9/13 Weekly Email
Hi all,
Happy Friday! Yes, I know, some of you work Saturdays and Sundays, so I’m not going to pretend this is the end of the week for everyone, but I think the sentiment applies to most of our members.
As a top-level note, this was a busy week and I realize I’m sending updates that won’t be seen by most people until Monday morning. I will aim to send out updates on Thursdays moving forward, but may push them to Friday if the week is super busy.
Member Meeting. I want to highlight that we had a member meeting on Thursday which was possibly the most well-attended member meeting UAEA has ever had, at least the most well-attended since I started as a Citywide Representative. I was happy to see so many new and returning faces as well as have some one-on-one conversations with people about what’s going on in their area. My president’s report covered a lot of details that I have already shared in prior emails but I was able to go into a little more detail about where we currently stand on UB time - please expect a more detailed explanation of how we’re navigating that issue and what we’re working out with HR in the next week or two.
Volunteer Activities. I talked a little at the meeting about how we’re re-evaluating some of our existing processes and trying to make the work we do more relevant to our current membership. On that note, I’d love to hear from people if they have ideas for new volunteer activities our union could take part in. We currently clean up a trail in North Tempe several times a year as part of the Tempe Adopt-A-Path program but imagine there are different things we could do that might be more relevant to either our mission or our member’s interests. Let me know if you have any ideas: I’ll bring some with me to our next Executive Board meeting.
Documentation. The Exec Board is currently working on a massive number of official cases and ongoing issues - as of today, I’m personally tracking 33. That said, having worked on a number of cases in the past few years I want to share that we find far more success when tackling issues that members have already documented. We are always more than happy to report member concerns to management but are usually able to accomplish more when we have emails or notes that back up a story. If you see something in your area that raises an eyebrow, consider saving emails in a separate folder or jotting down a few notes about meetings or events in a file.
Employee Development: I met with the Employee Development team this week and received some helpful information about existing classes and resources that employees can use to improve their skills. I’ll send out a full email with details soon, but I wanted to highlight that they offer a wide range of pre-recorded trainings, in-person trainings, access to online training courses through sites like LinkedIN learning, and one-on-one coaching, Rosa has also informed department directors that she expects every employee be able to take at least 10 hours of training each year if they desire, so please feel free to take advantage of these resources - we want our members to be the best candidates on every interview panel and leveraging these opportunities is one of the ways we get to that point.
I’ll close by noting that I’ve learned a lot about the work our members do in the last few weeks and the hundreds if not thousands of tasks that employees accomplish each day to keep the City functioning. I always understood intuitively that our members worked hard but it’s another thing to see it in person. I’m talking to the board now about ways we can highlight our membership in new ways and draw attention to all of this - there’s nothing in stone yet, but expect something to come down the pipe soon.
Thank you once again for all you do,