The Ninth 93 Institute will be held July 29 through August 3, 2007 in Storrs, Connecticut.

This is a 5 day residential program that is educational, builds the skills needed to grow the union, has great instuctors, and will have you come away with 20 new friends and having had some fun too! What more could you ask for?

Wether you just want to make the union stronger by volunteering or go on to work in this field this week will be the first step in the right direction. Need an application? Visit the 93 Web Site. Have some questions? Call George Embelton at (617) 367-3686.

"Graduates" from past Institutes have gone on to become Council Executive Board Members, run for office, joined the leadership of other organizations, become ASIA Trainers & Volunteer Member Organizers and many more things. Some are now working as Staff Representatives and Organizers for Council 93.

The Training and Career Ladders Committee for Unit 2 members in AFSCME and SEIU 888 has approved funding for on line courses for these union members. It's easy to get started!

Visit the Mindleaders site and on the right hand side of the screen enter your user ID (which is your employer ID). For the password field, enter common, then click the login button to the right of the password box.

Upon your first login, please create your own password following the instructions, which you will then need along with your user ID each time you log on.

Select  the course you want to take by expanding the series title and then clicking on the course title.

Install the Macromedia Flash Player if not already on your PC. You will be prompted to do this when necessary.

Make sure you click on the exit button in the lower right hand corner to properly exit each time.

Read about AFSCME: 75 Years of History and learn how your union was founded, our role in the civil rights movement, the fight against privatization, etc.

AFSCME is the largest public service union and is celebrating 75 years of proud public servuice.

Winners of the 2007 SUMMUP awards were announced at the last meeting. Awards will be presented to the recipients at the Awards Night on June 23, 2007 at the SUMMUP Convention. Congradulations to all !!

M. Michael Botelho Award winner is Dante Radey - Local 646

Brian Stickler Award winner is Tom Mealey - Local 651

Laura Spencer Award winner is Karla Mitchell -Local 17 C.A.R.E.

Think twice before you make a threat against a co-worker on the job or even if you are not at work but make the threat to get them at work.

There seems to be a rash of these incidents going around lately. Managers are taking a "Zero Tolerance" attitude on these issues. They feel they must, as they are responsible to keep the workplace safe.

Employees are taking this seriously and are pressing charges against others at courthouses in this situation when they feel unsafe. Now you have a second problem. Do you want to chance ending up with a police record?

In this day and age and given incidents you can read about daily, workplace violence is no joke! Folks need to really think about this issue and count to ten before responding to someone when you are upset. Making a threat in the heat of the moment can cost you your job!