Tag Archives: SAG-AFTRA

Finding A Balance With My Committee Work (or Not Volunteering For Everything)

Posted on March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Finding A Balance With My Committee Work (or Not Volunteering For Everything)

I’ve really been enjoying the new union committee work that I’m lucky to be a part of. I know that not everyone who wants to be on committees gets on them. For several years, I applied to be on multiple committees and never got on a single one. So now that I am on a few different ones, I am trying to make the most of the opportunities that I’ve been given.

But at the same time, I know that I don’t have to do everything that is an option for me. I am dealing with more stress than I’d like to be dealing with right now and I know that it wouldn’t take too many additional things to get me to a point of being burnt out. I need to be careful how much I take on and I also have to be ok speaking up for myself when I think something might be too much for me at the time.

I had another local communications committee meeting this week and it went really well. There are a few people on the committee that I have known from union service before, but there are also a lot of new people that have been bringing in new and fresh ideas. A big part of the meeting we had this week was related to social media, so it was something I am very familiar with. Most of the committee seemed to be on the same page with some of the work that we needed to do. And it was decided to have a few people from the committee work together on creating posts that could be available to be used when something is needed.

This is very similar to the work that I was recently doing at my old job, and I’m sure I could be really great at helping out with this. But I know right now I don’t have the time or ability to really do the work the way we need it to be done. If I did help out with this, for at least the next month or two I either wouldn’t be much help or something else in my life would have to suffer. I wasn’t going to volunteer to help out because I knew this, but when the committee needed someone else to help out, I was asked if I wanted to do it since this is something I would be good at.

I did appreciate that they thought I could do the work and they know that I have a background in this. And I know it would have been easy to say yes and just try to find a way to make it work. But I am working on still standing up for myself and making sure I don’t agree to something because of someone else. So I spoke up and said that while I would love to help with this work, it would have to start in a few months when my life calmed down a bit since right now I’m a bit busy and distracted.

Saying something like that was a bit scary since I’m used to just going along with things, even if I know they aren’t always the best for me. But I’ve been working on doing this more and more and it’s starting to be a bit easier for me to do. And I’m glad that the rest of the committee understood that I’m in a temporary crazy time and nobody seemed bothered that I turned down the work. Seeing a positive reaction like that helps me feel more comfortable saying things like that moving forward.

And once I am into my new place and things are a bit more stable, I’d be more than happy to help out with the work. I’ll bring that up at the meeting we have after I move. I’m not sure if that will be the next meeting or the one after that, but it should be one of the next 2 meetings. And if there are other things that I know I can take on in the meanwhile, I will. I really am trying to stay involved in the union when I can, but I also have to keep in mind what I can take on and what will be just too much for me at the time.

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Continuing With My Union Committee Service (or I’m Still So Grateful These Are Done Over Zoom)

Posted on February 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Continuing With My Union Committee Service (or I’m Still So Grateful These Are Done Over Zoom)

I have been lucky to be a part of different union committees over the past few years, but because of when the meetings are and my schedule, I have always felt a bit disconnected from them. It’s not easy when almost everyone is there in person and I’m listening in through a phone line. As I’ve mentioned before, now all these meetings are on Zoom, which is much better than a phone line. Even though I have to stay off-camera because I’m working, I feel much more a part of these meetings than I did before.

I’m a part of some national committees as well as a local one, and so far I’ve only had official meetings for the local one (I’m the vice-chair of a national committee and I’ve had a meeting with the chair, but not the full committee yet). And this week, I had my local communications committee.

I’m grateful to be on this committee because it involves a lot of work that I have done for years. It’s about social media, writing articles, and providing resources to my fellow union members. So much of this is stuff that I have done through day jobs before, so I do feel like I have a lot I can contribute to the committee and the membership. And after our last meeting, we had an assignment to come up with some examples of things we would like to see on social media, in articles, and as resources listed on the website. This was pretty easy for me and I submitted more than I had to so there were options. And I figured we would go over what everyone submitted at the next meeting.

