As 2021 comes to a close and the new year approaches, this is an important time to reflect on our accomplishments and unfinished business. It’s also the time to chart our goals for the coming year.
Vision planning for your local is an exciting opportunity to merge the feedback you've received from your leaders and members throughout the year to help bring about new growth and opportunities as you continue to build worker power at the worksite. Communications plays a key role in sharing your message, educating your members, and activating key audiences.
The goals that you want to reach for your local are important, and it's critical to make time to plan out how your communications strategies will help advance your local's goals and objectives.
In preparation for the new year, with renewed goals and a fresh outlook, here are three communications guideposts your local can add to your 2022 strategic planning roadmap:
1. Write down your local's goals for the year. This may seem like a no-brainer but too often as union activists we get caught up in the day-to-day functions of our locals and we overlook the need to write out our goals and communicate them to key stakeholders in our local. Meeting with your executive team and defining 3 - 5 goals for the year is critical to implementing a strong communications plan.
2. Use a content calendar to determine what you're going to share with your members and when. Finding the time to communicate the latest news, information and actions with your members can seem like an uphill climb, especially as you focus on representational commitments. However, this is where establishing a content calendar can help keep you focused and your members in the know.
We have a simple tool you can use to map out key events and information points that you know you'll want to share with your members. From there, you can add in content ideas that will help keep your members informed and ready to act. Spending a few hours at the top of the year to plan out your content throughout the year is the gift that keeps on giving!
3. Build your local's communications team. Make 2022 the year your local firms up a team of excited activists that are ready to take on the task of keeping members informed. Too often we see a small group of folks trying to stay on top of all the representation, organizing, and mobilizing efforts of a local. This leaves little time and resources to execute a strong communications plan.
If you haven't already, now is the time to make those connections with members of your local that are passionate about communications and ready to get more involved.
Communications planning is key to an active and engaged local union. The AFGE Communications Department is here to help you with resources and strategic planning. Our one-on-one strategic planning sessions will start back up next year. Click here to schedule a communications strategy session for your local.
Be sure to check out our training page for more helpful tips and our blog for easy-to-read articles on labor communications trends.