Guest blogger AMAPCEO Director Theresa Anderson Butcher: Engaging the Membership An Argument for Adequate Resourcing of the Chapter Executives Part 2 of 2

This is a continuation of Theresa Anderson-Butchers blog post on Membership Engagement.  You can read part 1 here

Moving Forward – How to Address the Gaps

How many of you saw benefit last year with the resources we allocated to mobilization? Was there better engagement of our members? Did we get value for those expenditures? Did our members provide positive feedback on our efforts and those of staff?

Do you believe, as I do, that maintaining a higher level of funding and providing more leave to Chapter Executives to engage and educate members would reap a positive benefit?

Let’s look at this more practically. I am going to make some assumptions as follows:

1.     AMAPCEO staff is responsible for the preparation of all training and communications materials.

2.     Each chapter has full access to a teleconference line to conduct Chapter Executive meetings.

3.     Leave time for chapter business can be allocated to any members of the Chapter Executive Committee.

4.     Leave time can be requested on a more flexible schedule based on sufficient notice to the employer.

5.     The Chapter Executive puts together an annual plan for outreach and member engagement. The plan can be template and then adapted for individual chapter needs.

Regardless of chapter size, number of members or geography, both time and resources will be required for appropriate outreach. For example, a regional chapter represents a smaller population, but covers a larger geography; a ministry chapter represents a larger population over a smaller geography. Are the costs the same to engage members equally? I would say that they’re close but spent on different items. For example, higher refreshment/meeting room costs for ministry chapters, and higher travel and teleconference/videoconference costs for regional chapters.

If we can allocate leave time to Chapter Executives, the travel time for regional chapters could be significantly reduced allowing Executive members closest to the membership to engage as opposed to having the Chapter Chair travel longer distances. This would be the same for ministry chapters as well.

It takes time and resources to build and engaged membership. We have four years before the next OPS collective agreement is negotiated. This is the largest population of members and we need to use the time between now and then to build engagement and a sense of community within the membership. We need to provide the resources to do so.

If you truly want an engaged membership and if you truly want to be supported by the Association so you can personally more actively engage, then I ask you to vote for those candidates who are committed to giving you the resources we need to make sure every member, if they choose to become more active in the Association, is able to meaningfully engage regardless of their geographic location, family status or accommodation needs.

We cannot allow the continuance of systemic barriers that prevent members from engaging with each other or participating in the leadership of the Association should they choose.

If this is a concept you would like to see explored, built upon and implemented, please vote for candidates like James Dawson, Dianne Colville and Theresa Anderson-Butcher who are committed to making this happen.

What you allow is what will continue ....

Theodore Roosevelt once uttered “The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” So like so NOT going to happen - the do nothing thing that is. I didn't become a Director on the Board of the Ontario Public Service's second largest union to sit on my hands and do nothing.  Time and the membership of AMAPCEO will tell me whether I've done the right thing, or the wrong thing, no one will be able to say I did nothing. 

 

Why have I embarked on writing a blog?

The reason is quite simple.  The union has done a less than stellar job in informing its membership about what is happening and what it is doing, except during periods of mobilisation.  The refrain that I frequently hear from certain individuals is "it is on the website!"  There are very few things where "Build it and they will come" applies.  Websites are certainly not one of them with the exception of banking websites where you might go on pay day to shuffle money around or to pay bills, or websites where you might go to purchase concert, theatre, or airline tickets.  Other than that why bother, why remember?  There is nothing sticky or compelling about the AMAPCEO website.

"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood"  

My intentions are to keep anyone reading this blog up to date with what the Board and the Provincial Council is contemplating and accomplishing throughout my term of office.  Having said that I am bound by a confidentiality agreement which restricts some of what I can publish. But I can and will publish or provide a link to the approved minutes of  Board meetings and any other documents that might be of interest to the membership. What I cannot publish or comment on are topics that have been taken 'in camera' or declared a matter to be confidential as a result of a majority of the Board agreeing to do so. When the Board has declared a matter to be confidential, I have a duty to respect and comply with the confidentiality.

So what sort of topics are considered confidential or subjects of 'in camera' meetings? They are topics such as but not necessarily limited to strategic discussions related to collective bargaining, business planning disclosures made to the Association by the Employer, personal details related to member disputes, personal details related to AMAPCEO staff, advice from legal counsel including matters related to litigation or potential litigation and other matters in which premature public disclosure could be detrimental to the interests of the Association or its members.

Then there is the topic of Board solidarity that in a nutshell means that once the majority of the Board has voted and becomes the decision of the Board it is the duty of all members to accept and abide by the decision. The Board is expected to speak with “one voice” in those matters on which it has decision-making authority.

 

How is this blog going to make a difference?

For one, you will come here because you've either found it and are curious about what I'll write next or you'll receive a message from me that is intriguing enough for you to take 10 minutes and read what I've written.  Lets put aside the first supposition in the previous sentence and go with the second one -- that you have received a message from me.  How is that going to work?  Well, I can tell you know that I won't have free access to the AMAPCEO membership list and individual personal email addresses.

I'll embark on something called permission marketing, a term popularized by Seth Godin.  Permission marketing requires that the prospective customer, in this case you, has given explicit permission for the marketer to send their promotional message. I'm not going to market anything to you, with the exception of perhaps ideas that I may promote from time to time to see if they resonate with you. But simply put I will ask you for the privilege of engaging you in a dialogue generated by this blog. 

So what do you want to talk about?

Well that is up to you, otherwise I'll simply monopolise the conversation, which will get really dull, really fast.  


"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"  lyrics/music by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, and Sol Marcus

“The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt - See more at: http://exploreforayear.com/clarity/45-inspiring-quotes-change#sthash.tYq3ri0z.dpuf

“The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt - See more at: http://exploreforayear.com/clarity/45-inspiring-quotes-change#sthash.tYq3ri0z.dpuf

“The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt - See more at: http://exploreforayear.com/clarity/45-inspiring-quotes-change#sthash.tYq3ri0z.dpuf