But at this meeting, I discovered that my email never made it (I’m guessing it was stopped by a spam filter). If this meeting was over the phone, I might not have noticed this because I wouldn’t have been able to see all the documents. But because this was over Zoom, I was following along and noticed my submissions missing from the list. I brought it up to the chair of the committee and she let me resend my email so they could be included in our discussion. I’m glad she let me do that since most of the suggestions I had were not ones that other people brought up. In fact, it seemed like all of us had very unique ideas of what we wanted to see, and I think that diversity and variety are really going to be a benefit for us as a committee and as a union.

Because so many of us had so many ideas and suggestions, we weren’t able to go through everything in that meeting. But that’s ok since we can go over them at the next meeting. And I’m glad the chair of the committee was paying attention to the time so we didn’t go over too long so we could all continue on with our days.

I’m not sure when the next meeting will be, but even if things are back in person soon, I have a feeling they will continue to make Zoom an option for meetings instead of just having a call in-line be the alternative to going in-person. And this will allow me to feel more connected to the committees that I’m in even if I have to be at home and working while the meetings are happening.

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Getting More Union Meetings In (or I’m Grateful These Are Done On Zoom)

Posted on December 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Getting More Union Meetings In (or I’m Grateful These Are Done On Zoom)

I’ve been on committees for my union in the past, but this time I am on more committees than I ever have been. It’s not a ton, especially compared to how many others might have, but it’s still more than just being on one. I’m always grateful to be selected for committees because there are only so many people who can be on them. And while I didn’t get on all the committees I wanted to be on, I was selected for a couple that I think I can really make an impact in and I’m excited about that.

For national committees, they usually have people who can meet in person and then have a virtual component so people at other locals can join in. And for some local committees I’ve been on before, they had a way to call in to listen to the meetings but it always felt a bit disconnected. I’ve never been able to attend a committee meeting in person before because they are always hours that I’m working. But I have called in to listen and I tried to follow along. But sometimes something is being shown on a screen or passed out during a meeting, and listening in means I miss out on that part of it (although we usually are emailed anything that is passed out after the meeting is done).

But since March of 2020, no meetings have been done in person. Everything is done virtually and they are doing them differently than how they were virtual before. Now, just like so many of us have experienced, these meetings are on Zoom. So it’s more involved than a phone call and the meetings have to share things ahead of time or in the Zoom meeting if there is a handout or something else we should see. And if there is a presentation during the meeting, they are done as a shared screen within Zoom.

I’m actually really grateful for this change and I hope they continue to do things this way even when the meetings are in person again. I know I will likely not be able to attend in person due to work, and I like being able to feel like I’m participating more than just listening on the phone. I can’t be on camera for these meetings due to rules with some day jobs, but that seems to be ok with everyone. I’m not the only one working during these, so at least it seems to be a common limitation that people have.

I haven’t had a meeting yet for the committee that I’m co-chair of yet, but I think that will be coming in January. But this week I had the meeting for the one local committee I’m a member of and the one national committee I’m an alternate of (for that committee, alternates attend all the meetings if they can). It did make this week a bit busy and crazy, but I am grateful to have these meetings to make me feel connected to my acting career more.

There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish this year with my acting career, and honestly that was almost all put on the back burner for other reasons. I hate that I feel like I took several steps backward, and I can’t blame it all on the pandemic. There are things I wanted to do that didn’t rely on others or how open or closed things were. But this year ended up being focused more on a lot of other things, so I’ve been very disconnected from feeling like an actor. And while I would prefer to have more things in my life directly connected to my acting career such as auditions, I’m glad I have things like these committee meetings that remind me about the amazing acting community I’m a part of and motivate me to get back on track again.

