New format of provincial meeting praised

PLMs, held each spring, are an opportunity for Local leaders and grassroots members to converge in Toronto to receive education to help them in their professional and union lives before breaking into their sectors to discuss issues specific to them.  

Traditionally, members have a choice of several different education options during the first day of the PLM, offered twice and often with novice and advanced streams. Those sessions have generally focused on union fundamentals such as negotiations, grievance handling and professional responsibility workloads.  

But this time around, we went outside the box.

“In my role, I get to speak with members and leaders about education,” notes Region 4 Vice-President Grace Pierias, who holds the portfolio of education and events. “I read every single evaluation members fill out from PLMs. I attend Area Coordinators Conferences with leaders and have a fantastic Education Team manager. And through these conversations, some themes have emerged. A common one was that leaders really needed a toolkit that was outside of our standard education. 

“Our leaders and members are great with filling out grievances and workloads [forms] – and those workshops already exist – but what they needed were additional skills, such as interpersonal, how to meet with MPPs, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. With the issues that come up for us as a union, we realized that this type of education was really necessary right now.” 

After speaking to the education manager and ensuring that what she heard from leaders and members was in line with ONA’s priorities, Pierias says our Member Education Team “did a great job bringing those ideas to life at the PLM. 

“The one thing that stood out to me was that our members were saying, ‘I’m constantly asked to speak at events and I'm not good at it. I really want to learn how to do that and practice it in front of my peers.’ And it was an aha moment for me.” 

And so one of the sessions at the PLM, held March 10-11, focused on building public speaking skills. Other topics included braver conversations, leading through change and advocacy and influence, with speakers and facilitators moving between rooms, not delegates.

Good problem to have 

By all accounts, the education overhaul was a huge success. 

“I feel it went well and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” explains Pierias. “Everyone from senior leaders to grassroots members said this PLM was like nothing they’ve ever experienced before at ONA. And first-timers were like, ‘this is fantastic!’” 

Evaluation form comments echoed that, with “eye-opening,” “amazing” and “helpful” often used to describe the education sessions. One stated, “this event refilled my union cup and reminded me why I do what I do,” while another said, “this was my first PLM and it was great. I’m so inspired! All info is useful in each session.” Yet another indicated that the sessions “were really easy to understand and got you thinking about how you can use this information in and out of nursing. It was helpful for all parts of life.” 

In fact, Pierias notes that the only “criticism” – and it really can’t even be called that – members had was that they wished the PLM education component was longer! 

“It’s a good problem to have,” she says. “The Board will review what the needs are and determine what we should do. We might need to either dive deeper into those individual sessions, divide them into novice or advanced leadership streams or explore increasing the length of the PLM. But we're definitely going to look into it.”  

And, she stresses, every single member has a voice. 

“If you have an idea for an education session, I would love to hear it at gracep@ona.org. I truly do read every suggestion. You could have an idea that no one has thought of or an angle we haven't really considered before. Please contact me anytime and I’d be happy to look at it and have that conversation.” 

Hear firsthand what our members thought about the PLM here: