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Your ATA online account will open up some pretty important doors over the next few months.
Central table bargaining is now well underway, and it is quite reasonable to believe that in the coming weeks your representatives on the Central Table Bargaining Committee will need to hear from you on future directions. If an agreement is reached, then each teacher in the province will have a vote to decide whether the agreement is ratified. If an agreement is not reached in the next month or so, a provincially appointed mediator may be needed to help resolve outstanding issues. A vote of members is required by our processes to authorize your representatives to request mediation.
Either way, a provincial vote of teachers on bargaining matters is reasonably likely in the next few months. Your Provincial Executive Council (PEC) has determined that such votes will be conducted online using the online accounts made available to every member through our website at www.teachers.ab.ca.
A different and equally important vote is already scheduled to occur online between March 13 and 20, 2017. At that time, you will be able to vote on the teachers who will represent you on PEC for the next two years.
The 2017 PEC election is already shaping up to be one of the largest and most competitive elections the Association has had in many years. Although the deadline for nominations is not quite here, enough candidates have already declared their intentions to ensure that we will have hotly contested races for president and vice-president. A number of district representative races will also be contested.
Your opportunity to participate and have your say starts with your online account.
The third important reason to ensure you have your ATA online account could literally open doors for you next month. Eight of the 10 teachers’ convention associations in the province are using the ATA membership cards as identification to enable entry into their conventions. Those without their membership cards risk being denied entry. If you know where your membership card is currently located, then you are in good shape, but if you don’t, there is no need to worry. Simply use your ATA online account to log in to our website and print off a new card from the webpage cards.teachers.ab.ca.
So there you are. Three great reasons to ensure you have your ATA online account: voting on central bargaining, voting in PEC elections and printing your membership card for teachers’ conventions. These three reasons are in addition to the other great benefits that can be accessed with your ATA online account, including no-cost specialist council memberships, the ATA library’s online services, bargaining updates and the option to sign up to receive members’ update emails.
Now, I know how busy teachers are, and I would hate to see anyone miss out on these important functions because they didn’t have their online account and were worried about how long it might take to sign up. Instead, don’t delay. Take just a few minutes now to sign up or to retrieve your lost information. While you are logged in, you can also print your membership card and be set for convention. The process is quick, simple and easy.
Taking just a little bit of action now will ensure you are ready when it’s time to act.
I welcome your comments—contact
me at jonathan.teghtmeyer@ata.ab.ca.