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Union Committee Work (or Continuing To Be More and More Involved In My Union)

Posted on November 23, 2021 | Comments Off on Union Committee Work (or Continuing To Be More and More Involved In My Union)

Each year that I’m a union member, I seem to find new ways to be involved or new ways to be involved in things that I’ve already been doing. Being a delegate has been part of that. Running for the local board is another part. But I’ve also been working on being more involved with different committees.

It’s not always easy to get onto committees in the union. There are only so many spots for committee members and a lot of people apply for each one. But the more I’ve been involved in the union, the more people know who I am. And having people know who I am has been helpful with getting onto committees because they are aware of my past union service and what I can bring to the group.

It’s been a process with getting more involved in committees. After the election in 2019, I was an alternate for one national committee and a member for a local committee. And I tried to be involved in the meetings and events, but because of the pandemic, the opportunities were more limited than they normally are and there weren’t as many meetings so I know I wasn’t as informed as I probably should have been about the committees I was a part of.

But when the applications came out this year for both national and local committees, I knew I wanted to apply again and hopefully get back on the committees I was a part of before and possibly be added to additional committees if possible. We haven’t heard back from the local committees yet, but I’m hoping I’ll be asked back to the one local one I was on before. And I was asked to be an alternate again for the national committee I was an alternate on last time.

But this year, I also found out some exciting news about one of the national committees. The Health Care Safety Net committee is all about providing information for different health care related opportunities and helps to organize things such as health fairs, clinics, and screenings. And not only was I asked to be a member of this committee, I was asked to be the Vice Chair!

As Vice Chair, I will help the Chair to run the committee and meetings and make sure that we are accomplishing all of our goals. I had my first training with the union recently and I learned a lot about how the national committees work and what we need to do behind the scenes to keep a committee running smoothly. It was really informative and I understand the process that the committees go through a lot more now. As the Vice Chair, I don’t pick who is on the committee, that was already done. So I know who is on the committee and our staff liaison will help us contact all the committee members when we have our first meeting (which will likely be around the beginning of the year).

I will have other trainings about running meetings and other union rules and policies, but I’m already really excited to be even more involved with the union than I have before. I never thought I’d be asked to be one of the leaders of a committee yet, I was just hoping to be a member. But I do know I’ve been working hard the past few years with my union involvement and I guess others are seeing that as well. And while I am a little nervous to be a leader because it is something new for me, it’s very exciting too!

I can’t wait to see what I’m able to do as the Vice Chair and what the entire committee can accomplish during the next year and a half. And as I’ve said every time I’ve gotten more involved in the union, I love that this is adding more ways for me to feel connected to my acting career when so many things about acting are out of my control.

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Not The Convention I’m Used To (or Still Taking On More Responsibility)

Posted on October 20, 2021 | Comments Off on Not The Convention I’m Used To (or Still Taking On More Responsibility)

As I mentioned yesterday (and have written about quite a bit), my union’s national convention was this past weekend. This was my 4th time being a part of Convention as an LA delegate. But because this was the first time the convention was virtual, everything felt a bit like it was new to me. There’s a lot that can be done virtually but there were also a lot of things I missed. But since being elected again, I have been so excited to see what it would be like this time.

Going into the weekend, I had some responsibilities I was used to and a few new ones. I was one of the leaders from my slate, so other members could ask me questions if they had them and I tried to keep people informed. This year, we did this over text instead of in person, but that didn’t feel too different. I also was a part of a convention committee regarding the voting, but our voting was going to be handled differently than it normally was so we didn’t have the same concerns. The initial meeting I had for that committee ended up being the only time we needed to meet. There were a few other things I helped to be in charge of, but it was mainly around organization and making sure that others knew the agenda for each day, so I was used to that.

The first day of the convention is usually the night before it actually starts when we have the welcome mixer. This year, they did a bit more than just that. Earlier in the day, they had a virtual open house so we could go into the virtual convention website and explore and test things out. They did practice votes so we could learn how to use the online voting system and they had staff and IT help there for any of our questions. I’m glad I dropped into it because I realized the browser I normally use wasn’t the best one for the website. Then in the evening, we had a virtual mixer. It was very different from what we are used to, but I liked the system they used. There were different virtual spaces we could go into and you could move your avatar around. And if you were closer to another avatar, the conversation was louder and you could hear them. So it was like being in a room with a lot of other people. I still missed seeing the delegates from around the country, but at least we were able to connect a bit.

