As state officers for PSEA, Aaron, Jeff, and Rachael have made it their mission to be accessible to as many PSEA members as possible. What better way to do that than to lay it all out there on a special, self-reflective episode of Duty Free Lunch?
As state officers for PSEA, Aaron, Jeff, and Rachael have made it their mission to be accessible to as many PSEA members as possible. What better way to do that than to lay it all out there on a special, self-reflective episode of Duty Free Lunch?
Do you have some feedback for us? Send an email to podcast@psea.org.
Learn more and watch for upcoming episodes at psea.org/podcast.
Voiceover:
Welcome to Duty Free Lunch, the official podcast of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Join us as we unpack the issues that matter most to you from cutting-Edge classroom strategies to thought-provoking policy discussions. If it impacts PSEA members, it's on the menu.
Aaron Chapin:
Hello, and welcome to Duty Free Lunch. I'm PSEA President Aaron Chapin, and I'm here once again with PSEA Vice President Jeff Ney. Hi, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Hey, Aaron. How's it? How are we doing today?
Aaron Chapin:
That's a great haircut you got going on.
Jeff Ney:
Thanks.
Aaron Chapin:
Just for the podcast, I bet.
Jeff Ney:
Just for the podcast.
Aaron Chapin:
And we're also here with Treasurer Rachael West. Hello.
Rachael West:
Hello, Aaron and Jeff, how are you guys doing?
Jeff Ney:
Doing great.
Aaron Chapin:
It's another great day here in Harrisburg, fantastic. Well, for this episode, we're doing things a little bit differently. We don't have any guests in the studio. No, don't go anywhere. For this episode we are going to interview ourselves. Well, not me interviewing myself.
Jeff Ney:
That would be weird.
Aaron Chapin:
That would be weird, but we're going to interview each other. One of our goals as state officers has been to make ourselves as accessible as possible, and that's meant traveling all around the state, meeting with members. But in the process, we're hoping members get to see our true personalities, warts and all.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah?
Jeff Ney:
Sounds like a great idea.
Aaron Chapin:
All right.
Rachael West:
[inaudible 00:01:25] true personality.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, I know this podcast is going to give us that opportunity as well. So hold on everybody. Here we go. We're going to interview ourselves. So I'm going to get things started.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
For those of you listeners that actually were at the December House of Delegates back in Pittsburgh, I spoke about my sophomore year in high school and having the opportunity to work with first-graders in reading and writing, and that was the beginning of my journey as an educator. I'm kind of curious, Jeff and Rachael, how did you get into education?
Jeff Ney:
That's a great question, and it's always something that probably everybody has their own unique story for. For me, everything revolved around coaching. Back when I was just graduating high school and starting my college career, I had one of my former swim coaches ask me if I would help out with third grade swim lessons. And I did that every afternoon for my own school district. And just seeing the faces of those kids really did light something up inside of me and education just kind of took off from there.
Aaron Chapin:
Oh, I don't think I knew that. Rachael, what about you?
Rachael West:
Sadly, I always wanted to be a teacher. When I was a kid, I used to bring home the little workbooks we had, the ones you hadn't finished yet. And unfortunately my younger sister and all of my stuffed animals had to sit around and take class from me. And I would read books to them and do the whole thing, and I did that. From that age in middle school, I wasn't so sure. So I looked at a couple other jobs I thought maybe sounded better, but by my freshman year of high school, I had already that those other jobs didn't seem as appealing as being a teacher. And so I finished going through high school and decided that math was a thing I wanted to teach.
Aaron Chapin:
It's funny how some of us are like... They think that's it from an early age. And then there's some of us, like Jeff and I know we had a similar story, business majors in college.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
Realized experiences back in high school that this was the job for us, but some people they know.
Rachael West:
I always wanted to teach. I just didn't know what it was going to be. Was I going to teach math? Was I going to teach music? And honestly, I did the math and decided that math was the better way to go because there were more math jobs available than music teaching jobs.
Jeff Ney:
And Aaron, you're right, because the two of the big role models that I had were my uncles growing up, and I thought we thought business was the way that I wanted to go, but that quickly changed. And then it spirals into another question that I have for you two guys, because then all three of us took that leap from just being educators into being leaders. And for me, my very first year, I was a third grade teacher hired after the school year started. So the other four sections were allowed to choose what students went into my class.
