The personal touch at the heart of local's membership growth

For new teachers like Myrna Calderon, the first days in the classroom often come across as a "join this, join that" broadside from assorted groups in the school system. The pamphlets, brochures and other materials they leave in their wake can make new teachers more dazed and confused than charged up and eager to join.

Calderon says there was one group that was able to cut through the first-month clutter, however. The group stood out because it was willing to invest a little time and shoe leather. It made sure Calderon received visits from its representatives—colleagues with classrooms at the same high school, North Dallas High, where she taught.

The visits weren’t high-pressure sales pitches but personal conversations. They centered on what her immediate needs were and where her interests lay—things that the visitors could connect with what their group had to offer. The Dallas group that cut through was the Alliance/AFT—Calderon’s new union, and an affiliate that has turned the personal touch into growth of more than 540 members since the start of school.

"What appealed to me was the fact that if I had any questions or needed help with something, I could count on the Alliance," Calderon says. "They’ll help you with payroll and money management. I also know they help with teacher hours, [and] the Alliance does professional development. That was news to me."

Tony Chenevert, an Alliance site representative and English teacher at North Dallas, says that people’s needs are as diverse as the range of services the union has to offer. "Some people are looking for the [traditional] services and benefits, some may have had difficulties with management at their old schools, some are just overwhelmed and they need the tips and strategies" for the classroom. "It’s my job to inform them—not to put pressure on them," he adds. "I want them to join a union that can really assist them and give them the help they were looking for all along."

It’s the type of personal appeal that doesn’t happen by accident in Dallas. The Alliance offers extensive training for site representatives. This was particularly true at the start of this school year. Through monthly meetings and classes, the Alliance has built teams of union outreach activists at each school, says Chenevert, who jokingly calls himself a "wing commander" in the effort.

Certainly, the huge dimensions of so many public schools call for building-level teams—and in Dallas they take nothing for granted. Teams of three or four activists typically will sit down with a school layout grid and physically "map out" which educators the union has contacted personally. It’s an "eye-opening" exercise, one that can pinpoint entire floors and departments that have yet to receive information and support from the union, Chenevert explains. "It gives us new enthusiasm for the mission. We know that it’s something we can do."

Aimee Bolender, president of the local, says the emphasis these days is on the organizing conversation, not the organizing drive. "This is all about building relationships," she explains. "The more you push the conversation down to the school level, the more you retain members and give others greater opportunities and reasons to join."