And the 3 days of the convention were filled with a lot of voting and a lot of learning as usual! We started with the different vice president elections, and I was so happy to see the candidates that I was supporting win their seats. But I think one of the most excited VP votes was for our executive vice president. The winner of that was my friend (and boss at my day job), Ben! I know Ben is going to be an incredible VP and I can’t wait to see what he can accomplish in the next two years (and beyond since I know this is just getting started). Even though we weren’t voting in the same room, I was texting a lot with my friends while we were waiting for the results, so I didn’t feel as alone.

A majority of the time was spent on resolutions. I didn’t submit a resolution this time, but I was a co-author on one and was planning on speaking for it. But due to a lot of different factors that took up time, we didn’t make it to the resolution I was going to speak on. It was a little disappointing, but I know that people wanted to debate and have time on other resolutions which took time away from others. We did also have some technical difficulties, but we always have had those when we vote so I don’t think that affected things that much. I wish there had been more time and I know a lot of people tried to speed up the process where we could, but it just didn’t happen.

Overall, I do feel like this was another good convention. It wasn’t perfect, but it never is. There are things I would love to see changed, and that’s why I know I have to continue with my union service. But I did see change happen at the convention and that’s exactly why I do this. I hope that in 2 years, I will be elected again and the convention will be able to be in person. As much as I enjoyed not having to leave my house (and being able to wear comfortable pants), I missed getting to see everyone and the energy in the room. That’s not easy to experience virtually.

But at least we had our convention this year and we are still moving forward as a union!

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Convention Prep and Recovery (or Sorry For The Short Post)

Posted on October 19, 2021 | Comments Off on Convention Prep and Recovery (or Sorry For The Short Post)

Yesterday was the end of my union’s convention, and I will be writing a lot more about this tomorrow. But I made it through and it was an interesting weekend for sure!

I’m honestly exhausted (which is why this is going to be a short post), but I did a lot of my preparation for convention differently this year. I’m used to planning to be in a ballroom for hours each day, so I have a bag of stuff I need with me. I usually prepare to have whatever I might end up needing. This time, I was at home for the entire thing. I didn’t feel ready in a way because I didn’t do my prep work the same way. And even though I was home, sitting at home looking at a screen is tiring. I know that from working too. I don’t know if I prepped enough to be good with doing a virtual convention, but I did my best.

And I had some extra responsibilities this year. I was asked to be a part of a convention committee that is about tracking credentials. In past conventions, this would mean we would decide if someone who might have missed the cutoff to sign back in to vote could vote. But with a virtual convention, we didn’t have a signing in and out, so we didn’t have a lot to do. But I still had to go to a meeting to be prepared for what may come up. I hope I will be asked to be on this committee again in the future because I would love to be a part of it when there is decision-making to be done, but I was honored to be asked to be one of the few committee members this year.

I have a lot of thoughts about how the convention went this year, but I’ll share more about that in tomorrow’s post. I need to sit with my thoughts a bit and also decompress from the event. Even with it being virtual, I’m so tired and I know I need to rest and recover.

But I wanted to make sure I shared that I made it through the convention and that I am proud of so much of what happened. But I’ll write more about that tomorrow once I’ve gotten some sleep and can really think back on the weekend properly.

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Virtual Orientation (or Still Getting Ready For Convention)

Posted on October 5, 2021 | Comments Off on Virtual Orientation (or Still Getting Ready For Convention)

Before each SAG-AFTRA Convention, there is an orientation for delegates to attend so you know what is going to happen and so you can be prepared for the weekend. Normally, this is done in person and with just the delegates in your specific local. So for me, it’s usually just with the delegates from LA. But of course, this year things aren’t really normal. So even orientation was different.

