with negative salary increases are very common. The guidance from the higher education com- munity, along with the K-12 leadership, also focused on is- sues such as grievance policies, intellectual property rights and other working conditions. Ne- braska higher education has not had a large presence at the RA in previous years. Local associations are entitled to send delegates based upon their mem- bership. Because of the effect the RA has on the business of the NEA, NCHE is urging states to send more higher ed delegates to speak more effectively about our issues. I would encourage you to consider attending the 2011 RA which will be held in Chicago. If you are interested in affecting the higher education agenda of the NEA. For more information on the next RA or other issues related to the board, please contact me at [email protected]. The NEA Representative As- sembly (RA) was held in New Orleans from June 30th until July 6th. The RA is the same format as the Nebraska Delegate As- sembly except that there are 8,000 plus members elected from state associations all around the country. The pri- mary role of the RA is to con- sider the new business items of the NEA and to set the direc- tion of our or- ganization for the next year. As the largest operating de- mocratic body in the world, the RA allows any member of the NEA to propose business. As a member of the board, I was able to attend the RA as a repre- sentative of the Higher Educa- tion Academy District. My wife Heidi also came as an elected representative of her local. She is an administrative assistant and a member of the CCCSA. Being first-time delegates, there was much to learn about the proc- ess and how Nebraska works through handling the new busi- ness. The higher education com- munity was organized through a caucus led by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) that met each day of the assembly. I attended several of these meetings. Nebraska is well known as one state which has a very organized floor strat- egy. Although higher education did not bring any new business items to the RA, there were several modifications made to existing business to incorporate our issues. The true benefit of the caucus was to meet several of the higher education leaders around the country and hear about their issues. Although we have seen some significant higher ed cuts in Nebraska, they are much smaller than those in other parts of the nation. Many of our colleagues face difficult negotiations with pay cuts a part of those discussions. Arrays August, 2010 Volume 4, No. 1 The Higher Education Advocate NSEA Board Meeting Dates 2010 Sat. September 18 Sat. October 23 Sat. November 20 Sat. December 4 Inside this issue: HEA at the NEA-RA 1 Nebraskans in NEA Emerging Leader Academy 2 Third Annual NEA Salary Roundtable 3 HEA at Delegate Assembly 4 NSEA Supreme Court Win! 4 UniServ Kudos 5 Academy Directorate Info. 6 Chris Waddle , NSEA Board Member Heidi Farrall Nebraska Higher Ed at the NEA Representative Assembly
6
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NSEA Higher Education Academy Newsletter, August 2010
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Council for Higher Education (NCHE) that met each day of
the assembly. I attended several
of these meetings. Nebraska is
well known as one state which
has a very organized floor strat-
egy. Although higher education
did not bring any new business
items to the RA, there were
several modifications made to
existing business to incorporate
our issues. The true benefit of
the caucus was to meet several
of the higher education leaders
around the country and hear
about their issues. Although we
have seen some significant
higher ed cuts in Nebraska, they
are much smaller than those in
other parts of the nation. Many
of our colleagues face difficult
negotiations with pay cuts a part
of those discussions. Arrays
August, 2010 Volume 4, No. 1
The Higher Education Advocate NSEA Board
Meeting Dates 2010
Sat. September 18
Sat. October 23
Sat. November 20
Sat. December 4
Inside this issue:
HEA at the
NEA-RA
1
Nebraskans in
NEA Emerging
Leader Academy
2
Third Annual
NEA Salary
Roundtable
3
HEA at Delegate
Assembly
4
NSEA Supreme
Court Win!
4
UniServ Kudos 5
Academy
Directorate Info.
6
Chris Waddle , NSEA Board Member
Heidi Farrall
Nebraska Higher Ed at the NEA Representative Assembly
Nebraska Higher Ed Leaders Graduate from NEA Leadership Academy:
Reflections on an exceptional experience
Page 2
One of the true highlights of the 2010 NEA Higher Education conference in San Jose, California was the presence of three Nebraska
Higher Education leaders as members of the 2010 graduation class for the NEA Emerging Leaders Academy. The NEA Higher Educa-
tion Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA) is a three session training program over a nine month period that is open to dues paying
higher education members from all categories of higher education who meet the program’s eligibility requirements. Candidates can
apply for the program directly but must be endorsed by their state association or higher education affiliate. ELA sessions were held
at the NEA headquarters building in Washington, DC, in Miami, FL, and at the San Jose higher education conference. The following
are reflections from Nebraska’s three graduates. Congratulations to each of them! Find out more about the ELA and how to apply
for the class of 2011 at the NEA website.
Karen Granberg—Nebraska State College Professional Association (NSCPA) – Wayne My name is Karen Granberg. I am a Licensed Mental Health Practitioner in the State of Nebraska, employed by Wayne State College.
