Changing Times & Other Lessons Learned From the 2008 Election

Win or lose, like it or not, the 2008 Presidential election changed not only the face of politics, but how the race is waged. According to Drew Weston from the Huffington Post, three important lessons can be extracted. These are listed below in CAPS. My thoughts on their pertinence to my candidacy and to the office of NEA Director follow.

1) HARNESSING PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY. As a 2009 delegate to the Pacific Regional Leadership Conference, I attended a stand-out sectional on identifying, recruiting, and retaining members for leadership positions. The presenter remarked that "the same people" always do the "heavy lifting." These familiar faces deserve no less than thanks and gratitude for their service. One danger, however, in not having fresh faces at the table comes when the torch is passed to the next generation. As a union, we need and value capable leaders. Institutional memory is no less important. As NEA Director, an important mission will be advocating for the recruitment, involvement, and training of new leader members. These fresh faces--young and veteran--are the future of our union.

Serving as NEA Director has less to do with where a candidate comes from, and more to do with their effectiveness and ability to serve Montana's MEA-MFT members. Technology is precisely the medium to serve such a large constituency! I'd like to be just "one click away" from hearing your diverse opinions, voices, and thoughts. And with that reasoning, comes the birth of this blog. Ideally, it serves as a two-way street--not only transmitting but also receiving information and questions from MEA-MFT members.

2) MOBILIZING EMOTION: THE MESSAGE AND MESSENGER. Let's start with the answer--and this is, quite simply, Montana. What has Montana got to do with it? Everything! Last year at the RA in DC, I attended and joined a new NEA group--the Merger caucus. As the name implies, the crowd consisted of folks from merged states and of those who wanted to know MORE about merger. As I listened and participated in the discussion, it struck me why discussing the BENEFITS of merger is easy and natural to do--it's all I have ever known, and I believe in it steadfastly.

This leads me back to Montana and MEA-MFT. Not only are we enjoying the best that NEA and AFT can provide, we are also a union of multiple crafts--state and local government employees, higher education employees, healthcare workers, Head Start staff, school support staff, and public school teachers. Certainly, there is strength in numbers; but more so in making common cause for all that matters--safeguarding the social compact and democratic process, advocating for social justice, preserving collective bargaining and the right to organize, etc. Samuel Gompers got it right when he remarked, “What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more opportunities to cultivate our better natures. . .” And, so have we.

Expect that I will proudly carry both these messages--pro-merger and inclusiveness--forward and that I will use every possible opportunity to advance these causes. Ultimately, my dad got it right when he gave me my first bumper sticker (and permission to put it on my truck): "Live better, work union!" Really, it's that simple.

3) MOVING VOTERS, MOVING FORWARD. Serving as a delegate to NEA's Representative Assembly is something everyone should do--at least once! Participating in the "world's largest democratic, deliberative body" is both exhilarating and exhausting. The 4th of July session -- featuring speakers musing on our Founding Fathers' words, musicians and singers performing patriotic scores, and RA candidates wearing zany outfits, bedazzled from head to toe in red, white, and blue--is always moving.But, as the convention wears on, it becomes plain that our small Montana delegation (maybe 35 members) doesn't hold much punch compared to California's (maybe several hundred, thousands?). It is only an educated guess, but I'll bet serving on the NEA Board is much the same. Montana gets just one NEA Director, while California gets 17.

Trying to level this playing field means working smarter. At the 4 NEA RA's I've attended, my favorite event is always the TNT caucus. TNT stands for "The Northern Tier" and is a coalition of states--Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana--whose delegates and leadership unite to advance issues and candidates germane to our region. As Montana's NEA Director, I intend to forge solid relationships with TNT NEA Directors. Another key coalition group that I will make inroads with are the merged state Directors.



A special thank you to Sherri McMorris for her service as Montana's NEA Director!