Roza

Bernice

&

Dora

 thank you for your perspectives! I will share these with her the next time we meet.

I belatedly ditto Roza as well! There's also the broader issue that as workers (including professionals like us) have been increasingly vulnerable in the last generation, unions are about the only protection we've got left. I haven't always agreed with my union's decisions but always feel the really minor cost of union dues is well worth knowing it is there for collective bargaining. When we look at professions like healthcare workers making the very difficult decision to strike these days ... it's not impossible that we in public health will have even more need of our unions in the next few years, esp. given continued volatile political rhetoric

Spot on, Roza, with the pros and cons. 

We are also part of SEIU and they are part of the orientation process for new employees here, but I believe you can opt in or opt out anytime you want in your employment. She could always delay if she's not sure. I can't think of any considerations for her choice that are specific to a public health department so any article or information online debating the decision can probably help her decide. The only "disadvantage" I can think of is paying union dues - the hard work of organizing has already been done before she started the job and any "cons" to joining a union (e.g., they may advocate for something that she doesn't agree with) is kind of a moot point, because she can only impact their activities as a participating member. However, whether she's a member or not, she will be benefiting from union negotiations so my personal opinion is that she should join and pay into the system that's supporting her. She will also get benefits from union membership (she'll have to look up the specifics in her workplace). 

Thanks everyone! One of my mentees is starting a position at Nebraska DHHS and the union was mentioned to her by HR. I told her that the union rep would likely reach out once she starts and suggested she ask her coworkers about their experience with it. Is there any reason you wouldn't recommend she join the union?

MA is unionized as was Boston. Managers are not, which doesn't mean that people in manager roles are not, but that non-unionized positions are defined as "Managers" when it comes to labor relations . . . . So, we end up talking about "supervisors" and "managers" a lot. Kinda confusing. There are definitely restrictive elements to working in a unionized position and there's a certain amount of adversarial stance between the unions and the executive leadership when it comes to implementing changes (for leave or benefits systems, for example). The biggest benefit during COVID times was that unionized positions were able to receive overtime pay or time but that non-unionized positions were not.

Similar to ME/VT, we are unionized but for all state employees. I find the benefits are great, but salaries are not competitive (even compared to other states)....

Me too!  It is all state employees in VT, not just health department: https://www.vsea.org/

Its a huge one, not just DHHS employees: https://www.mseaseiu.org/

We are!

Hi Amelia, I'm part of a union here in Oregon and was also in New Hampshire 

Hi all! Am I remembering correctly that one of you mentioned working at a health department that is unionized? 

Happy Friday! Friendly reminder to please complete the final evaluation that was sent to you via Qualtrics. Your feedback is very important to us and we are aiming for a 100% response rate. 👍

Happy November! The call for abstracts for the 2022 CSTE Annual Conference are now open. We have new conference tracks this year - including Workforce Development and Special Topics. More information can be found here: Call for Abstracts (confex.com)

A friendly reminder that we have a coaching call on Monday, September 26th at 1 pm EDT about Brainstorming. The materials can be found under Docs & Files on Basecamp and attached to the calendar invite. Look forward to seeing you then!

This is a friendly reminder to please sign up for final presentations in November and December! Final presentations will take place on November 4th, November 18th, December 2nd and December 13th. Please utilize the following spreadsheet to sign up for a day and timeslot.

A friendly reminder that we will have an optional Open Forum meeting today at 12 pm EST! This is an opportunity to bring discussion topics and converse across the cohort. I encourage you to bring a discussion topic and prepare to engage with your peers. See you then!

Just a heads up you should have received an email from me via Qualtrics yesterday with a link to your mid-way evaluation. Please take a moment to complete the brief evaluation of your experience before June 24th. Let me know if you didn't receive the link.

Looking ahead to Monday's group coaching call. Be sure to bring a topic to be coached on. The skill we will focus on is deep listening. Remember to take the call in a space where you feel comfortable being coached and can speak openly. 

Some suggested topics may include:
> “I need to have a difficult conversation with my boss/direct report. Let’s think through my approach.”
 > “I’m so overwhelmed. I don’t know where to prioritize.”
 > “How do I address this element of my self-assessment/360 feedback?”
 > “I want to understand and integrate some feedback I got.”
 > “I want to brainstorm how I can apply this concept at work.”
 > “I’m struggling to make progress or feel stuck on X.”
 > “What should I say yes or no to?” 

Looking forward to Monday's group coaching call. I will post the handout when it is available. In the meantime, you can prepare for the call by thinking about a topic you would like to be coached on by another LEAD participant. 

Amelia

thank you! I will send you an email. Just a reminder that you can sign up to facilitate or present on a future call at https://cste-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/jarrazola_cste_org/EdYOD4789Q9IujPSXBR85gwBSshSzmpl-pnsduG5_kiw4A?e=FGWuJZ.

Elizabeth

 Yes it should later this year, after we get through the Monday holidays.

I'm happy to help!

Jessica, does Journal Club ever occur on non Tuesday afternoons? I'd love to participate, but can't at that time.

Hi all, we still need one more facilitator to help run the journal club next Tuesday with

Dora

. Anyone want to volunteer?

The pdf version works for me. Thanks Megan!

Good morning Kathryn and Sujata! I'm sorry you were having trouble accessing the Harvard Business Review Article. I have replaced the link with a PDF version so you should have access now but please let me know if there are still difficulties. 

Likewise - I realized I was in the wrong space, and also am unable to access the full text of the HBR article. :)

Thanks Jessica! I had logged in earlier this week using the other password we were (I was?) sent. I have not yet been able to access the full text of the Harvard Business Review article that's linked to (Kotter 1990) in Lesson 1, just the summary page. I also got a little confused & spent some time in the original CSTE LEARN course before I got smart and moved to the Cohort version 2 :)

Happy Friday! You should all now have access to CSTE Learn. Your username is your email address and your password is "LEAD2022" Please be sure to try and sign in to make sure everything is working and you can see the training content. Also sign ups are available for our upcoming calls. For case studies and journal clubs you can be a facilitator or co-facilitator. For project sharing, we can have up to 3 planned volunteers to share about their work or a challenge they want feedback on from the group. https://cste-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/jarrazola_cste_org/EdYOD4789Q9IujPSXBR85gwBSshSzmpl-pnsduG5_kiw4A?e=FGWuJZ