State Committee Chairs and Staff Liaisons Meet to Reflect and Make Plans

On Monday, June 11th, Team ISEA State Committee Chairs along with Staff Liaisons met at the ISEA office to reflect on their work from this past school year and make plans for training and the year ahead.

I led the meeting with the assistance of ISEA Vice President Chris Bern (pictured with me), ISEA Executive Director Jan Reinicke and Associate Executive Director for Field Services Randy Richardson.

We began by reflecting on this past year and our two ISEA goals of: 1)working to elect pro-public education candidates; and 2) building membership that were a part of all that we did throughout the year.

Building a Better Teaching and Learning Environment Committee leaders are (from left to right) Dave Wilkinson, Teaching and Learning Specialist; Stan Burke, Mid-Iowa UniServ Director; Bob Brown, JDC UniServ Director; and Tammy Duehr, Chair and teacher in Dubuque. They felt their greatest successes included "coming together as a committee"....having a good understanding of the work before them, the support we give to NBC candidates, and the wide-variety of relicensure course offerings.

Strengthening Local Associations Committee leaders include (from left to right) Pat Shipley, Southwest UniServ Director; and Melissa Keeney, Chair and teacher in Johnston. Other leaders that were not available for this meeting are Jean Hessburg, Communication and Membership Specialist; and Jeremy Kunz, NEIEU UniServ Director. Pat and Melissa shared success to include greater communication with UniServ and Local leaders and discussions around structure of local associations.

Building Support for Public Education Committee leaders a part of our meeting include (from left to right) Brad Hudson, ISEA Administrative Lobbyist and Cindy Carroll, Unit 2 UniServ Director. Also key to the committee (but not available today) are Kristi Keast, Chair and teacher in Mt. Vernon and Linda Schneider, Great River UniServ Director. Brad and Cindy shared that committee members started their year working to build membership and then shifted into a grassroots organizing mode for Campaign 2006. A tremendously successful Legislative Kickoff was held in January followed by the first Lobby Day in ten years--that was held in February.

Protecting Member Rights Committee members include (from left to right) Larry Stine, Chair and teacher in Estherville; Jim Crotty, South Central UniServ Director; Joann Mackin, Bargaining and Rights Specialist; and Lynette Claeys, MississippiBend UniServ Director. Leaders of this committee felt their greatest successes included having centralized information for bargaining as well as a 5% average in statewide settlement agreements.

We made plans for the dinner meeting on Monday, July 30th where we bring in all members of our state committees to dine with ISEA Executive Board members to Kickoff their training prior to Summer Conference.

Thank you Team ISEA leaders and staff for the extra effort you make every day to involve members in leadership opportunities!