Membership day a huge success At Local 802

Membership day will forever go down as the “busiest membership event ever” for Local 802 President Jerry Schmitt.

Last week more than 95 MAPE-represented employees showed up at 60 Empire Drive, pausing to take a photo in the union-themed photo booth, grab a cup of coffee and talk with local leaders about current events and the state of the union. The “recommit station” was so popular recruiters ran out of membership cards.

In the photo to the right, Schmitt works the recommit table.

“I had to run upstairs to get more!” Schmitt exclaimed during a lull in the busy event.

MAPE’s statewide Membership Committee members were on hand to help with the event, which was promoted through fliers and personal invites.

“We went to each agency in our local and personally invited everyone to our Membership Day event,” Schmitt said about the successful turnout. “We left them with a printed invite and made a personal ask to our coworkers to come down and check us out and get more involved.”

Jottings on the white board indicated what members want in their next contract. Things like insurance, living wages and paid time off for a death in the family were scrawled across the board.

Afiya Krueger, Local 802 secretary (pictured at right), was working the current events table, talking to members about the negotiations process and the reason for the push to recommitment.

“We’re asking members to recommit to MAPE for better planning and budgeting purposes,” Krueger said. “We also want to represent our employees during negotiations, so we’re asking our members for ideas they have.”

Statewide 2nd Vice President Joan Treichel took a break from snapping photos for the photo booth to commend the local for their creative ideas and offer the Membership Committee’s help to any other locals hoping to host a membership recruitment event of their own.

“The Membership Committee is always willing to support our locals,” Treichel said. “It’s been really powerful because each local does things a little differently to meet the needs of the employees within their locals. We want to not only find new members but find and recruit leaders too because we’re all in this together.”

Any local interested in working with the Membership Committee to host a recruitment event can contact Treichel at joan.treichel@state.mn.us.