The Union for the Information Age

          Review of the 17th Annual Summer School for Women for CWA 7800

          My name is Alexis Stine, and on behalf of CWA Local 7800, I attended the 17th Annual Summer School for Women from Wednesday June 27 to Sunday, July 1st. In this report I will endeavor to share what I learned for this brief period surrounded by such a wonderful group of Women.

         My cohort, Lemmel Connors and I arrived at the Evergreen College in Olympia in the afternoon and were greeted by the facilitator of the event, Nina Triffleman. Nina has been the main coordinator for the last two years and is an incredibly engaging activist. We had dinner, and then moved right into a group introduction and one of the first of many presentations by speaker Rosalinda Guillen about “Making The Road We Walk Our Own.”

          The weekend flew by with many presenters from all over the globe. My personal favorite was Maria Abadesco, who focused on the workplace, and how the involvement of Union Women could strengthen or break an environment. Using a “timeline,” Maria modeled for all of us how little we knew about each other and what drew us as women into being involved with the Union. It made a lasting impression on me to hear the stories of so many women, and how they personally became involved during certain points of their lives, especially considering the ages of these women ranged from 15 on up to 85. I think this would be an excellent activity to invigorate any Union gathering, be it women, men, or children. Human beings are inherently interested in one another, and I think we could capitalize on this interest within the membership by getting to know our members better.

          I feel as a Unionist that I grew from attending this conference, and appreciate the opportunity to represent our local. At the request of several of this years participants, I am actively pursuing a role as a facilitator next year.

Respectfully~

Alexis Stine