Building Full Capacity Locals
27 local leaders participating in inaugural Presidents Academy
They will spend the upcoming year experiencing activities that will build full capacity locals.
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| Joe Washington, vice president of the 45-member Baldwin EA and a social studies teacher at Baldwin High School, anticipates the Local Presidents Academy will give him a better understanding and knowledge of the MEA and show him how to get more members involved in union activities. “I’m really excited about this opportunity to grow as a professional,” he said. |
Corey Shelton, the president of the Michigan Center EA, sees his participation in the year-long Local Presidents Academy as a chance to learn strategies to get more members involved in association activities.
“I especially would like to see our younger members get more involved,” said Shelton, who turned 30 last spring and begins his seventh year as a teacher.
Bill Bremer, president of Central Michigan University’s supervisor and technical support unit, wants the same— more involvement from his members.
“It’s not easy when only one or two people are running our association,” he said. “We need more participation.”
Lake Orion EA President Heather Olsen, looks to the Presidents Academy to provide resources that will make her job as a local leader “less stressful.”
Olsen, too, wants more member participation. “We need to tap into the knowl-edge and experience of all our members” to strengthen the association, she said.
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| Bill Bremer (left), Heather Olsen and Corey Shelton attend a Local Presidents Academy session at MEA’s Summer Leadership Conference. |
Shelton, Bremer and Olsen are part of the inaugural class of 27 participants in the Local Presidents Academy, a yearlong program under MEA’s Building Full Capacity Locals initiative.
“We’ve designed the Presidents Academy based on what we’ve heard from local leaders,” BFCL project coordinator Teri Battaglieri. “We know the key to building full capacity locals is having leaders who have the training, resources and time necessary to do their jobs.”
Academy participants will be expected to attend a variety of activities over the 2007-08 year, that includes conferences, an array of training sessions, the Spring RA, and more. They also are expected to select and actively mentor a future leader from their locals.
The leaders are being given up to 15 days of paid release time to participate, with MEA reimbursing districts for the cost of substitutes and covering all other expenses for academy members.
“Our goal is to provide the training and resources needed to become more effective leaders back home in their local districts,” Battaglieri said.