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NEW JERSEY COPS n DECEMBER 2014
COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT: THE “NEW” PRESIDENT’S COMMITTEE
Something new for all Local Presidents
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
So it’s safe to assume that a majority of NJ State PBA members are in favor of the push to get more active in the community, put more effort into interacting with the public and
get involved with the legislators in town, especially with
their election, and re-election, campaigns. Members are
even more on board with the strength-in-numbers strategy
the Colligan-Kovar leadership has been encouraging from
all PBA Locals.
So, then, the question becomes how do Locals get motivated and mobilized to get active? And the answer, as it so
often has become during this new era of leadership, is to
start at the top.
So, NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan and Executive
Vice-President Marc Kovar asked Essex County Sheriff’s
Office Local 183 President Chris Tyminski to develop some
new materials to provide to all Local Presidents that will help
in this new era of leadership. Tyminski, who is one of the
union’s most well-versed and experienced Local leaders,
having been president since 1997, has taken over as chairman of the NJ State PBA New Presidents Committee and for
2015 he and the committee are leading a “New Presidents”
training class that will be relevant to all Local presidents –
new and existing.
“With Pat being more aggressive about getting people
involved, we felt we needed more people educated as union
leader s,” said Tyminski who has taken over as chairman of
the President’s Committee. “We see our elected officials getting more organized and using the fact that we’re not organized to take advantage of us. We have to show we are
organized and that starts with the leadership.”
As Tyminski and a committee that includes veteran PBA
leaders Moe Farallo of Passaic Local 14 and John Cernek of
Lacey Township Local 238 developed curriculum to amplify the president’s training and make it effective even for
those who have been serving long-term, they targeted an
outcome that will drive the priority PBA initiative.
“The president is the guy in most instances who is pushing
the members to get involved in local activities, political
activities,” he explained. “It’s been a soft spot in the organization. (Past President) Tony (Wieners) started working on
it, and Pat and Marc are being pro-active in moving this forward.”
Toward that end, the upgraded training is designed to provide ideas for better running the day-to-day operations of
the Local, which is the primary responsibility of the president. Among those ideas will be suggestions for working
with the Local’s State Delegate, Executive Board members
and individual members.
“We’re trying to create sense of importance in everything
the presidents do,” Tyminski continued. “And we want them
to realize they are not the one-man band, that they can’t go
out on these ventures without the backing of the members.”
The new president’s training was sampled in a class at the
State PBA offices in Woodbridge on Oct. 17 that drew 40 participants. Having the class in Woodbridge provides an example of a professionally run organization to follow. Four
sessions have been put on the schedule for 2015 with the
first one set for March.
If the reaction to the first class is any indication, there
might need to be more than four next year.
“I always gauge the level of any type of class by who is sitting there, dosing off,” Tyminski said. “I’m proud to say when
our class was over, easily half of the guys stayed behind, asking questions, bringing scenarios up, following up with concerns they have. I was so happy to see these were not just
guys coming to spend a couple of hours and then go out to
lunch.”
Topics, scenarios and issue covered in the recent and
future classes include:
• Connecting with the State Delegate: How to better
work as a team with the delegate providing information
and resources to help the president run the day-to-day
operations of the Local.
• The president’s role in contract negotiations: This is
especially near-and-dear to Tyminski, who says that of
the many things he learned from his predecessor and
mentor James Casey, one of the most important was,
“the art of contract negotiations doesn’t always take
place at the bargaining table.”
• Membership representation and service: The basics
from running a membership meeting to talking to a
new member.
• Fundraising ideas.
• Dealing with politicians.
• Getting members to participate in meetings: In other
words, how can the president keep members interested, especially in a small Local, and other ideas like having a joint meeting with a neighboring town or local
every couple of months.
• Branding your Local: How do you as the president
envision your Local? How do people outside perceive
your Local? How do you perceive your Local in five
years financially and politically? When you go to community events do people know who you are?
“I don’t care if you have been president for a number of
years, if you listen to a room full of other presidents talking
about some of the scenarios they have gone through it is so
interesting,” said Tyminski, adding that presidents should
call the PBA office to find out when the next class will be
scheduled. “I think all presidents need to realize that they
don’t know everything and they don’t have to know everything.” d