Bob Wiseman rejoins CoAction Board

Reflections from Bob Wiseman

I am happy to re-join the CoAction Board of Directors after an absence of a couple of years. At the same time, I have been chosen as the Staff Association director for the CHFT Board of Directors. I have been a member of CoAction since I became a Co-ordinator at Main-Gerrard Housing Co-op in February of 1989. During the last 23 years, being a member of CoAction has given me a better understanding of the job that I aspire to do and the profession that I attached myself to when I became a co-op manager.

"I achieve that better understanding through my interactions with my colleagues in CoAction at meetings and social gatherings. I also have acquired a better understanding of the work, its challenges and rewards, through the various training opportunities that CoAction organizes."

Most recently, a workshop held at Main-Gerrard Co-op on mental health issues presented both a legal and health practitioner perspective.
As I have grown into the position that I work at it has been important to me to know my colleagues, who have over the years listened to me as I talk about my job with understanding and compassion, offering advice and on occasion disagreement, in a way that someone who doesn’t do this work just can’t. That is a benefit of knowing some of my colleagues and doesn’t necessarily mean that I need to belong to my staff association, but by joining and participating I am assured of being in that accepting environment whenever I choose to and more importantly need to.

When I first joined CoAction I took the position that I should pay my own dues, but as I began to understand the role that staff associations are playing in training and supporting us as staff, I changed my opinion. We aspire to a professional status and standard and for me that means ongoing training and interaction with colleagues. When we organize training that makes us better at our jobs this is a significant benefit to our employer, so I have no hesitation in asking for my dues to be paid by them. Many co-ops are in fact paying dues for their staff to belong to staff associations in recognition of the value of membership in these organizations.

Further, we need to enhance our standing as staff and we need to lobby our employers to communicate the challenges and the needs that we have in working at these very stressful and most often thankless jobs. The more of us that are part of our staff associations, the more readily our employers listen to us – and we need them to listen.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues for giving me the opportunity to serve once again, both on the CoAction Board of Directors and as the Staff Association representative on the CHFT Board. I look forward to the coming months and the work that we will do together.

If you are reading this and you haven’t yet joined your local staff association what are you waiting for? We need your help, input and ideas.