School and Community Summer 2024

Emily Hanson, Republic What is your MSTA “elevator pitch” when talking to a prospective member? My “elevator pitch” for prospective MSTA members is that MSTA does not just provide its members with professional liability insurance, but also is an organization that represents and protects teachers across the state. It is a great organization that provides networking opportunities for its members as well. In addition to this, educators have access to legal resources and a member service coordinator ready to help you throughout your school year if needed. I cannot imagine being in the education field without MSTA at my side! What’s been working to get new members to join? Are there certain things that really catch their interest? I have found that information is power when it comes to getting new staff to join MSTA. Many people new to the education field do not know what options are out there for professional organizations they can join. We focus on getting information about MSTA to our district early in the year by speaking to new teachers at one of our new teacher induction days. We also deliver snacks to our transportation department and have an MSTA member in the building ready to help them sign up if interested. In addition to this, we also secured time at our all-faculty meeting before the school year began to show a short informational video explaining what MSTA and the CTA are and how membership benefits educators. Once recruited, how do you keep everyone involved and excited about being part of the CTA? We engage monthly with our CTA members by leaving birthday treats in their staff mailboxes. We get their favorite candy at the beginning of the year and then pass them out with a card from our CTA. We send out quarterly newsletters as well. In our newsletters we do “member spotlights.” We randomly select a handful of CTA members to highlight in our newsletters and on our Facebook page and also do drawings and giveaways throughout the year. This year for Christmas we gave out $50 bills to our CTA members who were selected in a drawing to help with extra holiday costs. We aim to do a staff engagement technique at least once every few months! Are there any cool ways your CTA helps members step up and take on leadership roles in the district? We are still in the process of revamping our CTA and building our membership. Getting our members

to step into leadership roles will be one of our next steps as an organization. I would love to see our membership built up enough to be able to offer small stipends to all our building representatives and those serving on our executive board! What challenges have you run into with getting and keeping members, and how have you adapted your tactics in response to these challenges? Republic is a moderately large district in the Springfield area. Something that has been challenging is organizing our staff engagement in a way that reaches members in all our buildings and departments. Including our central office and transportation, we have 10 buildings of staff members to include in our CTA and MSTA activities. As we work on building our CTA, we have placed importance on our presence being felt frequently in the district even if that is just in small ways like delivering favorite candy bars with a card for the birthdays of our members. By doing drawings and giveaways, we can include all our members in fun activities in a cost-effective way. I, as president, attend school board meetings to give a CTA report quarterly and we keep our members up to date on MSTA and CTA events through campus emails. We award CTA scholarships to graduating seniors as well. We want to be present in our school community so that our staff knows we are always here as a layer of support for them. What advice would you give someone who wants to start a CTA in their own district? As I complete my first year as the Republic CTA president, I would say don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Swing for the fences with your ideas! Don’t expect perfection and give yourself and your CTA leadership some grace as you embark upon building your CTA. Get your message out there and be present in your district. Listen to the educators in your district and see how you can best be of service to them. I started the year with an electronic survey that asked our members what they want from our CTA. That helped me know where to start in our plans for the school year. I have also issued an end of year survey for our members to reflect on how our CTA has functioned this year and what they would like to see from us in the next school year. I am excited to continue as we build our CTA and MSTA membership!

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