South Plains Branch of NASW Communications

I have been a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW)http://www.naswdc.org/ for about 20 years.  Although there are several professional organizations for social workers, this is THE professional organization, especially because it is all inclusive, but has subgroups for specialty practices. Most of the other professional organizations for social workers are organized around specialty practices.

When I was a senior student at the College of Our Lady of the Elms, one of our classmates contacted NASW so we could join as students.  It was months later when we heard back from them, and the information was basically you are no longer students, you can no longer join at student rates. And the professional rates, given social work salaries, were ridiculous. So I blew off NASW.

When I worked at Catholic Family Service of Lubbock, some of my coworkers were members, and at their urging, when I could, I attended the monthly meetings. Years later, after I joined, I railed against the exclusive, secretive attitude of the local branch leadership, and the prohibitively high membership fees, as well as the unethical billing practices that add on all kinds of extra fees, as if they are required for a member.   In spite of my regular protest, the billing practices have not changed.  The membership fee structure did, to encourage bachelor's prepared social workers to enroll, at a lower rate than for masters prepared social workers. Still I think the price of membership is too high for most social workers, masters or bachelor's prepared.

Eventually, as a member,  I volunteered for a couple of committees: the education committee and the membership committee.  I worked in the early 1990s and have continued to work on the committee that produces the yearly ethics continuing education workshop. I have endured some difficult political situations because of hard feelings and misunderstandings on this committee. Over the last 4-5 years, we have settled into a routine regarding what the committee members do, and we work quietly, consistently and well together to plan for and execute the yearly ethics workshop.  Sometimes there are bumps in the road, but we all accept that each individual is human, makes mistakes, but works to their best ability for the project.

My other role with the South Plains Branch of NASW has been as communication liaison. I started off sending out post cards for the monthly meetings. But as we have become more computer savvy, the regular communication has been done by email.

I have developed an email network for social workers, members of NASW and non-members, so they not only receive information about the monthly NASW activities, but also other area activities.  I send out information about some community activities, CEU workshops, job announcements and requests for help for clients.  Over the years, I have collected a lot of email addresses that allows me to send out a large number of emails to many social workers in the region.  I have had requests from non-social workers to be included in this network, so if an announcement is not social work specific, this group of other interested professionals also receive information.

I have a dedicated email address for the NASW correspondence. The NASW steering committee gives me guidance about what announcements to send out and what not to send out, if there are questionable announcements. The members respect the fact that sending out these emails takes time and represent the South Plains Branch of NASW. 

This has become a community service I do for the social work community of West Texas.  I am glad to do this. I hope the social work community appreciates it.