This year, orientation was done virtually, just like how Convention will be. And because the orientation was virtual, it was done with all the delegates all over the country! While I am still sad that I won’t have time with some of the delegates from other locals in person this year, it was nice to see their faces in the orientation Zoom session. And it was nice to get a bit of an idea of what things might be like when we actually have the convention.

We did have a lot of the same orientation information as we have each year. They went over some of the policies of the convention and what we can expect with different types of voting and discussion. And the voting will be similar to what we did before, but this time it will be done from our computers and not with the voting sticks (which I think most of us are happy about because the voting sticks liked to not work just as we were trying to vote). We won’t get to do all of the same networking as we normally do, but there still will be chances to gather in small virtual rooms with other delegates and there will even be a virtual expo!

But because this is the first virtual convention, there were a lot of other things that the orientation went over. We have a virtual convention space with different areas we can go to for different tasks or activities. So the orientation went over the sections of the virtual space and where we will need to click so we can be in the correct area when we need to be voting or listening to the resolutions. We also saw how we can do our voting this year.

It was a lot of information and I was working during the orientation so I couldn’t give it my full attention. So I was glad to see that the orientation will be available as a replay so I can watch it again when I don’t have to keep looking at my work screens. Even though this will be my 4th convention, this one is different from the rest and I don’t want to waste time figuring things out that I can make sure I know how to do in advance. And the staff of the union understands that we all want to make sure we don’t have issues during the convention, so they set it up so we can go into the virtual convention space the day or two before it starts so we can make sure we don’t have technical issues or other concerns. I really appreciate that they thought about that and made sure that we didn’t have to have that additional stress the first morning we all need to be logged in.

The best thing about this orientation was that it really got me excited about Convention. While I do love Convention and look forward to it each time, I have had some hesitations about it being virtual. But seeing how the virtual Convention will work really got me excited to be a part of something that will be a first. And maybe how things go with this Convention will influence future ones so more people can participate even if they can’t be there in person. It’s exciting to think about what this might lead to for the Convention in 2023!

But for now, I’m counting down until Convention 2021 and I can’t wait to see all the hard work we can get done and what new information I will walk away with!

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Preparing For A Virtual Convention (or My First Task For This Delegate Term)

Posted on September 15, 2021 | Comments Off on Preparing For A Virtual Convention (or My First Task For This Delegate Term)

The time between the union election and Convention is not very long. This is the way it is set in our union constitution, so it’s something we know to expect each time. But even though we know it will be a very condensed time frame, it always seems to be a bit of a surprise too. And in that short time, there is a lot to get done before the start of the Convention and I always try to participate however I can.

One of the big things that happens at the Convention is voting on resolutions that delegates propose. These resolutions can be about so many different things. Some are about changes we want to see in different policies. Some are about having recognition for different things that have happened in the past year or two. There can be hundreds of resolutions and each one that is able to be discussed at Convention is debated (some of them have issues such as not being able to be done by the union for legal reasons or not having enough endorsements to be voted on). And part of the prep for Convention usually involves an event for the LA delegates to discuss resolutions and try to get support from others.

This is something that is normally done at the union and in-person, but like so much over the past year and a half, this was being done virtually. And it was a good way to get ready for Convention because that will be done virtually too! I am a little sad that we won’t be in person because I love getting to meet delegates from all over the country, but at least we will be able to meet virtually. But that will be a much bigger meeting than the resolutions meeting I had earlier this week. So this was a good way to ease into what it will possibly be like next month when delegates from all over the country come together for a virtual convention.

We will have a Convention orientation coming up, so this meeting was completely focused on the resolutions. Each person had a chance to speak about their resolution and why they felt like it was important. Because there were so many resolutions, each time you were limited to a short amount of time to discuss things. And if you submitted multiple resolutions, you could only talk about them one at a time.

