Monday morning, about 930am right now. My daughter is getting dressed for school, so here's the last few free minutes of my day until the sun goes down. Thought I'd share a bit about my weekend.
Went to the AFL/CIO Organizing Institute training this weekend in Columbus. Three days of intense training on how to organize workers to form a union and create the leverage to increase workers' rights. Check out the website linked above and if it sounds like something you'd be interested in, they are hiring. The need for union organizers is always there, so go for it.
I got to the training session about an hour before it began (about 10am). Day One went from 11am to 9pm, followed by a great social gathering. Rarely a break in the training, but we didn't need them anyway. The lessons we learned and the tasks given were all hard, but a lot of fun. Best part of the day - we went to the Columbus library to picket in support the Justice For Janitors campaign.
Day Two started with breakfast at 8am and ran through to 9pm that night. This day was MUCH harder, because all the lessons learned were being linked together and the expectations were much higher. Pressure felt a little high by the end of the day, but once Day Two ended, the 'social gathering' plan was abandoned in lieu of a really great party.
Day Three was much much easier. A panel of union organizers, a quick review of what we had learned, followed by graduation and our individual evaluations. I was out of there by 1pm, and drove the 2.5 hours back to Canton. Needless to say, I slept well last night.
Anyway, the reason I posted my weekend on the blog is for one reason - in 2004, I was a rookie candidate. I had WAY too much to learn and way too much to keep up with. Now that I have the experience and the lessons of '04 under my belt, I can go more in-depth. Learning how unions organize and the struggle that takes place to do so was something I had knowledge of, but no experience with. These are the types of experiences I can now carry into my '06 campaign, and I want my voters to know that I am working hard to capture experiences of everybody's day-to-day lives. This way I can better represent them when I am sworn in in 2007.
OK, Blue's Clues is over. Charlotte is dressed. Time to take her to school and get to work. Thanks again!
Jeff Seemann
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