President's Perspective
Leadership Development: Our Top Priority

One of the priorities for the Washington-Baltimore Guild that I repeated during my time in waiting between being president-elect and president was leadership development within the local. If the events of January are any indication, we are off to a good start.

* WBNG had 23 members registered for the Jan. 10-12 media-industry jobs summit in Baltimore, which was co-sponsored by CWA's media-sector unions: TNG, NABET, and PPMWS. That number exceeded the total registration for members of either of the other two sectors.

* We are entitled to six delegates at the CWA convention here in Washington in June (right after Father's Day), and we easily reached that figure during nominations at our Jan. 31 membership meeting.

* The membership also voted to send "up to 19" delegates to the Newspaper Guild sector conference that precedes the CWA convention. Not only did we nominate and elect a full slate of 19 WBNG members to serve as delegates, we also identified four alternates to take the place of any delegates who over the next five months learn that they will be unable to serve.

* Each year, TNG sponsors a popular and effective seminar over the Presidents Day weekend for new local officers. Given that the size of a fistful of our bargaining units equal – if not exceed – that of many Guild locals elsewhere, we authorized sending four activists to the seminar, to be held at the National Labor College (which WBNG represents!) in Silver Spring.

This is a solid start. But it cannot be the end. Earlier this week, my predecessor as president, Bill Salganik, unearthed a method for further training that can be paid for by scholarships; this deserves a thorough investigation by WBNG's leaders.

We know the industry is facing lots of turbulence, but if we equip our members to be more prepared and more effective workplace voices, we just may be able to smooth out some of those choppy seas.

I look forward to your comments and input. Call me at 202-541-3263, or e-mail me at mpattison@catholicnews.com.

And you don't even have to be a prospective leader to get in contact.