Summer Conference Update

Following the May 9 vote of Annual Meeting delegates to cancel Summer Conference at UMass Amherst because of a contract dispute, we are planning a smaller, more focused conference in Springfield.

The Springfield mini-conference will run Monday, August 3 through Thursday, August 6, and will include the leadership track programs below. There is no charge to locals or members for any of the mini-conference tracks. Programs will be held in the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place. Participants will be housed in the Springfield Marriott and Sheraton hotels.

MTA Organizing Institute
This new program is designed to provide a space for teams of three or more from MTA locals and committees to consider and plan strategies to shift to an organizational model that:

·         Increases opportunities for member involvement by engaging in deep internal organizing that emphasizes greater member involvement.

·         Widens the scope of our power and influence by engaging in a program of student and family engagement, community organizing and coalition building.

·         Encourages an ongoing process of analyzing the environment in which we exist (political, economic and regulatory).

To Apply: Interested members should approach their local or chapter president or MTA field representative about sending a team to the institute.

New Members Program
Participants in this program will work with peers to understand the changing face of public education and the often confusing world of educational policy and legislation that affects them as classroom teachers and school-based educators. There will be an opportunity to learn about different approaches to collective bargaining and participate in a mock negotiating session.

To Apply:  For those in their first five years of practice. Please contact Erin Tracy, 

etracy@massteacher.org, for registration assistance.

The Annual Meeting vote to cancel the UMass conference was taken to protest the fact that UMass employees have not received the retroactive pay they are owed. The smaller, more focused program does not include Summer Conference’s usual array of workshops on professional and organizational development topics. We’d like to thank the dozens of members and non-members who proposed workshops this year and we hope to be able to bring many of these to MTA members in other venues over the next school year.