So I had some real difficult things to deal with. And I had a mentor teacher, his name is Orwig Hughes, who was absolutely fantastic. And he took me under his wing and saw something in me and said, "Hey, you know what? I want you to come to a rep council meeting." And from ever since that point, every level I went to, I looked at the people, the leaders of that area and said, "You know what? I want to kind of do that." So what was it for you, Rach, that moved you from educator to leader?
Rachael West:
Well, I will say this, I immediately was a member upon starting teaching. My mentor was like, "Here, this is how we do this. Here's your information to sign up to be part of the association." And I kind of just did that. And my first few years teaching, I was just a regular rank-and-file member. And then in my fifth year teaching was when we had our first contract negotiation. And I remember kind of looking at the contract and being like, "Where did they come up with this?" So I spoke with one of those members and said, "What can I do? How can I get more involved?" And it was going to be the start of the next school year when I was going to do that. And then I changed districts and I asked that same question in my next district, and I was immediately a building rep. And then a couple of years later, I was president-elect of that local. So I kind of accidentally asked a question and the next thing I knew...
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, it's amazing you asked that one question and it just steamrolls from that. How about you, Aaron? Where'd your leadership journey go?
Aaron Chapin:
Well, for the first decade, I just stayed in my classroom the most I could and it was right after... When my daughter was born, I was getting into being a building rep, but it was like a series of bad events going on. It was the cuts, the Corbett cuts, I was thrust into it because I just couldn't stand by any longer. I had in my district, as great as my administrators were, and I'm very fortunate, I had a lot of great building administrators, but I had some that made my members, my colleagues feel really uncomfortable and did not want to speak up, and I could not watch that any longer. And as much as I love my school board now, there were times where our school board, they wanted to decimate teaching in Stroudsburg, and I couldn't stand by any longer. And so within a few years I had gone from being a building rep to being the chief negotiator, being the president. It was fast-forward, but I needed to step up and stand up for those that were very uncomfortable doing so.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, and it's always great to hear the stories like yours and Rachael's because there are so many different avenues that our members could really go down. I mean, you don't necessarily need to jump immediately up and be an officer in one of your locals. There are many different avenues that you can to be active in your local association. All I have to do is just ask the questions.
Rachael West:
Yeah. And then you ask the question and people say things like, "Oh, it's only one meeting a month."
Jeff Ney:
Oh, one meeting.
Rachael West:
And then the next thing you know you are moving up that chain. So for me, when I did that and I thought I was signing up for one meeting a month, and then literally the next thing I knew I was President-elect. I had to learn pretty quickly in that position that you can't take everything on yourself. And so I learned to use my resources for my UniServ and people like that, my executive committee to delegate some of those things to try to make sure that I didn't get burnt out in that position. And I feel like learning to do that, that's one of the biggest lessons I learned in my leadership journey, was to make sure that you're not taking on too much. If there are jobs that other people should be doing, allow them to do that job and don't micromanage. That was a very big lesson for me in my leadership journey. How about you guys? Do you have something that you learned in your journey that you think would be great for maybe other leaders to hear?
Jeff Ney:
So I was, again, very lucky in Wilkes-Barre area. I followed very strong leaders up through the ranks. But the one thing that I really learned, and I wish I could have this happen to more of our leaders out there, is that you don't always have to be adversarial with your district or with the people that you deal with. There's a time and a place for you to fight that fight and to be very aggressive in the way you're doing things. But oftentimes you get a lot of things done by working with a district on a certain issue, and then you can just fold into what those concerns of the members are. Again, don't get me wrong, there are times where the fight has to happen, but at the end of the fight, you need to have that relationship with your superintendent that, "Okay, we're done. Hey, let's grab some lunch and let's continue this conversation."
Aaron Chapin:
Well, and that's exactly where I'm picking up because I think the lesson I learned very early, it was even the summer before I was officially president, it was, "Just don't stop talking." When you're having these disagreements, whether it's your colleagues on the rep council, other members that you're representing or the superintendent, you got to keep that line of communication open. Don't stop talking. I remember it, it just came to me over the past weekend when I was talking with another president from a different part of the country. We were talking about our experiences and it just popped into my mind. I was having an issue with my first superintendent. We were just trying to find a way to work together and we hung up on each other. It was like, "Boom." And then he called me back three minutes later and we had a half hour conversation. And while we always had our issues, we never stopped talking. We always tried. And I'm really proud of that, and I know he feels the same way. It's just you've got to keep talking.
