| Pennsylvania State Education Association: At Your Service |
| Education | |
| Monday, 01 October 2007 | |
 Carolyn Dumaresq explains how careful listening allows this large organization to turn quickly in response to member needs. Harrisburg, Pa.-based PSEA provides a diverse set of services to its members, including collective bargaining, political lobbying and candidate support, and career development. But in talking with Dumaresq, one begins to understand that what the organization really does is listen to its members to learn how best to serve them.  Carol Dumaresq, Executive Director She’s not kidding. A few years ago, Dumaresq and her team looked at member demographics and realized that, rather than a gentle curve, a large set of members were almost at retirement while another large set were in their 20s and 30s. “We recognized we needed to determine the needs of our younger members—what they’re interested in getting from their union, how they want to be served, and how they want to be communicated to,” she said. PSEA’s team quickly set up focus groups to learn about this group’s desires and formed a plan to accommodate them through a Web site redesign and a massive shift in how the organization communicates with its members. “Specifically,” said Dumaresq, “we do more e-mail and podcasting than hard-copy mailings. We use teleconferencing for those who can’t physically attend meetings, and we point members toward political and other types of blogs that may interest them.” More recently, the PSEA team held 24 day-long World Café meetings across the state to learn more about the membership’s feelings about the organization and what they would like to see in the future. And when Dumaresq, who attended all 24 café meetings, isn’t listening to members, she’s listening to PSEA’s 52-member board, which meets every six weeks to evaluate progress and plan new strategies. “Just like any executive with their board, I serve at their pleasure,” said Dumaresq. “So I work hard at listening. I want to hear what they’re saying at board meetings and be responsive when they have questions or data needs. In many cases, I can anticipate questions they may be faced with in their districts and can get that information out ahead of time.” At the helm Although PSEA has grown in membership for each of the 12 years Dumaresq has been at the helm, member outreach is still a major part of the organization’s strategic plan. More than 85% of the state’s guidance counselors and teachers are already members, but there is plenty of opportunity with public school bus drivers, custodians, and cafeteria workers, as well as hospital workers. “We have very strong new-member outreach, and we work hard at organizing new locals,” said Dumaresq. “We invite all new teachers in the state to join as soon as they become employees of a district or institution.” Another part of PSEA’s strategic plan involves making use of the data collected from the World Café meetings. About 30 members attended each of the 24 sessions, and Dumaresq said her team specifically selected members who are not local presidents, serving on the board, or delegates to the organization’s House of Delegates governing body. “We wanted to meet with the regular members and talk to them about why they pay their dues and what would they like to see the organization do,” she said, noting that the room was set up like a coffee house with several tables of six members, each with a facilitator. Dumaresq and her team are just about to start filtering through the data gathered at the meetings. “We are looking at whether PSEA is an organization for today and tomorrow,” she said. “What should we change, and what should we not change because it’s something that members really value?” Some items will undoubtedly wind up as part of the organization’s strategic goals, which are closely linked to its budgets in an iterative, highly data-driven process that takes 18 months to complete. “It’s a continual process, but we’re always looking back a year on our strategic measures, evaluating what we’re doing, and making mid-course adjustments,” Dumaresq said. Turning the ship Another group Dumaresq plans to listen to is a newly formed 20-member think-tank tasked with looking 10 years into the future of education. The group consists of senior staffers from PSEA, along with the head of the school superintendents group, several heads of universities, and several industry partner representatives. “We want to look at how the public education system might look in 10 years—what will be different, how will that affect our members, and how should that affect the services we provide,” explained Dumaresq. The group is slated to deliver three future scenarios to PSEA before the end of the year, and Dumaresq said the trends suggested in them will be closely watched. “As much as is possible, we’ll have a heads up going out 10 years. That will help us determine how we can turn this large organization around to be responsive to members who may find themselves in very different learning environments.” Clearly, all the listening Dumaresq and her team are doing is paying off for this 102-year-old organization. “It’s a big boat to shift when you want to change direction,” Dumaresq admitted. “But we’re about as agile as a large organization can be.” |
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American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
