Organizing

Organizing Chair 2023-2024: Drew Barclay: membership@davisteachers.org

Past Organizing Chair 2022-2023 Lara Brodetsky

DTA’s ability to take action and mobilize our members cannot be successful without a robust committee that works together to help plan and organize strategic actions. Sometimes this work involves organizing members to attend board meetings. Sometimes it involves social media campaigns, or engaging the community at farmers’ markets. 

What does OrgCom do?
OrgCom does the legwork to effect positive change for DTA members. Its goal is to increase solidarity and participation through quantified action. If you have ever attended a DTA event, OrgCom helped make it happen. If you saw OrgCom members in the past, they were busy calendaring gatherings, strategizing with DTA Cabinet members, getting petition signatures, attending Board of Education meetings, filing for public assembly permits, securing venues, garnering grants from CTA, communicating with participants, scheduling precinct walks, training and educating members, arranging food preparation, signing up writers for Letters-to-the-Editor, sending participation checklists to CTA, producing T-shirts, handing out hoodies, printing signs, painting banners, copying fliers, pinning buttons, updating our DTA contact list, answering questions about upcoming events, clarifying effective messages, and most important of all – putting bodies and feet into action.

Who is in OrgCom?
DTA members of all types comprise OrgCom: teachers, counselors, nurses, etc. Some are also DTA PAC leaders, DTA Rep’s, or DTA Cabinet members, but plenty are not. In the past, about 40 people comprised OrgCom. They organized the roughly 530 DTA members that serve our community. People who join OrgCom are action-minded, and apply their management skill set toward improving our union, our working conditions, and our profession.

What has OrgCom accomplished?
OrgCom’s first Chairperson Brian Bennett led several very successful events to pressure DJUSD BOE into a three-year contract with considerable improvements in compensation and working conditions. OrgCom generated multiple DTA site leaders to run many successful informational and political rallies. In 2020, OrgCom, under the leadership of Ken McKim, while working with a community organization including two Board of Education trustees, ran a successful DTA campaign to pass Measure G to secure a “no sunset” parcel tax to significantly increase teacher and staff compensation – allowing DJUSD to retain and attract teachers and staff despite teacher shortages.

How do I get involved in OrgCom?
Organizing Committee is another great way for our members to get involved and make an impact. Please consider volunteering to join organizing committee this coming year and make our voices heard. Members of OrgCom usually meet once a month to brainstorm and plan action. If you are interested in joining OrgCom, please reach out to this years Organizing Chair listed at the top of this page.