Eighteen charter school educators from across the country met at AFT headquarters in Washington, DC for the first meeting of the AFT Charter School Educator Advisory Group. With representatives from Boston to Los Angeles and other locations in between, the group came together to network, help shape charter school organizing strategy, and learn more about AFT resources, professional development and local media strategies.

Workshops focused on active listening and the organizing conversation, identifying union activists and building a leadership team, and offering effective feedback to students, part of the AFT's Strategies for Student Success series.

The charter school union leaders particularly valued the chance to share their experiences and concerns with each other and build bonds across regions and states. "It's all about building relationships," said Liz Fisher, a leader of the Pembroke Pines, Fla., charter school group and co-presenter of the workshop on effective feedback.

The leaders asked for more professional development workshops and more in-depth organizing training at future meetings, so they could better help organize other charter schools in their area.

In her remarks, AFT president Randi Weingarten emphasized the challenge of charter school organizing, the AFT's commitment to the advisory group members and other charter school activists, and the importance of organized charter school educators to the AFT's future. Weingarten added that their experience and the contracts they had negotiated were proof that educator voice and union representation furthered the mission of charter schools. The challenge, she added, is to convert success in organizing individual charter schools into broader, multischool organizing. One educator said the advisory group strengthened her "sense of solidarity and excitement." She added, "I feel invigorated to go and continue the union work."