Planning Calendar

Back to Toolkit Menu

Setting Up a Calendar for the Year

Mark the following on your calendar:

• Local School Board Meetings-and find volunteers to attend each
• Local Exec. Committee Meetings and General Membership Meetings
• Local Meetings with Administration
• Social Events for Local, Scholarship Presentation Events, Retirement Events
• Regional Meetings: Board of Director’s Meetings, Local Trainings, Representative Assemblies
• WEAC Events: Summer Leadership Academy, Winter Professional Issues Conference, Representative Assembly
• NEA Events: Representative Assembly

All Year Long

While we realize that this list seems long, it is meant be shared by the entire local leadership.  The benefit of being the President allows you to ask others to share in the workload.  Many hands make light work.

Be Sure To Do These Things:

• Provide monthly (or more if necessary) updates to all of your members so that they feel connected to the association
• Solicit input from your leadership team and members on a regular basis
• Set aside time every day to follow up on member issues and concerns
• Attend local meetings with union leaders and administration
• Attend Regional meetings for updates and information
• Meet with and communicate regularly with your Urban Regional Director/staff

Month by Month

July and August

• Attend WEAC’s Summer Leadership Academy with your leadership team. For more information contact Dianne Hellenbrand or Peggy Wirtz-Olsen.
• Review the committees for your local. Be sure that you have chairs to continue in roles and that you are recruiting new members for any openings.
• Set goals with your leadership team and devise your long-range plan for the local association. What do you hope to do during the upcoming year?  Two years?  5 years?
• Plan your New Member Recruiting event in September/October and invite a state officer to attend.
• Review your budget with your treasurer/membership chair. Make adjustments based upon finances and set goals for recruiting.
• Determine your Public Relations Plan for the upcoming year: Internal communication system for reporting out?  External communication system for positive local PR?
• Update your databases and the IMS database for new employee information or changes from local members.
• Update your Building Contact Lists—who is talking with whom? Have all of the changes to the local leadership been made in the Union contact list?
• Establish dates from the Executive Board and General Membership meetings. Consult the local constitution if you need to check compliance.
• Establish dates for regular Meet and Confer sessions with your School Board and administration
• Inform Region/Urban and WEAC about changes in leadership structure or election changes.
• Contact the local bank/credit union to ensure that updated signature cards are on file if there were leadership changes. WEAC Contact: 608-276-7711 Ext. 316 or email: membership@weac.org or your region.

September

• Hold a New Member Recruitment Event
• Distribute agreed upon materials to all members and potential members
• Publish a list of all Exec. Board dates and General Membership meeting dates along with School Board meeting dates
• Make contact with local student and intern teachers to get them information about the local and about Aspiring Educators of Wisconsin and what the association can do for them.
• Ask your Urban/Regional Director about training opportunities that members can be nominated for through NEA
• Make contact with (and keep in touch throughout the year) with the school board and Supt. Of Schools

October

• Encourage members to attend the WEAC Professional Issues conference which is typically in February
• Start locating candidates for openings in upcoming School Board elections
• Check in with new/potential members about how things are going
• Inform members about pending education-related legislation and provide information about upcoming November elections
• Prepare delegates to attend a fall Board of Directors meeting in the Urban/Region and learn what the issues will be
• Remind your local treasurer/membership chair to submit IRS forms. Contact the WEAC office:  Marta Shertler 608-276-7711 Ext. 267 with any questions.

November/December

• Continue to provide information about education-related legislation, upcoming elections, and to encourage voting.
• Follow-up with new/potential members about how things are going and seek feedback
• Register for the WEAC Professional Issues Conference
• Attend a social to celebrate with your colleagues or treat your Exec. Board, committee chairs, and building reps to something to special as a thank you.
• Begin to review the budget for the upcoming year by selecting a budget committee
• Review the nominations for WEAC due in February and NEA awards due in December and see if someone in your local or district qualifies to be nominated

January

• Determine if staffing/member changes occurred at the end of the semester.
• Make personal contact with new members
• Touch base with members hired earlier in the year to see how they are doing and how you can help them. This is a great month to have a gathering for new(er) members because they’ve had a chance to get some experience and may have lots of questions or concerns at this point in the year.
• Be sure that you and others in your local have registered for the Professional Issues Conference
• Remind the Treasurer to submit IRS forms
• Beat the winter blahs by holding a TGIF get-together after work at a local watering hole. The union can pick up the cost of snacks and members can pay for their own beverages.

February

• Attend the Winter Professional Issues Conference
• Begin process for School Board elections: candidate screening questionnaires finalized, interview or public forum scheduled, requests for assistance made to WEAC. Your Regional/Urban Director can help if you have questions.
• Start to find members to fill local association positions for next t year. Check your constitution and bylaws for information on holding local elections.  Publish a list of positions and responsibilities for each position.  Ask your association/building reps to help find members to volunteer.  Encourage members to run for office by making personal contact with them.
• Start to finalize the budget for the upcoming year through your Treasurer
• Finalize your slate of delegates planning to attend the Regional/Urban Representative Assembly and the WEAC Representative Assembly

March

• Hold elections for the Regional Representative Assembly and the WEAC Representative Assembly and watch for the paperwork to be submitted
• Be sure to have the Pre-RA meetings for the WEAC representative assembly on your delegates calendars for upcoming important budgetary, business, and election items to be debated and decided
• Begin planning for the recognition of retiring members
• Finalize the upcoming budget with the Treasurer for presenting to the board
• Present the school board screening and recommending results to your executive board for discussion/possible action. Present a strategy for school board election to members—assign roles/responsibilities.  Work with Region/Urban and WEAC to contact members in your district and to get the word out about your recommended candidates.

April

• Be sure that you have finalized your WEAC RA delegate attendees and your Regional delegate attendees and communicated that information with the Region/Urban office and the WEAC office respectively
• Continue work in Meet and Confer sessions, and if the official CPI bargain is underway, contact your Urban/Region Director with questions/strategies
• Continue to work your plan for the School Board election. Involve members in the process and involve other unions and grassroots coalition partners in this process. Get out the vote and Celebrate Success!
• Finalize plans to attend the WEAC RA and make sure that all of your delegates are prepared with the materials needed and informed of the issues.
• Seek opportunities to join a committee at WEAC. Check the WEAC website for committee opportunities and talk to your Urban/Region Director and your Urban/Regional President for opportunities that may exist.

May

• Prepare and send thank you notes to ALL who volunteered to help the local association in some way this year.
• Have your association/building reps begin the process of making sure that your summer contact lists are up to date
• Make sure you have all vacant association positions filled for next year
• Finalize and approve budget for next year if May is your last meeting of the school year
• Spend time with members who are facing job changes or cuts
• Make plans to celebrate retirements and members who may be retiring; encourage members who are being laid off or displaced; and/or celebrate the end of the school year.
• Register for Summer Leadership Academy. This event will help your local to hit the ground running in the fall.

June

• Ensure that all association records are up-to-date and accurate
• Meet with your local executive committee to evaluate how well your local association met the goals you established last fall. Begin the goal-setting process for the next school year.
• Be sure to register your team for the Summer Leadership Academy.
• If a new treasurer or president has been elected, notify the bank/credit union of changes and have a new signature card prepared.
• Make plans with your executive board to get together over the summer for a planning session/barbecue (or picnic).
• Breathe…take time for yourself. This is an overwhelming role just as is your full-time job as an educator.  Give yourself permission to make mistakes and time to learn the role.