Rachael West:
I think one of the best experiences I had in that kind of situation was when I was president of my local, we had a superintendent and assistant superintendent that were very open to the conversations. And we didn't always agree, but we were able to sit down at a table and always have those open discussions. And we actually, in our local, had a meeting once a month between the administration and our local exec. We have one person from each level from our exec board that show up to those meetings. And really great conversations are had there sometimes where you're not even necessarily looking for a solution, but being able to put some conversation out on the table to know where everybody's coming from. Sometimes it makes a really big difference in a local.
Jeff Ney:
And that point of view is even more important even with our own members because there's oftentimes we run into members that have a different opinion of what we are trying to say, and it doesn't make their opinion any less. You still need to make sure that you're having them heard. They need to have their time to have your ear to make sure that they're listening and you just explain what's going on.
Aaron Chapin:
That's what we got to keep doing, keep talking.
Jeff Ney:
And it's one of those things where one thing leads to another and it leads to great moments. Now I know the three of us have all been officers here at PSEA for a little bit different lengths of time, but I'm sure we all have some great experiences that we already have experienced. I'll tell you what, nothing beats the time that I had my very first house of delegates in Pittsburgh and looking out at the crowd of delegates. It was absolutely just awesome to see all of those people that wanted to be engaged into the association. So Aaron, what about you? Give me a defining great moment as an officer.
Aaron Chapin:
Obviously this year has been just off the charts stepping up and being president, but I'm going to go back to my last year as VP. When we did the road show, when Mastriano wanted to cut public education by half and the three officers were thrown out into different parts of the state, every region. And we went out and we were there with our locals in different districts. So we got to see locals that we never saw. We were there at rallies and news conferences, but it was about the fact that we were working with our region officer team, we were working with the locals, but then we also had the great staff.
We had a war room of everything here at headquarters. And back at the regions, we were all coming together for this one singular event, and that was the stop Mastriano for becoming governor. And I was just so impressed how well we worked together, but also because we were just coming out of Covid and we really hadn't visited locals. So it was the best of all the world. And I've finally looked back at that time as being one of the best in my five years now as being an officer.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, absolutely. Now, Rachael, you haven't been an officer all that long, so could you come up with one so far?
Rachael West:
So I have a funny one that's not really about a big event. All of the events have been amazing being with our members, but there was just a funny event that happened. We had committee weekend here in Harrisburg. It was right after the voice edition came out with our three faces on the front.
Aaron Chapin:
Collector's items.
Rachael West:
And I walked into a restaurant here in Harrisburg and someone from somewhere went, "You're the treasure of PSEA." And I just stopped dead in my tracks. I was like, "What just..." And I turned, and it was one of our aspiring educator members.
Aaron Chapin:
That's awesome.
Rachael West:
They were here for the student... I guess the student committee must have been meeting that weekend. And they were so excited to talk to me and they were so excited that I was out in a restaurant. It's kind of like when you're a kid and you see your teacher at the movies and you're like, "What is this?" They kind of reacted like that. And I ended up having a long conversation with them, and now I get to go to the student conference.
Aaron Chapin:
That's awesome.
Rachael West:
... A little bit and spend a couple of days with them. I'm really excited about it.
Jeff Ney:
That's fantastic. And I'll tell you, things like that happen to us more than we probably can remember. But I'll tell you what, it's absolutely great to see how our members are engaged with the officers because at one time I was in Midwest region at a restaurant with my family that lives out there, but I had a central region sweatshirt on. A member who I've never met before, comes up to me, he taps me on the shoulder, goes, "You're in the wrong region." And that just started a conversation, which I absolutely loved. And we had a wonderful conversation why I was out there versus why it was... It's fantastic meeting the members like that.
Aaron Chapin:
I had somebody in Warby Parker in Allentown identify me the other weekend like, "You're the PSEA president, aren't you?" I'm like, "Yes, I am. Thank you." But it's bizarre. It's strange to be that identifiable. Yeah. All right, so now we're going to head to the lightning round.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, I love lightning around. I'm so good at lightning rounds.
Aaron Chapin:
We got to be fast. So you can't go into deep elaboration, but first one favorite PSEA event and why. Rachael?
Rachael West:
My favorite event is Gettysburg because it's such a huge event and we get to see... We see a lot of the same people at the Houses of Delegates and things like that. And that's the one where you see a completely different group of people from PSEA.
