Please join us for the Region 1 – Weekend Educational on February 11 and 12, 2023
Dates: Saturday, February 11, 2023 (9:00am – 4:30pm) and Sunday, February 12, 2023 (9:00am – 1:00pm)
Location: St Clair College Centre for the Arts (201 Riverside Drive West, Windsor, ON)
The deadline to submit your application is Monday, January 16, 2023 at 4:30pm.
OPSEU/SEFPO Region 1 is offering the following weekend courses:
Newly Updated – Mental Health: Challenging the Stigma in the Workplace
As workers and labour activists, we are faced with economic, social, and political changes in our workplaces that impact our mental wellbeing on a daily basis. We all respond differently to situations that impact our lives and subsequently, our mental health.
This introductory course explores mental health, mental health concerns, and stigma in the workplace. Some of the topics covered in this course include: demystifying mental health; individual, union, and employer responsibilities; member-to-member issues; and some strategies to challenge stigma and build inclusion.
Let’s Start Meeting Like This! Running Meetings that Build the Union
Have you ever been confused at meetings about when you can speak and when you can’t? Perhaps you have tried to run a meeting where there was no quorum, or where people kept interrupting each other and getting off track. Maybe you’re discouraged because you’re not sure how to make meetings a good use of anyone’s time.
This course examines the potential of meetings to tap into diverse members’ energy and interest, and to build union capacity. Practical, hands-on activities will help you:
- develop an interesting agenda and get members to the meeting;
- understand how to write and put forward a motion and use basic rules of parliamentary procedure effectively;
- facilitate an effective meeting discussion;
- deal with meeting “nightmares” who often look like members who won’t stop talking, or who can’t agree.
Materials include templates for committee reports and meeting minutes, as well as step by step guidelines on running different kinds of meetings.
Making Composite Locals Work
Composite/Multi-unit Locals can be very challenging and complex locals to organize and run.
Difficulties with communication, and membership coordination are among the barriers that often prevent these locals from being inclusive and achieving their full potential. This course provides an opportunity for an in-depth working session for local executive committees of composite or multi- unit locals.
Participants will develop clear roles and responsibilities as local leaders, prepare an appropriate budget, develop local structures, and will assess the functioning of their local and its” units. Based on the work from the course, the local executives will begin to develop action plans to implement in their local.
Note: This course is not designed for individuals coming from different locals. Participants who register should be complete LEC groups that are working together to build strength in their units and ultimately the local.
Social Media for Union Activists
The increasing use of social media has become a reality in our union work. With this reality, come both pitfalls and opportunities. “Social Media for Union Activists” will explore what social media is and how to spot both the opportunities and difficulties when using social media. Recognizing that social media is an important part of many of our members lives, participants will examine what risks are inherent when using social media and what case law has been telling us.
Participants will explore what makes a successful social media campaign and develop some practical applications for social media use within Locals. Upon completing the course participants will be able to confidently use social media in their union work.
Workers Health and Safety Course (WHSC) – Level
Staying Alive While Earning a Living, The Body in the Workplace, Toxic Substances, Principles of Control, It’s the Law, The Myth of Worker Carelessness, Making Work Fit the Worker, plus three (3) Electives.
Registration Package:
R1 Educational Package (Callout, Registration and Child Care Form)