If the higher you climb means the more you can see, then Elma Sprague won't be needing eye doctor visits any time soon.

Sprague, a teaching assistant and member of the Guilderland Central TA, met Sandra Carner-Shafran, who serves on NYSUT's Board of Directors, at a NYSUT workshop several years ago. Carner-Shafran was challenging her colleagues to become more involved in the union.

Sprague took the challenge, volunteering to be on an English language arts committee, which also helped her on the job as she assists teachers in reading rooms.

She started going to the union's Election District meetings and soon was elected to a seat. That meant in 2005 she represented members at the union's annual convention, the Representative Assembly.

"That was a historic one," Sprague said, recalling it was the convention marked by the presidential retirement of Tom Hobart and the election of Dick Iannuzzi. "I learned so much and then decided to volunteer at the convention, so in 2006 I was a sergeant-at-arms. It is exactly like 'The More You Know' ad campaigns. The more you do, or learn, the more you can do and learn."

Sprague is looking forward to the upcoming convention, which will be in Washington, D.C., in late April, "because education seems to finally have become the priority it deserves to be now."

For Neva Arms, union involvement was only a generation away. Her mother, Joyce, is a member and officer in the Horseheads School Services Association in Chemung County.

"I always told her, you get out of something what you put into it," said Joyce, a trainer in NYSUT's SRP Professional Development Program.

Workshops are a common way for SRP members to increase their union involvement.

Through the union's Education & Learning Trust, 21 courses are available in half-day and full-day formats as well as 15-hour sequences across the state for SRP members.

Workshops and inservice programs can be applied toward the state's 75-hour professional development requirement for teaching assistants. ELT's six undergraduate courses can be applied to teaching assistant certification.

Workshops are available for conference days, union events, teacher center programs and other staff development opportunities.