Aaron Chapin:
Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Collective Bargaining Conference, October. Starts off the year and gets everybody energized. It's like a mini Gettysburg. And plus it was one of my first committees as a liaison.
Aaron Chapin:
And that's for presidents and chief negotiators generally.
Jeff Ney:
And treasurers.
Aaron Chapin:
Treasurers, that's right. And Gettysburg was also mine as well. There's something about Gettysburg, it's unique. And for those of you don't know what Gettysburg is, we've referred to it a couple of times on air, different podcasts. But Gettysburg, it's a good training event for locals to send their members to learn about bargaining. You can learn about just leadership in general. There's grievance, but there's something about that last week of July, as hot as it is, there's such an energy at the college, it's hard to beat.
Jeff Ney:
That conference is so immersive that you just dive in for four full days of training and you come out of there so alive with energy. It's not even fun.
Aaron Chapin:
You wake up and Thursday's over.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah,
Aaron Chapin:
Literally. All right. How do you achieve work-life balance. You got to make it fast. Go.
Jeff Ney:
I'm a big outdoors man. Take me out fishing, walk in the woods, that'd be great.
Rachael West:
I have been trying to carve out time for time with my family that is not in front of a device.
Aaron Chapin:
I struggle with this because I think too much about work, so I end up losing a lot of sleep. I struggle with it even still now. I do try to spend as much time as I can with my wife and daughter, especially Parker, our dog. Just went out yesterday, we had a little extra time that we didn't think we were going to have. We walked a trail with Randy, myself and the dog. It was great. So it is hard and it same goes for everybody that's listening. Got to find some way to do it, but I'm the worst example. I'm trying, but it doesn't happen. What do you wish you knew then that you know now, Rachael?
Rachael West:
I am so overwhelmed right now that I don't know. I'm sure that if you ask me in another six months, I might have a better idea, but I'm still... I think I wish I knew a lot of it because this is a very new job.
Jeff Ney:
You're not in this by yourself. No matter how much you feel, whether you're in your classroom, whether you're a building rep, whether you're a local leader, whatever stage you're in, you're not by yourself. There are a ton of people that are willing to help you out.
Aaron Chapin:
And just so you all know, we really didn't collaborate on our answers ahead of time, but mine's in the same vein as Jeff. I think back to, not really right now, but when I was running the Northeastern region, when I was the president of Stroudsburg as well, I tended to take on as much as I could. Not because I didn't think anybody could do it, because I knew it was just easier to do it myself sometimes. But that's not how we do this job. Our union works better when we get more involved. And I've admitted it when I've gone back to the Northeastern region and spoken at events and it's just something. We've got to share the load when it comes to the work because the more involved, the better.
Rachael West:
Well, I can say this, I know I said I didn't... What I wish I knew then, but I knew this already when I came into this job, as overwhelming as it can be, I know that I'm not here alone and that I have a really great team of officers and staff to help me out.
Jeff Ney:
I didn't know she was talking about us.
Aaron Chapin:
I didn't either. All right.
Rachael West:
Don't let it get to your heads.
Aaron Chapin:
All right. Well, look over the last six episodes. We've done six so far. This is our seventh one.
Jeff Ney:
Wow.
Aaron Chapin:
I think it's the seventh. You haven't heard all of them, but they're going to be out. We've been asking for the listeners to send in emails. They got questions.
Jeff Ney:
I have advice.
Aaron Chapin:
There's no advice. Nobody's looking for advice.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, come on.
Aaron Chapin:
No. If they have questions and any general comments. And yes, if you have advice, you can always email us at podcast@psea.org, but we've got some real emails.
Jeff Ney:
Viewer mail. We have viewer mail.
Aaron Chapin:
No, listener mail.
Jeff Ney:
Listener mail. You know what I mean.
Aaron Chapin:
This is real listener and I'm not going to share the names because I don't want to embarrass anybody, but just know down the road we've got some swag that's going to be on order. I'm going to send you the first edition of the coffee mugs that we're doing for Duty Free Lunch. So I won't share the names, but here's the first one. "I just wanted to write you a note and say, I really liked your first episode. I liked that you covered different topics in a short amount of time. You switched topics at just the right time. It wasn't too long, too short. I learned a lot and I look forward to more episodes." I know.
Jeff Ney:
My goodness.
Aaron Chapin:
Somebody from the Western region.
Jeff Ney:
It's probably your wife.
Aaron Chapin:
Should I get the regions maybe?
