It began with a discussion among members of the Board of Directors and the creation of the Strate-gic Direction Committee. There have been many rich conversations over the past few years involv-ing governance, staff and local leadership about developing a comprehensive set of strategies and tools to educate, organize, mobilize and engage our changing membership in order to meet the many challenges we are facing at the local, state and national levels. We are not there yet. It will take the dedication of every current leader – along with the concerted effort of the entire MTA staff – to bring us to the state of organization and activism we must reach if we are to achieve our goals. Working together, we must rapidly move the MTA from the traditional service-oriented model to one that is more collaborative. There is no better time than now to renew our sense of urgency as we tackle this realignment of our skills and our resources.
MTA’s membership has been changing and continues to change as experienced leaders retire and the economic, political and professional climate in which we operate sets increasingly daunting challenges for public education. As always, MTA will deliver – and work to improve – core union services, such as bargaining, grievance support and political action. But in this dynamic environ-ment, we will also be developing new tools and strategies to address these challenges.
Our power resides in our members – informed, unified and active members. Every day, they bring to life a vision of quality education through their great commitment, creativity and passion for their students, schools, colleges and communities. This is the basis for both our success and our renewal as a union. The more member-driven we can become in everything we do, the stronger we will be on all fronts.
The key elements of MTA’s Strategic Action Plan include:
- Identifying and training new leaders and activists.wInvolving members and staff in developing and delivering training programs based on the needs of leaders and members.
- Developing strategies to engage a broader range of members in the planning and execution of bargaining campaigns, grievance advocacy, community outreach, coalition building, political action and other union and professional issues.
- Improving communication capacity between and among MTA members, parents, elected of-ficials and the community at large.
- Being understood by our members, the public and policymakers as a union committed to the highest standards of quality education and professional practice.
- Increasing our capacity to engage and mobilize members to take political action at the local, state and national levels so that we can influence the debate and decisions that shape stu-dents’ learning conditions and members’ working conditions.
- Ensuring through continuous input and advocacy that all policies and regulations regarding education policy and practice reflect the perspective and expertise of experienced practitioners.
Great unions have been and will continue to be constructed on a number of central principles and practices. Such tenets form the foundation of this Strategic Action Plan, which is designed to help the MTA work with its locals and chapters as they build the vision, the structures and the broad base of involvement that our members and our students need and deserve.
