October 2, 2017- Ex Com E-Vote: Approval of EMERGE Committee Charge
FSU EX COM E-VOTE 10/2/17
Ex Com was asked to vote on the following on 9/26/17 (NOTE: proposed charge follows request below). The FSU Executive Committee voted to approve the EMERGE charge on 10/2/17. The votes were 10 in favor; 0 opposed; 2 members did not vote.
Dear Ex Com team,
Our interim subcommittee on member recruitment and retention (currently composed of John, Steve, Marlene, and myself) has worked hard over the weekend to develop the attached documents, including a proposed charge for this new subcommittee.
We ask you to read both documents, and to vote to endorse one of them, the official "Charge" for the subcommittee, which is now entitled, FSU EMERGE, Energizing Membership: Engagement, Recruitment, Retention, Growth, and Empowerment. We hope you like it!
We're hoping to have Ex Com formally authorize this committee's charge before the current week is out. Your feedback about future implementation, methods & messaging, etc is all very welcome of course, but we are hoping that the essence of the charge itself will be something that should not be too controversial.
Our goal is to have an email go out to all FSU members next week, inviting participation in FSU EMERGE. At the same time, we hope to elicit from our fellow members of Ex Com suggestions for faculty who could make great additions to this emerging committee.
As proposed interim chair of this subcommittee, I am happy to receive suggestions about faculty members who could make great and effective core additions to this committee we are building. Please email me at jgramsey@gmail.com by 10/2 with your suggestions. (Blurbs explaining people's particular qualifications for the committee are welcome but not required.) I will be happy to compile these nominees, and to facilitate discussion and collective decision-making about the formal composition of this EMERGE subcommitttee in the week between 10/2 and 10/9.
Sincerely, and in solidarity,
Joe
proposed interim committee chair of FSU EMERGE
FSU - EMERGE
Energizing Membership: Engagement, Recruitment, Retention, Growth, Empowerment
The Charge:
To develop and implement an effective membership retention and recruitment strategy with three goals in mind: 1) to convert non-members to members and keep FSU membership high, 2) to grow our union’s strength, and 3) to empower our members to become more involved in FSU.
For this purpose, a committee of roughly 7 to 10 core members should be constituted by Oct. 11.
To enable member involvement in this EMERGE committee, a stand-alone broadcast message, drafted by the committee in clear and compelling language, will be sent to all FSU members, via email. In addition, our interim core group will work with Ex Com and with other committed members of FSU to recruit other core committee members. Every effort should be made to ensure that the membership of the committee reflects the diversity of background and interests of the faculty, bearing in mind our goal is to reach out to all our members.
While this 7-10 member committee will constitute a “core” for the EMERGE effort, committee meetings will open to all interested members; our goal will be to create a campaign that will keep our membership high, turn non-members into members, and to cultivate a broader layer of more involved and actively involved members. Regular EMERGE meetings will be publicly posted on the FSU website and Facebook page, and will be announced to members over email. The committee will choose its chair at its second meeting after it is formed. Joseph Ramsey will act as chair until the election. The chair will facilitate the meetings.
Project EMERGE will report back to the FSU Ex Com at Ex Com’s monthly meetings, providing a written summary of its work during the past month, including an honest appraisal of the response from members to date.
Development and Implementation:
The committee should seriously consider the All-In policy already drafted by the MTA and relate to it as a “living document” to meet the special concerns and conditions of our situation at UMB. While the emphasis will be on developing a plan for personal contact and one-on-one discussions with faculty, other ways of “getting the message” across should also be considered as means of facilitating and supplementing the one-on-one effort. (These methods may include requesting department chairs to have an FSU team speak at department meetings, reporting to members notable developments in bargaining, urging faculty to join in lobbying and organizing efforts to fight budget cuts, course cancellations, and other campus issues, such as the possible increase of parking fees). To empower activists to undertake effective one-on-one conversations with fellow members, EMERGE will work with the MTA to train members and will develop a set of materials and appeals to raise member awareness, and engagement and to increase FSU visibility. This may include informational literature about the union, its history, its victories and its current challenges, as well as “Asks” for how faculty can become more involved in the union: including talking to other members, serving on committees, attending meetings or joining other actions.