Organizing Council 2024 Year in Review

Publish Date
Committees
Organizing Council

Summary

In 2024, the Organizing Council (OC) focused doing a few things well by narrowing its scope. It expanded its recruitment efforts, added training for stewards, and helped coordinate issue campaigns. The year saw continuous progress in mobilizing members and addressing organizational challenges through new training methods and integration with other committees. 

Accomplishments

Steward Training Series 

  1. The "Organizing as a Steward" training series proved to be one of the year’s major successes. The council held three key sessions: 

  2. The May 10th session trained about 35 members, utilizing a participant-led adult learning model to enhance collaborative problem-solving. 

  3. The September 13th session titled "Building Your Dream Team" hosted around 30 participants and focused on assembling effective teams. 

  4. The November 1st session is planned to concentrate on mobilization strategies 

  5. Training efforts attracted a balanced mix of new and veteran stewards, with positive feedback on the training model. The council hopes to incorporate more staff involvement in future sessions. 

Leadership Recruitment

  1. The OC worked to fill its leadership vacancies, engaging with potential candidates throughout the year. Despite challenges, the council has made strides, nominating new members and continuing outreach efforts, but overall, the council continues to have difficulties maintaining full membership. 

  2. Several MAPE members have expressed interest in joining the council, and some nominations have already been confirmed. We hope to work with the Restructure committee on solving this persistent problem. 

  3. Student Loan Reimbursement Campaign: 

  4. The OC took a proactive approach in 2024 by launching discussions with Meet and Confer at various agencies regarding student loan reimbursement. A coordinated campaign strategy is in development with communications staff, aiming to unify efforts across state service. 

Membership Drives

  1. The Membership Secretary Collective was rebooted in response to interest from officers at New Officer Training early in the year. This initiative focused on coordinating membership drives, including a summer push related to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). 

  2. The Membership Secretary Collective is considering another recruitment effort for later in the year. 

Challenges and Opportunities

  1. The 2023 Delegate Assembly made the decision to increase term length of the council to four years, instead of two, which has made retaining and recruiting council members extremely difficult. We have been unable to have a full seven-member team since that change was enacted. However, recruitment efforts are showing signs of progress. 

  2. Concerns about exclusively in-person trainings were alleviated when each steward training event quickly reached capacity. 

  3. Issue campaigns often remain siloed between different agencies. We have the opportunity to convert individual Meet and Confer items into coordinated campaign efforts across the union, based on unified messaging and campaign tactics. 

  4. Should Delegate Assembly approve the million dollar budget allocation to membership recruitment, the OC will need to dramatically expand its capacity in order to be effective at helping deploy those resources. 

Looking Forward

  1. Plans for future trainings are already underway, with the OC looking to further refine its curriculum and continue expanding its reach. The November 1st mobilization training will set the stage for further member engagement and participation. 

  2. The OC aims to maintain momentum in recruitment and collaboration with committees like Meet and Confer, Negotiations and the Political Council. 

  3. The OC will spend 2025 coordinating with issue campaigns and will help develop and execute the large-scale recruitment and organizing effort to educate, train and recruit new MAPE members.