I’ve never written a resolution myself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about them. I just haven’t had something I felt passionately enough to want to present to everyone. But I love hearing what other people come up with. And this year, I was given a chance to be listed as a co-author on a resolution that I think is a great one! The resolution I’m listed on is about having a way to designate another address you might want your union ballot to be mailed to because some people miss out on voting because their ballots were mailed to a business manager or someone else who gets their union mail. But because ballots are different than things like union dues bills, some people might want to have a ballot mailed to their home even though they normally mail everything to someone else. I think it’s a great idea and a way to help make sure more members vote. So I was very happy to be listed as a co-author.

And because I was a co-author, I also had the chance to present it at the meeting.  The person who wrote the resolution had others that they wrote, so I offered to discuss this one so they didn’t have to do all of theirs. I hate speaking in front of a group, but this was easier since I was just speaking to my screen and I couldn’t tell how many people were watching me. And it seemed that a lot of people who were watching agreed that this was a good resolution and hopefully they will be endorsing it. There is still a bit of time before the cutoff for endorsements, so I’m just going to stay hopeful.

Over the 2 hour meeting, we got to hear about a lot of the resolutions that LA delegates have proposed. It was good to hear more about them than just what we can read online so we understand why someone felt passionate about it. After the meeting was done, I went back to make sure I endorsed the resolutions I liked so they could hopefully get enough support to be brought up at Convention in a month. I do feel like it is important for me to take this process seriously since it’s one of the few responsibilities I have as a delegate. And I think I feel even more strongly about that as things are being done virtually and not in person. I want this Convention to feel just as important and productive as the past ones I’ve been a part of.

I only have a few more things to do before Convention is here. It’s crazy that it’s almost here, but I’m so excited about it coming up!

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Having Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off)

Posted on September 7, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off)

There is so much I stress about during union election season, but sometimes the most stressful thing is waiting while ballots are being counted to see the results. I usually end up having a very late night to see the end of the ballot counting and sometimes I’m so exhausted that things don’t click with me until the next morning. And this year, I knew watching the ballots being counted would be a different thing than normal since it was being done over Zoom.

There were pros and cons to the counting being done online. I didn’t like that I was at home alone watching everything and I didn’t have my friends there to reassure me or to joke with while we wait for everything to be done. But the biggest advantage was that I got to watch while I was working because I could keep the Zoom screen small on my screen while I’m working. I actually was able to watch from almost the start when the ballots were picked up from the post office and brought over to the union. I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but it was cool to see since it’s something I’ve never been an observer for in the past.

I wasn’t able to watch all of the counting process because I was working from 9-5. When I could check the screen, I did. And when people were asking questions on Zoom about the process, I listened. But for those 8 hours, I mainly worked with the occasional check-in on the process. I was also texting and messaging with friends who were watching the entire time.

For all the times in the past that I was an observer for the ballot counting, I was only in the local count room. I was automatically allowed in there because I was on the local ballot (which includes National Board, Local Board, and Delegates). The national count room was for the national president and secretary-treasurer, and to be allowed in that room you had to either be a candidate or listed as a proxy for a candidate. This year, I knew I’d be watching in the local room since that’s the standard for me. But I was selected to be a proxy for one of our candidates in the national room so I was able to be in both (not at the same time, but I switched back and forth).

When I was able to watch, I did try to pay attention to how the ballots were looking to me. The local ballots were harder since there are so many candidates, so I could never tell if someone was voting for me. But on the national ballots, it was easy to see what was happening. And things were looking very close to me. I started to think it might be a split ballot with one slate getting president and the other getting secretary-treasurer. I wasn’t sure if we’d have a very late night or not, but we ended up getting the national results pretty early compared to past years. And I was right, we had a split ballot with Fran Drescher and Joely Fisher winning.