My work is with student retention and success through academic advising, career decision-making, and personal goal-setting. I am an
academic professional and a long-time member of the Nebraska State College Professional Association. At the beginning of the bargaining session for the 2009-2011 contract, out of frustration at the adversarial tone at the table, I told the
NSEA Higher Ed UniServ Director that I needed to understand more about the bargaining process and its context. He advised me to
apply to the NEA Emerging Leaders Academy. I went
online (http://www.nea.org/home/37067.htm ) to learn
about the academy and applied. And the transformation
that comes with education began. Two goals took prece-
dence for my ELA experience: 1) to gain a thorough
knowledge of the process of collective bargaining; and 2) to
share that knowledge with my local association.
At ELA I learned about the “collective” in bargaining. I learned about the effectiveness of teamwork; about the
incredible resources of the NEA/NSEA to assist in the team
-building process; how to contribute to the local team
through focus on the strengths of our membership; that
the “collective” is the vehicle for defining opportunities to
organize outside of the bargaining moment. Listening to the
aspirations of the collective membership for our work and
for our lives is essential for success. I learned about the
power of identifying and creating measurable goals and
achieving measurable results. So what’s changed? 1) our local NSCPA-Wayne now oper-
ates according to by-laws; 2) we held an election of offi-
cers; 3) we elected Board Members and a Negotiating
Team; 4) we meet monthly as an association with our
NSEA UniServ Director; 5) we have invited NSEA staff
members to speak at our meetings and our members are
increasing their knowledge of the organization to which
they belong; 6) members are recognizing and taking advan-
tage of the professional development opportunities offered
by NSEA/NEA; 7) our local President meets regularly with the President of the Professional Staff Senate and the WSC Human Re-
sources Director; 8) we are building membership. The changes occurred because the membership was ready to step up. Through
the ELA opportunity, the “collective” came to the fore and became a catalyst for re-energizing our local. I have moved from a pas-
sive observer of the process to an active participant in my local association. The ELA is an intense, dynamic, and transformational
experience. Thank you to the UniServ Director, who encouraged me to apply; to my colleagues and Wayne State College for making
my participations possible; to the members of the Academy 2010, who contributed immensely to the learning experience; to the ELA
training cadre and to NSEA/NEA for believing that leaders can be made and for supporting that belief through action. The
“collective” is the strength of the Association.
Pam Burks—North Platte Community College Education Association – North Campus
Hi, I am Pam Burks. I really enjoyed the Emerging Leaders Academy Training after the first initial shock was over. I really was over
whelmed with information during the first session and quickly realized that the things I dealt with in my local was on a much smaller
scale than some of the other people attending. We had a great group and all seemed to get along great and there were friendships
formed from spending all of this time together. Meeting all of the other people from different states helped us to learn about different
cultures and issues they had in their own local organizations. I learned so much about myself and how to handle different situations
that come up. We had a lot of group situations where we had to brain storm our ideas and work out solutions that worked for eve-
Left to right: Pam Burks, Karen Granberg and Mary Goebel-Lundholm
Your Higher Education Academy District: Our state-wide Academy district encompasses all of the higher ed
locals across Nebraska. You can visit the district web site via the
NSEA main web site.
As all of our higher ed officials and locals work with the NSEA UniServ Directors to create an effec-
tive state-wide higher education resource team we want to highlight opportunities to recognize the
good service of our UniServ Directors. Recent comments include the following kudos:
UniServ Kudos Corner!
UNKEA leaders:
Let the Negotiations begin!
Duane Obermier: A former seven year president of NSEA, Obermier’s areas
of expertise include organizing, problem solving and member rights. He is the staff liaison to NSEA's Ethnic Minority Affairs Committee (EMAC) and also works
with NSEA's English Language Learner (ELL) project. He has been a UniServ Director for five years, and is assigned to Wayne State College.
“Duane has attended our monthly NSCPA-Wayne meetings since we began having
them in fall of 2009. He has been extremely helpful in bringing NSEA people to campus to
help us learn more about the professional organization we belong to.” - Karen Granbert,
Secretary, NSCPA—Wayne “Duane Obermier is, without doubt, the greatest Uniserve Director EVER!
I’m not exaggerating.” - Charissa Loftis, Treasurer, NSCPA—Wayne.
Jackie Wise: A UniServ director for 12 years, Wise is a strong advocate for
members and has extensive experience in the area of member rights. She is a 7 Habits of Highly Effective People facilitator, and her talents include problem
solving, quick responses to member questions and effective listening skills. Jackie is assigned to Metro Community College.
“Jackie helped us develop our 2010 membership recruitment and retention
plans...Jackie referred to our contracts...and referenced our College catalog. Wow! She has clearly taken time to learn about us before making suggestions. And, as a result, her sugges-
tions are on-target for our group.” - Karen Rodgers, Metro Local