Jeff Ney:
Oh, that'd be good.
Rachael West:
Yeah, that'd be good.
Aaron Chapin:
There we go.
Jeff Ney:
Western region.
Aaron Chapin:
All right, here's the next one. This is, I can't tell. "I just listened to Duty Free Lunch with Teacher of the Year, Ashlie Crosson. That was a great episode.
Jeff Ney:
That was great.
Aaron Chapin:
I can tell you that she was chosen to be Pennsylvania's representative and she definitely deserves it. She should be justifiably proud and I wish her luck in her new role. That was a great episode.
Jeff Ney:
It was a great episode.
Rachael West:
She was a great guest.
Jeff Ney:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's probably a person from central region.
Aaron Chapin:
No, it's from Florida.
Jeff Ney:
Is it?
Aaron Chapin:
We got a viewer from Florida.
Jeff Ney:
Is he retired?
Aaron Chapin:
Champions Gate Florida, is probably retiree.
Jeff Ney:
Probably retiree.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, thank you.
Rachael West:
That's where I'd be if I was retired.
Aaron Chapin:
"And Ashlie is a great..." That was a great interview.
Jeff Ney:
That was a great interview. And she hits so many different topics.
Aaron Chapin:
Yes, I enjoyed listening to that on the way to Harrisburg one day. Here's another one. "I'm a member." That's great. "And a local president in the Northeastern region. I have been enjoying the podcast immensely and I appreciate the effort and the professional way it's being put together. I listen to podcasts daily and wanted to let you know that this is absolutely top-notch."
Jeff Ney:
Wow.
Aaron Chapin:
That's right. "And perfect for me. It's going to be on my regular rotation. It's so nice to hear directly from leadership. Makes me feel connected. Please keep them coming."
Jeff Ney:
Well, that just makes us all feel... But professional too, they should see the behind the scenes stuff.
Aaron Chapin:
Oh, behind the scenes. That'll be a whole new one.
Rachael West:
That Duty Free Lunch blooper reel.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, that'd be great.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah, well. Here's another one. This is Mid-Eastern region. "Aaron, Jeff and Dan hit this one out of the park on the first at bat." This must be our very first episode that we did with Dan.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
"I'm a political podcast junkie and your first attempt was spectacular."
Jeff Ney:
Wow.
Rachael West:
Nicely done, gentlemen.
Aaron Chapin:
Spectacular. "Thanks so much for bringing these issues to our attention in an easily accessible way and helping us to understand what the union does for them."
Jeff Ney:
Well, then full disclosure, we actually have two members of our communications department sitting here staring at us, helping us put this podcast together. And they've always helped us drafting the questions and getting our stuff ready. So thanks a lot to the staff that's out here.
Aaron Chapin:
Yes. We have not mentioned our comms department. They've done a great job of getting this podcast up and running in 2024. So thank you. And here's the last one.
Jeff Ney:
Last one.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, because we've got a minute left.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
"Hi. I really enjoy the podcast. Can you do an episode on the Rise of ESP Unions in Pennsylvania? Thank you."
Rachael West:
Oh, that's a great idea.
Jeff Ney:
That's a great idea.
Aaron Chapin:
We will make it happen.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
Yes.
Jeff Ney:
We were just talking about the merger of the ESP with our EA, and I believe they're celebrating an anniversary soon.
Aaron Chapin:
Okay.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
Okay. Well, that's all. My gosh, we're out of time. Well, that's it.
Jeff Ney:
That was fantastic.
Aaron Chapin:
That is we're all out of time I'm afraid. Our guests have been your PSEA officers. Thank you for joining us on the podcast today. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. If this is your first time listening, please go and check out all the other episodes that we've referenced. They were released every other Wednesday. Again, if you have feedback for us, got a question, and again, do you want advice from Jeff?
Jeff Ney:
Oh my God, I'm waiting.
Aaron Chapin:
I know, nobody asked him for advice, even his wife, but maybe this will be the time. But again, you got to send us an email podcast@psea.org. Anyway, for now, I'm Aaron Chapin.
Jeff Ney:
And I'm Jeff Ney.
Rachael West:
And I'm Rachael West.
Aaron Chapin:
And you have been listening to a very special Duty Free Lunch. Bye for now.
Voiceover:
You've been listening to Duty Free Lunch with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Visit psea.org/podcast to learn more, and don't forget to subscribe and share. Paid for by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.