Steward Spotlight: Region 15

MAPE members in Region 15 might be surprised to know they have a combined 45 years of state employee experience available to them thanks to co-chief stewards Bryan Kotta and Gary Wass teaming up to serve their greater Minnesota region.

Like many chief stewards, these two say they “sort of fell into” MAPE involvement, and haven’t looked back since.

“I wasn’t really looking for anything and didn’t know much about MAPE at the time, but a coworker invited me to a local meeting for pizza and not long later I signed up for steward training,” Wass said. 

Kotta said his start to MAPE involvement happened in a similar fashion. 

“I had a question, went to a MAPE meeting, opened my mouth and it snowballed from there,” Kotta said, laughing.

Both Kotta and Wass have also served on their agency’s meet and confer teams, Kotta at Minnesota State and Wass at MNIT, and MAPE’s Statewide Negotiations Team, all experiences they say help them in their roles as stewards, too.

“Pizza may have brought me in, but doing steward training, and going

through that process opens your eyes and shows you this is how it works to enforce our contract,” Wass said. “I have a voice. I wanted to learn as much as I could and have an equal voice at the table.”

Kotta says he’s stuck with his MAPE involvement all these years because he likes the work. 

“You never know who you’re going to talk to or what you’re going to find,” he said about being a chief steward. “I like how every day is different and though it’s always fun to have a win, grievances are actually my last resort.”

One memory that sticks in his mind is the time he and another MAPE leader went on what they called a “turkey trot,” delivering turkeys to all MAPE members at work on behalf of their local.

“We got to this one address and it’s this guy’s house. He worked from home,” Kotta recalled. “So we said, ‘Hi we’re from MAPE and here’s your turkey!’ And that guy couldn’t have been more surprised to see us at his door with a turkey, especially since he said he had never been contacted by MAPE before.”

Wass agreed the most important thing as a steward is to make members feel supported.

“It’s transferring that feeling of support onto members when they’re looking for help,” Wass said. “They may not know resources available to them, so it’s nice to be able to help answer questions or just listen; sometimes people just want to vent and we can help them figure out what we can enforce.”