The ATA Magazine - Editor’s Notebook
Volume 69, Jan/Feb 1989
Deadwood, Wild Horse, Paddle Prairie, Big Stone
Hank Snow, that legend of country and western music, once recorded a song called “I’ve Been Everywhere.” It became a classic and is often heard on country radio stations across the province. Hank sings about being picked up by the driver of a semi-trailer truck while hitchhiking down a dusty road. The driver asks Hank if he has ever seen a road in such poor condition, and Hank replies that he has traveled everywhere in the country.
I pass on this little gem of country music trivia because of a conversation I had recently with Ron Boyce, president of East Smoky Local. Ron asked me, as staff officers are often asked, if I had been doing a lot of traveling this school year. I replied, as staff officers often do, that yes, I had. Ron then suggested that we should run a regular feature in The ATA News that would tell where the staff officers had been and what they had been doing. I agreed with Ron that that probably wasn’t a bad idea.
The simple truth is that Association staff officers have probably visited, or at least passed through, nearly every community from Abee to Zama Lake while providing service to members. In his song, Hank Snow sings about a string of North American cities, spinning them out one after the other. Our version of the lyric might say “Bodo, Hylo, Calahoo, Carcajou; Metiskow, Pekisko, Manyberries, Brosseau.” We usually tote our packs of workshops, bargaining material or case files in the back seats of cars or in the overhead bins in airliners. But on occasion, some of us, like Hank, have been known to hitchhike, be it from a stranded car or to buy gasoline from the nearest farmer.
For some staff, there is a pattern to travel requirements each year. The teacher welfare people have their regular bargaining assignments and head out to those destinations several times a year. Member services staff have a far less predictable travel pattern. A map showing their venues would have a decidedly scatter-gun look to it. One exception is Mac Kryzanowski, our man in the North, who is well acquainted with communities along Highway 35.
Professional development officers are also given to wandering. It might be to deliver PD workshops or to make regular rounds of the faculties of education. Communications staff members show up at locals to talk about better government programs, lobbying initiatives and public relations. Lately, when attending regional bargaining meetings, I’ve had the experience of hearing some members say, “Johnston is here. Does that mean we’re going on strike?”
Apart from program area assignments, staff cover a lot of ground attending inductions, specialist council meetings and teachers’ conventions. Meetings with groups of individuals outside the Association fall to all of us from time to time but especially to Julius Buski and Charles Hyman.
There is another group of travelers who cover a lot of kilometres for the Association. I refer, of course, to members of Provincial Executive Council. Some day, ask Dan Kingdon, North West district representative, about traveling in his vast area. The distance to Fort Chipewyan from his home in Grande Prairie could, as the crow flies, just as easily take him to Lloydminster, Hanna or Nanton. Or ask Bruce Lee, district representative for Central West, about the shortest distance between Grande Cache and Leduc, two of the locals for which he is responsible. Just don’t ask him for his best time on the route. District representatives in Calgary and Edmonton don’t have the same sort of travel demands, but this advantage is offset by the large number of members who require assistance and guidance.
The mission of the Alberta Teachers’ Association is to provide the best possible professional services to its members. Those members are scattered over a very large piece of real estate and are represented in over 1600 schools. Even with all the traveling they do on behalf of teachers, the staff and district representatives can meet with only a portion of the members in any given year. That’s why it was kind of nice to hear Ron Boyce’s interest in where the hired help had been and what they had been doing.
Now, what about Hank Snow? When I’m traveling, a lot of country tunes run through my mind. They just seem to capture the essence of moving down the road. Maybe you know some of the same ones I do: “Six Days on the Road,” “Driving My Life Away,” “Gotta Travel On,” “On The Road Again.” Jump in anywhere here if you feel like it.
Volume 69, Jan/Feb 1989
Deadwood, Wild Horse, Paddle Prairie, Big Stone
Hank Snow, that legend of country and western music, once recorded a song called “I’ve Been Everywhere.” It became a classic and is often heard on country radio stations across the province. Hank sings about being picked up by the driver of a semi-trailer truck while hitchhiking down a dusty road. The driver asks Hank if he has ever seen a road in such poor condition, and Hank replies that he has traveled everywhere in the country.
I pass on this little gem of country music trivia because of a conversation I had recently with Ron Boyce, president of East Smoky Local. Ron asked me, as staff officers are often asked, if I had been doing a lot of traveling this school year. I replied, as staff officers often do, that yes, I had. Ron then suggested that we should run a regular feature in The ATA News that would tell where the staff officers had been and what they had been doing. I agreed with Ron that that probably wasn’t a bad idea.
The simple truth is that Association staff officers have probably visited, or at least passed through, nearly every community from Abee to Zama Lake while providing service to members. In his song, Hank Snow sings about a string of North American cities, spinning them out one after the other. Our version of the lyric might say “Bodo, Hylo, Calahoo, Carcajou; Metiskow, Pekisko, Manyberries, Brosseau.” We usually tote our packs of workshops, bargaining material or case files in the back seats of cars or in the overhead bins in airliners. But on occasion, some of us, like Hank, have been known to hitchhike, be it from a stranded car or to buy gasoline from the nearest farmer.
For some staff, there is a pattern to travel requirements each year. The teacher welfare people have their regular bargaining assignments and head out to those destinations several times a year. Member services staff have a far less predictable travel pattern. A map showing their venues would have a decidedly scatter-gun look to it. One exception is Mac Kryzanowski, our man in the North, who is well acquainted with communities along Highway 35.
Professional development officers are also given to wandering. It might be to deliver PD workshops or to make regular rounds of the faculties of education. Communications staff members show up at locals to talk about better government programs, lobbying initiatives and public relations. Lately, when attending regional bargaining meetings, I’ve had the experience of hearing some members say, “Johnston is here. Does that mean we’re going on strike?”
Apart from program area assignments, staff cover a lot of ground attending inductions, specialist council meetings and teachers’ conventions. Meetings with groups of individuals outside the Association fall to all of us from time to time but especially to Julius Buski and Charles Hyman.
There is another group of travelers who cover a lot of kilometres for the Association. I refer, of course, to members of Provincial Executive Council. Some day, ask Dan Kingdon, North West district representative, about traveling in his vast area. The distance to Fort Chipewyan from his home in Grande Prairie could, as the crow flies, just as easily take him to Lloydminster, Hanna or Nanton. Or ask Bruce Lee, district representative for Central West, about the shortest distance between Grande Cache and Leduc, two of the locals for which he is responsible. Just don’t ask him for his best time on the route. District representatives in Calgary and Edmonton don’t have the same sort of travel demands, but this advantage is offset by the large number of members who require assistance and guidance.
The mission of the Alberta Teachers’ Association is to provide the best possible professional services to its members. Those members are scattered over a very large piece of real estate and are represented in over 1600 schools. Even with all the traveling they do on behalf of teachers, the staff and district representatives can meet with only a portion of the members in any given year. That’s why it was kind of nice to hear Ron Boyce’s interest in where the hired help had been and what they had been doing.
Now, what about Hank Snow? When I’m traveling, a lot of country tunes run through my mind. They just seem to capture the essence of moving down the road. Maybe you know some of the same ones I do: “Six Days on the Road,” “Driving My Life Away,” “Gotta Travel On,” “On The Road Again.” Jump in anywhere here if you feel like it.