1/09/25 Weekly Email

Hi all, 

I just have a few quick updates this week. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is reducing email length - while I like to explain updates in-depth, I acknowledge that the likelihood people finish my emails decreases with every extra paragraph. We’ll see how quickly I abandon that goal though…this year is shaping up to be pretty busy. 

First, Active Surveys. Please don’t forget we have some active surveys/feedback forms up. Besides our Employee of the Quarter Nomination form we also have a form if you’d like updates sent to a personal email, a survey if you want to give feedback on the content/food options at member meetings, a survey about what you want to see in terms of volunteer activities, surveys if you would like to be supported in your New Year’s Resolutions, and a survey if you would like to give the UAEA Board feedback on 2024 and our upcoming year. 

I also have opened a new survey that will let people provide suggestions for our next MOU negotiations. If you have any ideas about places in our contract that need revision, please fill this one out. The survey will be open for the next few months so feel free to keep coming back as new ideas pop up. One general tip - it is very beneficial if you can provide an example or two of situations that justify changes in rules or benefits. Asking for new benefits is much easier when we can show a pressing need for them.

Second, UAEA website updates. I want to remind people that uaeatempe.com exists and continues to be the best resource if you need information about our organization. Our events calendar is updated through June 2025 if you want to copy some items to your personal calendar. We also have added all the new surveys to our hidden survey page (password is uaeatempe2024) if you wanted to provide feedback about various parts of our organization. Finally, I recently created an email archive with copies of every email I’ve sent to membership since I started my term. It is not publicly accessible but can be found at this link. If you’ve joined the union in the last few months and want to catch up on our activities, please check it out. 

As always, I’m open to feedback about our website, especially ways we can make the data more accessible or engaging. Feel free to reach out if you have any suggestions. 

Third, Member’s Meeting. UAEA’s next member meeting will be on Thursday, January 16th, from 12-1PM at Tempe’s Southwater Treatment Plant (6600 S Price). Please rsvp at this link by Tuesday, January 14th, at 9AM. Keep in mind that this site has limited parking - consider carpooling with a colleague if you plan to attend. 

To wrap things up, I wanted to extend some appreciation to a few people who have reached out to me in the last few weeks and kept me updated on major events and changes in their workgroups. It is really helpful to have on-the-ground knowledge of changes being made - it both helps the board better understand the needs of each workgroup and quickly address contract violations if we identify any issues.

Thanks for a great week, everyone!