After we knew the results for the national count, we had to wait until the union announced it before we shared the news, but that was easier to do since I wasn’t seeing anyone in person. I switched back to the local count room to see how things were going and to watch the end of those results. When I was back watching the local count, the election committee was working on the questionable ballots and trying to figure out the voter’s intent. Some of these were clear and some were really odd. It’s frustrating when you think that they are voting for the people you are supporting and the election committee can’t agree on what the intent was. I did see the committee debate a few times about votes that they had to decide if the intent was to vote for me or someone else. That was a bit weird.

And in the end, sadly my slate didn’t do as well as we hoped. We didn’t win the local officers and we didn’t get as many board seats as we would have liked. I didn’t get elected to Local Board, which was tough. I knew that it was not going to be easy for me to be elected to the board, but I really had hoped that somehow I would win a seat. But I did win my delegate seat again, so that was good news.

It’s always tough when you don’t do as well in an election as you hoped. And this time, it hit me harder than ever before. Maybe it’s because I did more work for the campaign than in past years. Maybe feelings from the pandemic added to my emotions. Maybe I was affected by watching the count alone at home more than I thought. It doesn’t really matter why, but I honestly was heartbroken when seeing the results. I know that we can’t win everything and having balance is important, but the other side has a significant majority now and it will be harder for us to make an impact in the way we had hoped.

I think I’m still dealing with feeling sad about the results. I know that now it’s time to get back to work and we have to start preparing for the National Convention, but I also need to sit with my feelings and process what happened. The one thing that does help me feel better is that I don’t have any regrets about what I did during this election season. There is nothing I didn’t do that I wanted to do. There is nothing I did that I questioned. I did everything I wanted to do and knowing that I did that made me happy.

And in 2 years when it’s the next election season, I know I’ll be fully in it again and ready to go. And hopefully we will do better then, but now we are just focused on our union service and working hard for all members.

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Almost The End Of Election Season (or Only A Few More Days To Go)

Posted on August 31, 2021 | Comments Off on Almost The End Of Election Season (or Only A Few More Days To Go)

I’ve written about election season quite a few times on here. In the past, I don’t think I had as much to say as I did this year. And part of that is because my responsibilities and leadership role grows each election season. But the other part is that this time things were so different from what we are used to.

So often in the past, we talk about how social media isn’t everything and how important it is to be face to face or one on one with someone when discussing union politics. It’s better to have a real conversation with a friend than to blast out an impersonal message. And it’s better to have a conversation that is more than the character limit of a tweet.

But this year, in a way social media was almost everything. We were all still messaging our friends one on one and some of us had phone calls or small gatherings to talk with others about why we are running or why we are a part of Unite For Strength. But so much of campaigning this election season was on social media (mainly Twitter from what I could see). And that also meant that we had a lot more attacks on social media as well.

I know I see more than what most would see since I run the social media accounts for UFS, but I know a lot of people saw similar things to what I was seeing. And so much of it was misinformation (such as not understanding what our dues went to versus when people paid premiums for the union healthcare). Part of my job with running our social media is seeing when people have questions or they have misinformation and making sure they get the correct information. I might not always be the person who can answer it, but I can find the person who is. And it is so rewarding when I can help someone get the information they need or when something they were concerned about is either already fixed or being addressed and a fix is in the works.

And I will say, a majority of what I was seeing on social media during election season was positive, especially from the people I know. So many people were listening to each other, helping people that needed help, and just being good and kind. For all the times I was overwhelmed with seeing attacks that may have had a lot of misleading information, I’d see multiple things that made my heart happy.

And now, election season is almost done. Ballots are counted starting on Thursday morning and the results should be known by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Then we can move to getting ready for the National Convention, which will be virtual this year. And I’ll still keep working on the UFS social media since that is something I do all year. But it’s very different during election season and I’m looking forward to when it’s a bit more calm.  And before I know it, it will be time for another election season or vote of some sort and things will ramp up and be crazy again.

But for now, I’m just proud of the campaign we did for this election. I’m so proud of the work others did on social media that helped to make my work easier or better. And no matter what happens, I’m happy with the work we did as a slate and how we represented ourselves.

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