LRTA was spotlighted in the latest issue of the National Retired Teacher Association Newsletter In the Know Member Spotlight| Legislative & Membership Wins in Louisiana Like so many Retired Educators Associations (REAs), the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association (LRTA) has been focused on securing periodic pension benefit increases, or cost-of-living adjustments, for members. On June 11, that legislative priority became a reality when Governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill providing a 1.5 percent increase on monthly retirement checks for about 100,000 retired state employees. Of course, the benefit increase didnt just happen on its own. For some six years, LRTA and other organizations have been diligently laying the groundwork and push for the increase. LRTA has been particularly strategic in its advocacy efforts. Graig Luscombe, LRTA executive director, explains that LRTA has been working over time to conduct programs designed to enable members to serve as effective advocates. This long-term planning with tools and training for members played a key role in moving the legislation, Graig said. Going back to January 2013, LRTA hosted 11 advocacy training workshops on a range of topics across the state. For example, LRTA staff held sessions on how retired educators can communicate their views on issues via press releases, letters to the editor and email. Staff also worked with members on how to navigate the Louisiana legislatures website to locate bills, contact legislators, find meeting notices, and watch meetings and hearings from their computer. In addition to the trainings, we provided districts and members with suggested talking points and emails and letters to send to legislators, Graig said. We also encouraged our members to personalize their messages to legislators so the communications would be taken seriously and not discarded as spam. Additionally, we provided districts and members with guidance on when to contact legislators - so we had strong messages delivered at just the right time. Download a copy of the LRTA training PowerPoint, Become Your Own Best Advocate, here. In addition to this important legislative win, LRTA has made significant headway on the membership front. Membership numbers were slowly declining, and fell below the 20,000 member level. We knew we had take aggressive action, because our membership numbers give us relevance and revenue, Graig said. We launched a membership drive with the goal of increasing membership by five percent - and we did it! What was the key to success? Graig reports that it was essential to create a simple, focused operations plan that involved and engaged all of the districts. The operations plan called for LRTA to do the initial outreach to potential members, with one-on-one follow-up at the district level. Download a copy of LRTAs membership drive operations plan here. Graig explained, Were fortunate to receive databases from the state retirement system. LRTA takes that list and makes the initial mail contact with every potential member. Then, the operations plan calls for each district to ensure personal outreach/calls are made to every potential member we reached via mail. Finally, we regularly track progress and results. This formalized operations plan has created clear roles and timelines that have been fundamental to reaching our membership goals. We also layered in financial incentives for districts to reach their membership goals. The more members they bring in, the more financial resources the district receives from LRTA. Its a win-win all the way around. LRTA isnt stopping there. They plan to continue the membership drive while tying it to recent legislative success. We intend to communicate to potential members that they need LRTA to protect their retirement benefits - and we proved it with the recent benefits increase. We hope to leverage our legislative win into continued increased membership growth, Graig said.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 14:09:04 +0000
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