Wyoming Education Association

Winter 2017

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3 Elise Robillard, Northwest Region UniServ Director, erobillard@wyoea.org With this inspirational thought in mind, leaders of the Northwest Region adopted the theme of "Activate Your Superpowers" for the Northwest Region Retreat in Thermopolis on October 7th. WEA members and local leaders from K-12 and community colleges came together from all over the region for this one-day retreat: Cody, Powell, Lander, Riverton, and Arapahoe. The sessions offered participants opportunities for dialogue on critical issues, association organizing, membership engagement, and outreach to early career educators. Northwest Region President John Fabela opened the retreat with a call to activate members and potential members to support public education in Wyoming. WEA Vice President Grady Hutcherson was the lunch keynote speaker. He spoke movingly about the successes of public education in our state and why he is a proud WEA member. Educators from Northwest College and Central Wyoming College met in separate sessions with Greg Herold, SE UniServ Director and WEA Higher Education Liaison, to discuss the challenges facing community colleges in our state. Of critical importance are the lack of investment in community colleges, the lack of salary increases, and concerns over the budgetary practice of recapture/redistribution, not to mention the increasing demands on faculty members, dual enrollment issues, aging faculties with no pipeline for recruitment, and the loss of course offerings/programs. The WEA is invested in driving solutions for these problems, and this retreat was an important step forward. NEA Western Region Organizer Sheila Keller came from Denver to work with local leaders. The focus of her work in the Northwest Region has been leadership development and planning for a regional Listening Tour in November. Her session helped participants identify how they want to engage members and build strength. She will be returning to the Northwest Region November 8-10 for the Listening Tour in Cody, Powell, and Lovell. In Cody, emerging leaders have opportunities for involvement through the work of the Executive Committee, membership engagement, and leadership development trainings. Elizabeth Hanson, Vice President of the Cody Education Association, shared their Local's association representative (AR) structure and distributive leadership model. Your WEA at Work Northwest Region Activates Its Superpowers "We have a unique superpower – the superpower of people who love other people's kids." -Lily Eskelsen-Garcia, NEA President

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