Last bargaining session before mediation

Our last bargaining session before mediation is Wednesday, July 13, from 2 to 4:30 pm in DeJardin, on the 2nd floor.

If we get an agreement, you'll get a letter in the mail and emails to let you see the old contract and the new side by side. Then, we'll vote.

If we don't get an agreement, the College will implement their last offer to us. This works in our favor and it means we need to get people to show up frequently to send the message that the College's offers so far are unacceptable.

The bottom line at this point: the College Administration expects us, your bargaining team, to accept (for you) proposals which strip away important rights and benefits without offering you anything in return. Yup. You read that right.

Show up. Support your bargaining team. It's YOUR working life we're talking about.

In solidarity,
Rosemary

Day 4 continued "Entry and Contracting"

After evaluating ourselves and determining our individual skill sets, Phadra gave us more in info on the California local we were tasked with helping in November.  We will be there for two days in order to develope and carry out some prof dev and a "relational organization" (meeting face to face with members).  This particular local is "wall-to-wall", which means the classified staff, full-timers and part-timers are all mixed together. Their instituation is also in budget crisis, as is in many other community colleges. 

The front team will organize the rest of us according to our skill set. "Entry" occurs when the front team acually walks in the door. They are the primary point of contact. They:

• gather info
• determine the culure
• make observations
• determine the meaning of local acronyms
• figure out the local's strengths & weaknesses
• figure strategies

A time is set aside for the client (local or state org) to tell their story. A time is also set aside to track the front teams's feelings and reactions.  Then the front team needs to

1. determine the "primary" client / "shadow" clients are bosses, colleagues or Uniserve
2. clarify expectations
3. define the end result
4. determine how the cadre will communicate
5. articulate and delagate
6. negociate differences
7. support exploration

Day 4: Sunday, June 19th

In our opening circle, we each uttered a one-word reflection:

• breakfast
• eye-opening
• enlightening
• speechless
• emotional
• confusing
• revealing
• relevant
• 180 degrees
• cool
• challenging
• powerful
• growth
• long
• accomplishing
• uncomfortable

Next we starting talking about the front team, we had elected. The front team consists of Marta, Curtis, Janet, Kim and Deborah. Deborah got the team leader job because she is so organized. They are five very good people with great experience, who are very humble about the job ahead.

Now came the learning. I'm impressed with how the trainers set us up to learn with a real-life experience. Much better than just reading a book.

Phadra asked us: "Which is more important; getting the job done or the process itself (i.e. including all voices in the decision-making process). Phadra told us a story to illustrate. A

local needed help, but no "entry and contracting" was done. Instead, the consultant met with the prez, VP and membership chair at the state level. But it was the local that was truly the client.  Things fell apart. Phadra says "go slow to go fast"; that is, take it slow, build relationships and the rest will fall into place.

Pre-entry: consultant has expertise and is charged with a certain task; an assessment is done of "self" and the client; info is gathered. Regarding the assessment, it is really important to evaluate yourself and see what you bring to the table as a consultant. The consultant may bring motivation, excitement and friendlines, but s/he may also bring a sense of inadequacy or bossiness or a desire to run the show. It's important to really know what you, as a consultant bring to the table, the good, the bad and the ugly. Secondly, you must know and understand your colleagues' strenghths and weaknesses so that you can rely on them for stuff that you are not good at doing.

Day 3 continued

We were put into groups and sent to different sessions.One such session was led by Doug Hearst, a lawyer and community college instructor. He taught "perception and small group decision making" (Per Doug, you can't have one without the other). Very good session- he made the concepts crystal clear thru hands-on examples, of which I'll post some links.

• Intrapersonal (within yourself) communication affects interpersonal (between or among others) communication  
• "Perception" is the foundation of communcation for dyads, triads, quads and small groups
• "Perception" means every person within the communication will perceive things differently.
• It all begins with physical limitations; everyone has "blind spots". For an example, see the youtube video of the "passing basketball awareness test": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4.
• Doug also had us watch a spinning wheel like this, then try to look at each other. After wards, the optical illusion makes others' heads take on wierd shapes :
• 
• The point? As communicators, we "screen out" stuff.
• Steps of the perception process:

1. selection filters: future, present or past
2. organization (schema or narrative)
3. interpret: influences, experiences, prior knowledge, background, mood, culture and lack of info

• We seek out perceptions that reinforce existing beleifs.
• Barriers to perceptions:

1. We cling to first impressions
2. we assume others are like us (in thinking, etc)
3. we follow stereotypes and prejudices

Conclusion:

• Make sure your small group understands the need for group dynamics
• Have a clear agenda / process
• Use criteria whenever possible

Group Dynamics = Organizational Developement
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics#Dimensions_of_group_process
Aspects of group process include:

• Patterns of communication and coordination
• Patterns of influence
• Roles / relationship
• Patterns of dominance (e.g. who leads, who defers)
• Balance of task focus vs social focus
• Level of group effectiveness
• How conflict is handled^[5]
• Emotional state of the group as a whole, what Wilfred Bion called basic assumptions.

• Phase	Task Functions	Personal Relations Functions
  1	Orientation	Testing and Dependence
  2	Organizing to Get Work Done	Intragroup Conflict
  3	Information-flow	Group Cohesion
  4	Problem-solving	Interdependence