CTA’s Summer Institute 2011 will be held July 31 to Aug. 5 at UCLA’s Conference Center. This event offers a variety of trainings designed to assist chapters in day-to-day representation, help teachers build leadership skills, and improve teaching and learning.
Negotiations and Organizational Development Strand — The NOD Strand offers five full-week tracks.
Emerging Leaders — Designed to arm members who are beginning their activism with the information, resources and skills needed to become effective organizers and future leaders in their local chapter, this track includes the basic concepts of unionism and advocacy, union history and structure, and effective organizing techniques. This track does not cover bargaining or grievance representation skills.
Essential Bargaining Skills — In this highly interactive session, designed to guide participants in the use of a 10-step process to ensure a successful bargaining experience, participants will form bargaining teams, bargain an agreement, and work through extensive coaching and debriefing sessions to determine which strategies were successful. Participants must attend every session from Sunday afternoon to Friday morning.
Advanced Bargaining Skills — This track will teach the skills needed to fully prepare for and implement successful bargaining programs. Topics include organizing for power, developing
infrastructures for support, information-gathering to engage members and their communities, leveraging data and power to your advantage, impasse mediation and fact-finding. Participants must have three years of experience on a local bargaining team, or have previously completed the Essential Bargaining Skills track and one year of experience on a local bargaining team.
School Finance — Designed for leaders and bargaining team members who want to become more knowledgeable about school finance and school district budgets, this session includes tracking the trends of budget priorities, calculating the cost of a bargaining proposal, determining a district’s ability to pay, and developing comparability data to support bargaining objectives.
Healthcare Benefits and Issues for Active Members and Retirees — This track will focus on bargaining health benefits in order to increase the quality of care and reduce costs, and will also inform members about current local, state and national medical health care reform measures, current activities of CTA coalitions, and Medicare benefits for retirees. Participants should be prepared to discuss their Summary Plan Descriptions, contract language and other information pertaining to their locally bargained medical benefits program.
Legal Strand —The Legal Department offers two introductory half-week tracks. Participants may register for either or both.
Track 1
(Sunday–Tuesday) — This track will focus on “group” labor and employment issues, including basic union and employee rights under the Educational Employment Relations Act, the legal framework for bargaining, unfair practice issues, duty of fair representation issues, and Brown Act open meeting issues. Topics will include: the rights of members to union representation; duty of fair representation — best practices to protect your chapter from DFR liability; union activities that are protected by labor laws; what actions by the district can be successfully challenged by filing an unfair practice charge; and how to use the Brown Act effectively.
Track 2
(Wednesday–Friday) — This track will focus on “individual” labor and employment issues, including the rights of union members under antidiscrimination laws, the rights of educational employees to a safe and healthy workplace, discipline and dismissal procedure under the Education Code, and cyberlaw issues. Topics will include: employment discrimination and sexual harassment; disability discrimination and reasonable accommodation; discipline and dismissal; leave of absence issues; school health and safety issues; and cyberlaw, texting, MySpace and Facebook — best practices in a hyperconnected world.
Instruction and Professional Development Strand — The full-week IPD Strand will focus on “Transitioning to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics.” Teams of teachers, administrators, curriculum coordinators and other educators will be offered up-to-date information and training on the transition from current state standards to the CCSS. Topics include academic content standards, performance assessment, framework adoption, textbook adoption, professional development, alignment with current standards, planning for the transition, and developing a clear, purposeful vision for your school site. Keynote speakers are W. James Popham and Bobb Darnell. You can use QEIA, School Site Council, PI and SIG funds to register for this important professional development.
Member Benefits Strand — This half-week strand (Sunday–Tuesday) will show participants how to make the most of the numerous deals and savings opportunities provided exclusively to CTA and NEA members. The strand is designed for chapter presidents, local site reps, membership chairpersons and membership recruiters, and offers tips to help your chapter grow and retain membership, convert agency-fee payers to members, gather members for organizing activities, build chapter appreciation and unity, and provide solutions to many member needs.
Community Outreach Strand — This half-week strand (Wednesday–Friday) will focus on “Collective power: Creating positive changes in our communities.” It will explore a variety of strategies and tools for tapping into community power. Activities will include: community-building; sharing community connections; outreach activities; electives; attending a local community meeting off-site; chapter outreach planning; and World Café — a group approach to problem-solving.
Communications Strand — This strand will offer four separate one-day tracks, which provide the most comprehensive communications training from CTA. Every participant will attend each of the four tracks. Participants should be comfortable using the Internet.
From “Gee Whiz” to “Gee WOW!” — Communicate your message effectively online. Create an e-newsletter, polish your e-writing skills, and learn the dos and don’ts of e-mailing.
Sure Cure for the Tongue-Tied Blues — This session on public speaking offers easy, fun tips to help you deliver strong, effective speeches with greater poise and confidence, and includes information about message discipline and development of strategies for crisis communications.
Headlines and Deadlines and Cameras, Oh My! — Plan media events and get compelling news coverage of your chapter’s issues. Reach out to news media, and be prepared when they reach out to you. The session includes crisis communications and participating in a simulated news conference.
Organizing Online: Engaging Your Members Through Social Media
— Use social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach, inform and engage your members, and become a cyberactivist through online organizing.
Register now for your training of choice at www.cta.org/conferences . Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis, and many strands fill up quickly. For more information, contact the CTA Conference Coordination Center at (650) 552-5355.