10/3 Weekly Email
Hi All,
Happy Thursday! I’m getting this out early today because there’s a lot to discuss.
First, UB Time and Member’s Meeting. Despite what I said last week…I have no detailed updates on UB time. I apologize for not being able to provide more details but it looks like we’ll be re-opening our MOU negotiations specifically to codify a new UB time policy. UAEA and the City have differing ideas on how to structure the necessary UB changes and until we can settle on some shared language there are really no tangible updates to provide.
That said, it is our understanding right now that use of UB time will stay the same until the policies are finalized…so we are moving forward on our October 10th Member’s meeting. This meeting will take place 12pm-1pm at the Tempe Transportation Center at 200 E 5th St. We’re also going to move back to the model of the meetings being primarily opportunities to learn about city benefits and occasionally touch base with City Officials. This month we’ll have Care7 explain some of the programs they host and the resources that are available to help City employees. If you’re interested in attending, please rsvp to president@uaeatempe.com by Tuesday, October 8th at 5pm. Please give your supervisor at least 48 hour’s notice.
Second, Member Surveys. I have promised opportunities for feedback and have finally figured out the logistics of Surveymonkey. I apologize for throwing multiple surveys at you at once but will keep these open for a few weeks to give you opportunities for reflection. We are also posting QR Codes on Bulletin Boards around the City that will take people directly to a survey page on our website. We should have multiple opportunities throughout the year for people to let the board know their opinions of different aspects of the group - please check back often if that’s something you care about.
We’re working on a schedule for our 2025 meetings and want to hear from our members about what sorts of information they would like to see. Please note that we plan to record and take notes at every future meeting so your attendance is not needed in order to view whatever presentations or material we discuss. Please also note that our meeting structure and schedule may change based on the outcome of our UB time issue.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XFQ6NXV
The other thing we want to hear about is volunteer activities. We currently have our Adopt-A-Path program (we’ll be out there Saturday morning at 7AM!) but we assume there are other activities members might find more relaxing or important. Please feel free to provide feedback at the link below regarding what we currently offer and what you would like to see.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XTM6VX6
Finally, if you are interested in potentially receiving updates from UAEA at your personal cell number or email (President messages, meeting reminders, surveys, etc), please feel free to fill out this survey giving us permission to do so. We have not confirmed how we plan to implement updates via SMS but want the flexibility to implement it sometime soon. DO NOT put a city cellphone number on here - we will ignore all requests with 350 and 858 in the number.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/THCMYHH
Third, Tempe Tardeada. The annual Tempe Tardeada event is this Sunday at the Tempe Library Complex (3500 S Rural). The event goes from 12pm-8pm and there are a number of activities scheduled - I’ve been a few times and can recommend it if you are interested in Hispanic culture or just need something to do with friends and family. Check out more information here.
Fourth, Executive Board recruitment. As I mentioned in last week’s email, the Executive Board is currently accepting applications for the role of a Citywide Representative. If interested, send an email (no more than 500 words, no minimum length) with a brief description of why you’re interested, any relevant union experience, and any skills or knowledge you have that may be helpful to UAEA. Please send this to president@uaeatempe.com by 5PM on Thursday, 10/10.
Fifth, Membership Drive. UAEA is growing fast and we want to keep that momentum going, especially to show our strength in conversations with the City. We don’t expect we’ll ever get all 790-represented employees to sign up but we genuinely believe that a ⅔ majority is a reasonable goal to aspire to. The big benefit of growth is that additional members give us additional resources which gives us more opportunities to do things with members, which helps us attract more members, and so on. With that in mind, we’re doing a membership drive from now until the end of the year.
Please see the attached document for a more detailed outline, but the general idea is that all new members who sign up prior to December 31st will receive a $25 giftcard, effectively covering the first month’s dues. In addition, each person who signs up can indicate one UAEA member who referred them and at the end of the year we’ll do a drawing for some additional gift cards to give to the Referrers. If you just signed up to UAEA in the last few days you will also be eligible for this.
With that, I’ll get out of your hair. Thanks for a great week and keep an eye out for our Fall 2024 newsletter, coming soon!