you know, the MEA Board of Directors has adopted three strategic foci for the last three years. The Board continues to focus on the solidifying the foundation pieces of our union – membership; diversity, equity, inclusion & justice (DEIJ), and local capacity/member engagement. To measure how the union is doing in each area, the board has adopted metrics that have evolved over time. While I cannot share all the metrics in this article, I will highlight a few key benchmarks.
Membership
The number of locals who engaged in new hire events has doubled over the last two years. This is huge. Getting in front of new hires who likely know nothing about the Union or what we do is incredibly important. It is an opportunity for visibility and connection. This has directly impacted our membership growth over the last year.
The number of locals that has grown by at least one member continues to grow each year. It is now at 48%. Two years ago, it was at 33%. Maintaining and growing membership is essential to the long-term viability of the union and builds power and influence to effectuate change at the local and state levels.
MEA membership is up this year in all categories. After sustaining some losses in recent years, we have rebounded nicely. We still need to keep our eye on the prize as we have not regained the numbers we had over 10 years ago and must grow our percentage of members in the early years for long-term sustainability. Early enrollment (free membership in April for the following year) has been successful and has helped to offset the cancellations we have seen in the last six years.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice (DEIJ)
MEA recently completed an equity audit which turned the lens inward to assess how the association is doing in this area. We engaged Ascension Worldwide to complete the equity audit and provide a report with findings and recommendations. The audit involved document production; member and staff surveys; focus groups; and individual conversations. The results were shared with the MEA Board, MEA staff and MEA members through webinars and meetings. The Board will be discussing next steps this summer.
The MEA Board established and funded a designated DEIJ account which has been and will be used to fund our work in this area.
All MEA conferences have included multiple sessions centered around DEIJ concepts and topics.
Local Capacity/Member Engagement
Approximately 90 locals participated in president/treasurer trainings this past year which equals 38%. We need to increase this number. These trainings help locals get the support they need from MEA and serve as a great networking opportunity for local officers to build community and support one another. The MEA Board adopted a compliance policy last summer that outlines the key requirements that all local should meet, and more information will be forthcoming.
Through a NEA grant, we are working with a local association to build effective labor-management collaboration skills to build power and relationships to help working and learning conditions. We hope to expand this concept to other locals next year.
The number of participants in both the summer and winter conference has increased with more first-time attendees than ever with larger numbers of less experienced educators participating.
Overall, we are excelling in moving the work of the Association forward and meeting or improving in a number of the benchmarks the board has set for the organization. It takes all of us working together, again power with to make significant progress in educating, empowering and excelling in our union values and our collective change.
Enjoy your summer and recharge.
All the best, Rachelle
