and the committee reviews it to look for items to negotiate for the
betterment of the entire Local.”
Community Relations
During summers in Longport, when the population swells,
Local 363 members stop by the beaches and playgrounds daily to
give away Frisbees, beach balls and other items so the residents
and tourists can see law enforcement officers in a different light.
When Local 186 puts on a fundraiser, Cebulski says the E-Board
stresses that, if it doesn’t go off well, it reflects badly on the members, the Local and the department.
“You have to stress how important these events are to the principles of the Local,” Smith confirms. “We need to be successful at
these events or it makes it difficult to do the things that we do.”
How difficult and important?
“I can’t think of a successful Local that isn’t reaching out to the
community it serves,” Hulse believes. “What they all have to get
better at is interacting with people to let them know what we really
do. A lot of towns have days when they invite everybody out. Come
get the PBA trailer, pull it to your town and hand out toys to the kids
or coffee for the adults so the community can get to know your
faces. If you wait until you need your community’s help, it’s too
late.”
Closing thoughts
From where Hulse sits, one issue seems to plague Local operations that has the greatest impact on sustainable success in all of
the above.
Mostly, the biggest problem Locals have is with elections,” he
educates. “Elections go OK
until there’s opposition.
And when there’s opposition, everybody closely
studies the requirements.
That should be done prior to the
election. It’s laid out clearly in the bylaws: A Local should have an
election committee. The president should appoint one that should
read through the rules and that would save a lot of time.”
You can actually lean on the bylaws to promote operational confidence.
“Just the general bylaws questions are something that is overlooked a lot,” Hulse continues. “They are comprehensive, wellwritten and put together with a lot of Local options to help them
run operations better. If I were a new president – or an experienced
one – I would go over the bylaws and make sure they are being
used to meet the Local’s needs within the parameters that are
given.” d
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