OEA Union School

What's New in the OEA Union School

Now that we have completed 13 pilot local retreats, we are working directly with those locals on follow-up including meetings about next steps, the development of assessment tools and creating a strategic calendar for tracking the completion of goals. We are also preparing for the next convocation that will take place the day before our Summer Leadership Conference on July 28th. We will be moving ahead on our next set of pilot locals to be launched this fall.  We are developing a cadre of leaders to extend the pilots out to all locals over the next 2 ½ years.

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In October, 16 local associations from all corners of the state (representing K-12 teachers, education support professionals and community college faculty) were selected to participate in the Pilot Locals program. The program, under the direction of OEA's Union School, is providing education, training and support to local leadership teams, and working with locals to identify, recruit, train and engage members in core union areas.

All 16 locals in the program continue to have individual meetings and support from the Union School to assess where they are, what their strengths are and to identify opportunities to engage, organize and empower members. Recently, teams from all of the Pilot Locals gathered in Eugene for their first two-day Convocation. The gathering allowed members, leaders and staff to look at the political, economic and historical context of the labor movement, and have deep conversations on specific topics such as member organizing and community outreach. The goal of the premier Convocation was to start creating a foundation for each local's strategic planning process and to build relationships across these locals for sharing of ideas and mutual support.

Here are a collection of photos from the Convocation:

About the OEA Union School

Through the passage of the Strategic Action Plan in 2012, the OEA Union School was launched to provide a comprehensive continuum of member education and training. The Union School supports and grows strong union lead¬ers and member-activists at every level of the organization. The School have the primary responsibility to build off of existing effective OEA trainings and develop new curriculum and train¬ing tools based on best-practice and emerging technologies. The Union School coordinate all trainings currently done by the Center for Advocacy and Affiliate Services, the Center for Public Affairs, OEA Governance and OEA staff.

Contact the OEA Union School by email.