"Most likely to be intentional to motivate, inspire and build a member into a leader"

After the IGNITE Conference, several of us at Local 1000 created the IGNITE CORE Team. A group of staff organizers and member leaders who went to the IGNITE conference and then who dedicated themselves to participate and lead in the Fight for 15, the Sacramento Income Inequality Task Force and our 2016 Local 1000 Contract Campaign. For me particularly, I am proud of being a part of this dynamic team. Working with our member leaders and other organizers, we organized efforts around the National Days of Action on 4/15/15, 11/10/16 and 4/14/16. These efforts consisted of creating strategic recruitment plans, kick off parties and creating plans for our members to have a dynamic experience during the events. It was particularly rewarding to see our members step into their leadership roles and really take ownership of these actions. In each action we were able to recruit upwards of 500 members to participate. In the summer of 2015, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson created the Income Inequality Task Force, a body made up of elected officials, labor, business and community representatives to discuss increasing minimum wage in Sacramento. Our IGNITE CORE Team participated heavily in these public discussions and included the state workers voice on increasing minimum wage. Our CORE Team member leaders also held several other large scale meetings at our Union hall aimed at educating our members, bringing excitement to our 2016 contract and have become deeply involved with their Union.

Since attending the IGNITE Conference, our CORE Team has grown to include other member leaders from SEIU Local 1000 who also believe in our purpose statement and particularly our movement for economic and racial justice. I believe it would benefit the IGNITE CORE Team to recruit new leaders into the team and then to help them focus on their own development as leaders. Then together as a group we continue to build SEIU Local 1000's place as a strong member led union. We do this by taking on the initial task at hand, which is to get Hilary Clinton elected to office. I will do this by working to organize the IGNITE CORE Team further by establishing fresh new goals, ensuring our member leaders are developing their leadership skills. In order to be successful, I will need to continue to build my own leadership qualities and to continue to hold myself accountable.

In the near future we will be holding a CORE Team dinner to celebrate the recent win in California. This will be the stepping stone for the further development of SEIU Local 1000's IGNITE CORE Team.