Dear Member,

Happy Monday to everyone!   Here is this week's update:

• The SB191/Educator Effectiveness training was a great experience!   We will be having Linda Barker back in December as we look toward mid-year reviews.   
• We need to know what kind of professional development you want.  Please give us your ideas here.  Also, if you'd like to serve on the Professional Development committee, please let Darren know at dcook@coloradoea.org.  
• Our monthly AR Council will be taking place this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in BTK Room A.  AR's will have an opportunity to share comments or concerns with their Area Director, so please let your AR know if there is something you want mentioned.  And speaking of AR's, BTK still needs an AR!  
• Click here to find out if your school won the volunteer turn out contest!  The school with the highest percentage of volunteers in each area wins.  Winners will have a pizza lunch brought to their building for members, courtesy of CEA.   The next step is to have all our volunteers go through a short training process where we will learn a two minute message, mail a few postcards, and receive candidate literature.  And, yes, there will be food and your children are more than welcome to attend!  You will be receiving an email asking you to confirm a training time shortly.  Oh, and it’s not too late to sign up to volunteer.   
• If you haven't taken advantage of the restaurant discounts for NEA members only, you should!  Click here and get a $25 gift certificate for $10 to several local restaurants. 
• There are a lot of questions surrounding what a grievance is and how our grievance procedure works.  Here is a step-by-step guide.  

Have a wonderful week!

Best,

Darren 

Dear Member,

Hopefully, everyone has had a fantastic start to their school year!   Your MVEA has a lot going on, so please scan through the bullets below:

• The AR Council was a huge success, with only two schools missing due to their Back to School nights.   Areas B, F, and H elected Area Directors.   We also have a new Secretary.  You have an excellent Executive Council with a great vision and action plan for the future of the MVEA.  
• Each building will have a "911 Emergency Meeting" in the next 10 days to bring everyone up to speed on the happenings in the School Board election.   Your AR will be in touch soon.   The building in each Area with the highest volunteer turnout will get a pizza lunch for all members at your school courtesy of CEA!  If everyone has 100% turnout, everyone gets a pizza lunch.  (We're not fooling around with this School Board election!)  To see how your school is doing, look here.  We will update it daily, so check back! 
• We have had 90 new members sign up this month with many of them being returning members, which is amazing!  But we're not done yet.  Make sure each potential member in your building takes a look at our website and watches the video of our members explaining what it means to be a member of the MVEA.  If they choose to sign up, make sure your name is listed on the bottom so we can send you $10 as a thank you.  Our association is able to do more and more to support our profession as we grow in membership!
• The SB191 Educator Effectiveness training on the 7th of September is quickly filling up.  We only have 21 spots left, so if you have had a few questions as you've worked your way through your self-assessment, you might want to sign up here.  It's free to members, and you will receive credit for 4 hours of Professional Development.  We intend to have monthly Professional Development opportunities this month, so be watching for more!
• We'll speak specifically about offers and promotions through MVEA and NEA in the future, but if you want to scan for some great savings opportunities, look here and here.   As an example, member Mary McGuire took advantage of the attorney referral program's two free thirty minute legal consultations per year, and then she used the information to negotiate a great settlement with an insurance agency offsetting many years of her membership dues.  
• No one has forgotten the negotiated settlement from last year that tied us getting the remainder of the 20% of our step to enrollment and grants.  We are keeping a careful eye on the counts and should be able to report out on it soon.   
• Do you have any students or families that need help?  Susana Wittrock with the Office for Advocacy, Outreach, and  Connections is coordinating with the many government and non-profit organizations around the valley to get students and families the help they need.   

Have a great week!

Dear Member,

Hopefully you had a great first week of teaching! 

This week’s news:

• Concerned about the teacher evaluation system under SB 191?  Your association is bringing in Linda Barker to answer your pressing questions and provide some professional development (there will be a 4 hour PD certificate offered!).  The flyer is attached, and the session is limited to 50 members, so sign up here. 
• Your School Board Elections Committee is working hard to finalize their recommendations for this year’s critical school board race.  We should have our pro public education candidates in place by the end of this week, and can begin campaigning shortly thereafter!  Each building will have an “emergency meeting” for members sometime during the next week (if you haven’t already) to inform teachers of the political landscape and encourage everyone to volunteer in some capacity to help preserve public education.   Campaigning need not be confrontational.   The public trusts teachers (our polling says so!).  In fact, they trust us so much oftentimes we don’t even need to explain why we support a particular school board candidate.  All we need to do is post our picks for the school board race on our Facebook page, mail out a few postcards, and – if we choose to – take part in a morning of door knocking (followed by a huge BBQ – more to come on that!).   Filling out a brief form is the first step in being a part of the democratic process in this year’s important school board race so we can be purposeful in our approach, which is key to winning! And we will win…  J
• Remember that we are ratifying our bylaw changes at this week’s AR Council.  Make sure you review the  bylaw changes and give your AR feedback to inform their vote. 
•  Do you like TED Talks?  Here are a few that are absolute “must views”!   
• Each day seems to bring with it a new member enrollment sheet for the MVEA, which is fantastic!  Just remember to sign your name at the bottom of the application as the recruiter so you receive the $10 “thank you” from your association colleagues for helping to grow our professional organization.  
  


Here’s to a wonderful week!

Dear Member,

 Welcome back.  Your MVEA has been busy over the summer!   Executive Council set the following major goals for this school year:

1)      Ensure the three school board seats that are up for election in November are won by pro-public education candidates,

2)      Increase membership and build the involvement level and leadership capacity of our current members, 

3)      Actively partner with administration in increasing the organizational health of each school, especially surrounding the 
implementation of the new teacher evaluation system, and

4)      Increase our compensation package. 

With these guiding areas of focus, we recognized the need for a web site to help with communication.  Members Becky Johnson, Mike Warner, and Paul Van Camp deserve kudos for the many hours they spent on creating this quality site.   In future letters, I will point out the multitude of resources that are available.  

On the main page you will notice a great video that can be used in recruiting the potential members in your school.  Many thanks to members Brad Thomas, Justin Whiteford, Trey Downey, Tracy LeFebre, Katie Schaffer and former members Mark Schmalz and Vernon Walker for articulating so well why every teacher should join the MVEA.  And we have made it even easier to join this year by having printable membership forms on our website.    

Also, please thank your AR.  They will be a wonderful resource for information as we all push hard for success in reaching our collective goals this year!  They have already spent a day at the AR Training and then were part of a wonderfully successful New Teacher Orientation membership drive.  If you notice your school does not currently have an AR, please decide who will be representing your school this year and let me know ASAP.  

There is so much more to share, but no doubt each of you are hitting information overload as you think about how much needs to be done prior the first bell on August 12th.  Just know that the MVEA is stronger than ever, and that together we will do great things this year!  

Best,

Darren