The NEA UniServ Guidelines state that all new UniServ staff shall attend the Foundations Academy within their first two (2) years of employment. Based on our experience, UniServ Directors (UDs) who wait beyond their first two years have a more difficult time building basic organizing skills into their routines.
All Foundations Academies include a worksite organizing experience and focus on supporting new staff in their work of building high-functioning locals that can recruit and engage members, organize around issues that our members care about, and develop emerging leaders. Foundations Academies are five full days – Monday through Friday, beginning at 8:30 a.m., with travel to the location on Sunday and return travel after 4:00 p.m. on Friday evening.
- September 15-19, 2025, Montgomery, AL, with K-12 Worksite Organizing Experience
- October 6-10, 2025, Salt Lake City, UT, with K-12 Worksite Organizing Experience
- May 4-8, 2026, Grand Rapids, MI, with K-12 Worksite Organizing Experience
Registration
The registration process for all in-person programs begins with the completion of the Manager’s Recommendation Form for any affiliate staff that plan to attend a Foundations Academy. Directions for completing the form, participant expectations, and access to the form can be found here.
Overview & Outcomes
Day One - Focus on the individual - What do you bring to the work?
Topic Overview
- Foundations of Who a UniServ Director is (Competencies)
- Core Values and Shared Value
- Leadership and Communication Styles
- Framework for Understanding Power and Oppression
- Unconscious Bias
- Organizing Conversations and Coaching
Key Outcomes for the Day
- Participants will identify their own communication style.
- Participants will develop an understanding of power by also learning about oppression and privilege.
- Participants will learn about a framework of understanding oppression so that they can better identify actions to take in seeking justice.
- Participants will understand the role listening plays in developing a sense of belonging/relationship and developing power, growth, and engagement.
- Participants will understand a framework for coaching in organizing and apply it to scenarios.
Day Two - Focus on the collective - What can we do together?
Topic Overview
- Organizational Culture - Advocacy, Mobilizing, Organizing
- Role of the UniServ in Different Theories
- Framework for Systems of Oppression Applied to Power
- Structures of Leadership
- Worksite Mapping
- From engagement to action
- Scenario Team Introduction
Key Outcomes for the Day
- Participants will learn a common definition for organizing, identify types of organizing cultures and their differences.
- Participants will explore their beliefs about their role and consider how that interacts with power building.
- Participants will apply the framework of expressions of oppression to scenarios.
- Participants will identify leadership structures in their locals.
- Participants will learn a system for coding rosters that can support organizing planning.
- Participants will plan how to quickly activate a group of employees.
Day Three - Focus on Methods - What do I need to be able to do?
Topic Overview
- Identify and Assess Organizing Issues
- Organizing Move People to Action - Major Majority Mentality
- Leader Identification and Development
- Organizing Conversation Continued
- Preparation for Worksite Organizing Visits
Key Outcomes for Day 3
- Participants will be able to identify organizing issues.
- Participants will consider ways to identify and develop leaders.
- Participants will engage in a process to help them deal with member engagement issues.
- Participants will learn about types of organizing conversations and practice two kinds.
- Participants will be introduced to the tools, methods, and materials that will support their worksite organizing experience.
Day Four - Focus on Worksite Organizing Practice
A full day of team-based, worksite organizing conversations, with data collection/entry
Key Outcomes for Day 4
- Participants will practice in real time their skills in holding organizing conversations, the methods for data collection within a real affiliate’s plans and desired outcomes.
Day Five - Focus on goals, plans, outcomes - How do I know if we're winning?
Topic Overview
- Debrief of goals, data, and outcomes from the worksite organizing experience
- Group Discussion and Presentation of Campaign Plans
- Escalating Campaign Design – Scenario Teams
- Issues, Demands, Targets, and Wins
- Tactics and Escalation
- Presentation and Coaching of Plans
- Final Celebration
Key Outcomes for Day 5
- Participants will complete a true debrief of their worksite experiences.
- Participants will practice designing an escalating campaign.
- Participants will celebrate their learning and their community.
