For most, summer is a time for rest and relaxation, however, members of NCAE spent their summer growing our union. Summer Member Organizing (SMO) is a program for members to organize their fellow educators through the summer door knocking.
SMO began with training on June 20th in a Wake County school. In total, 110 members trained to be Summer Member Organizers (SMOs), representing 21 different locals. During the training, the SMOs learned new techniques to appeal to their fellow educators to become a part of our union.
One of those educators knocking on doors this summer was Barbara Murrisky-Hayes, a middle school special education teacher from New Hanover County. This is Murrisky-Hayes’s third summer as a Summer Member Organizer. Barbara’s role and experience in SMO evolved with each summer.
“I was able to get Williston [Middle School] to be a majority school during my first SMO,” reminisced Barbara about her first SMO experience.
There were only three New Hanover SMOs during her first summer, then it grew to twelve during her second summer. The strategy changed with each year; some summers focused on email communication, and other summers focused on knocking on doors. For Summer 2024, New Hanover SMOs expanded into their surrounding counties, including Brunswick and Onslow. New Hanover members realized that many of their fellow public school workers commute from other places into New Hanover County.
“We knocked on 700 doors this summer, just in our local. Then we expanded out to Onslow, because we had an Onslow person with us. She happened to be at Williston when she first moved to Wilmington. The team got to go to Onslow and door knock, and then realized we have people who were driving from Brunswick County also to come to New Hanover,” recounted Barbara on their strategy for this summer.
In addition to recruiting new members, Summer Member Organizing is also an opportunity for our union to grow new leaders and teach members new skillsets. This year, Barbara stepped into new leadership roles by facilitating trainings and compiling data to support union members out in the field.
SMO 2024 was a huge success. So far, SMOs have knocked on almost 11,000 doors and signed up almost 700 new members.
This summer of success, building our union door-by-door, building-by-building, and district-by-district, is a great way to start the new school year. Bigger things are ahead when educators organize together.
