second day reflections

I have had a terrible time getting onto the blog site and getting logged in since I had a blog earlier. It wanted to revert to the old one which no longer worked. Anyway - here are my reflections after day 2.

The opening session of the simulation was interesting to compile the ground rules with our teacher group. Most of us had similar ideas, so we built on those, added, condensed, and refined. I have had issues with our teachers' union, so this helped me put things in a different perspective and have a better understanding of how the whole negotiations work. It was a very beneficial experience to negotiate from the union side in order to understand the viewpoints of the teachers' union during the process. We had some interesting discussions and confrontations when we (the teachers' group 2) met with the school board. While most of the ground rules were similar, there were some discrepancies among the two groups. We did come to a consensus on most of the ground rules, but there was still one to be resolved. Our two chief negotiators are to get together before the next class and hopefully resolve the issue. It was interesting to note that when there was a dispute about what was agreed upon, that both recorders agreed on the issue. There were some minor compromises and overall, the groups were able to reach agreement on the ground rules with the one exception. I did not feel that the level of trust was established yet at this point, but it seemed that it could be extablished with further meetings. It is important that the teachers feel that their interests are important and that the board members have not received negative feelings toward the teachers.

The simulation gave me a better understanding of how important it is to know both sides and what they have in mind. It is interesting to see the different "body language" and to get a feel for how things are going by watching people. It was difficult to keep the "poker face" during the simulation and to try to keep comments to a minimum. As recorder, I will need to try to get them to repeat what was said or to slow down at times.

My fellow classmate from Burlington and I met with our human resources person today and got some of his perspectives about collective bargaining. We plan to meet with the new superintendent later this week. It will be interesting to see what changes or differences he has seen in his experiences. As a superintendent it will be important to change a mind set from them to us to bring the board and teachers together. The simulation is a great way to learn how the process works!