Latest / The SEANC View / Live from Wilmington: SEANC Leaders Unite
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:08Good morning, and welcome to a special edition of the Scenic View podcast,
- 0:12live in front of a studio audience.
- 0:18I can't believe that we've made it, artists. We've made it. I know it.
- 0:21Live. Who would have thunk it? Oh, was I not close enough to the mic?
- 0:24Yeah, yeah. This is so different. We're not in Raleigh doing our thing at the office.
- 0:28So, you know, this is a unique group of scenic leaders that are gathered together.
- 0:34So, John? So one of the coolest parts of being a state association with members
- 0:38of all 100 counties is we get to see all the amazing parts of the state.
- 0:42Today, we're in one of the most beautiful cities, in my opinion.
- 0:46Wilmington, North Carolina, right across the water from the USS North Carolina Battleship.
- 0:51Battleship is a big state government site.
- 0:53Where the state employees work at the Battleship. And we're at a meeting of
- 0:57our executive leadership.
- 0:58And it's a beautiful day. It's a little cold out. Artis, how are you doing?
- 1:02Well, I wish I was out there fishing despite the cold, but it's a great day
- 1:07to be inside with Scenic leaders talking about the future of this organization.
- 1:10And if you normally tune into this podcast to listen to Scenic talk about policy, this is different.
- 1:15We're going to explain more about what Scenic is.
- 1:19We have our officers here today. We have committee chairs, vice chairs for committees,
- 1:24and our executive committee, which is the officers are at the tippy top of our
- 1:28leadership. And then the executive committee is next. and then the Board of
- 1:32Governors is after that.
- 1:33So it's the main thought leaders in Scenic that are gathered here today.
- 1:36And we thought we would talk a little bit about what Scenic is discussing as
- 1:41an organization, where we wanna go and how that affects people.
- 1:44So if you've been listening to this, you're not a state employee or maybe you
- 1:48are, but you're not a Scenic member, kind of felt like the organization's been
- 1:51talking policy, but let's talk the organization for a minute.
- 1:54Yeah, we have all these amazing leaders in our organization in here.
- 1:57So Artis and I decided we're gonna hold them hostage again.
- 2:00Make them record with us for an hour. It's going to be great. Fresh perspective.
- 2:05First on the docket is a second vice president, Emily Jones.
- 2:10And treasurer. I almost caught her state treasurer.
- 2:12Maybe one day, state treasurer, general treasurer, Stacey Crabtree. How are you guys doing?
- 2:18Doing well. Thank you for having us. So what made you run for a scenic office?
- 2:22That's a just out of the gate question. Well, for me, I think what made me want
- 2:26to run for a scenic office is because I've been in Scenic for many,
- 2:30many years as a paying member.
- 2:33So becoming active over the years and just watching other people take ownership
- 2:38of their positions within the organization kind of encouraged me to want to
- 2:42do more because I just felt like I had something more to give to state employees and Scenic members.
- 2:48So I felt like putting my work in would be beneficial for myself,
- 2:51building up my own personal growth was my professional growth.
- 2:54And I felt like I had more to give to the folks of the state as well.
- 2:57Well, we're glad you did.
- 2:59Stacey, what about you? What made you want to get? So like Emily,
- 3:02I've been a active district member for many years, and I wanted to,
- 3:07again, like she was talking about, progress and be able to learn more of what
- 3:11Scenic truly does, because a lot of times just being a district member and being
- 3:15active, it's very constricted on what you know.
- 3:17So going to the state executive board, I believe I've learned a lot.
- 3:22I've only been in this position about a year and a half. Still learning every day.
- 3:26I'm meeting new people, new opportunities, and getting a better understanding
- 3:29on how important Scenic is to the state employees and what they do for the retirees
- 3:35and just the general public that reside here in North Carolina.
- 3:38We do look out for everyone. It's not just the state employees,
- 3:42and I think everything that they do affects everything.
- 3:45And you know, Emily, you've been out all over the field.
- 3:49What we call the field, and let me take another step back. If you're listening
- 3:52to this, don't know much about scenic.
- 3:54If you compared scenic to the United States of America, the districts,
- 3:57Stacey used the word district a lot, the districts are the states.
- 4:00Right. The board of governors is Congress, and then the executive committee
- 4:04and, you know, the officers, that's the executive branch leadership.
- 4:08And they also have a role in our Congress, so to speak.
- 4:11So that's how it's broken down. We have 51 districts, again,
- 4:14as John said, across the 100 counties.
- 4:16There's some place for everyone that might have any interest in scenic.
- 4:19Emily, you've traveled as scenic has gone and done employee appreciation events.
- 4:24You've been with our member relations reps a fair amount.
- 4:28What are the main things you're hearing when you're out there in the field with
- 4:32active state employees?
- 4:33Well, there are some good things we hear and there are some not so good things
- 4:37that we hear from active employees.
- 4:38A lot of them feel unappreciated, for one.
- 4:42And they, of course, we always work for higher paying wages for state employees.
- 4:47So they want to be paid more.
- 4:49They want to be appreciated more. By whom? By legislators.
- 4:53They want money in their pockets. They want the work that they do to be more
- 4:57appreciated by the lawmakers and policy writers because they leave their homes,
- 5:03especially folks that work in DAC or ZPS.
- 5:06They leave their homes to do meaningful work and they want that to be recognized.
- 5:10That's something that we as an organization, we shine a light on to make sure
- 5:14that folks have what they need within their confinements of their jobs and their careers.
- 5:19But we also hear that people are on the other side of that coin.
- 5:23They are appreciated. They know that the work that they're doing is needed,
- 5:26and especially the folks in DHHS, not to be throwing out departments because
- 5:31I know I will miss someone.
- 5:33Got a lot of eyes on you right now, Emily. A lot of eyes. All right.
- 5:36From different departments. Yes, I know it, so I'm going to stop doing that.
- 5:39But we do hear that people are appreciative of the work that Scenic does whenever
- 5:43we come and we sit and partake with them and ask them questions about how things
- 5:48are going and things that they need. They want to be heard and appreciated,
- 5:52and they want to take care of their families.
- 5:54You know, when the rubber meets the road, everybody wants to make sure that
- 5:57they have a good wage so they can take care of their families,
- 5:59leave a legacy for their children, and leave the world a better place when they're gone.
- 6:04So I do travel across the state, and I enjoy doing that, recruiting new members
- 6:09and educating people on what we do as an organization to get folks to join because
- 6:14there's strength in numbers. So it is a very impactful job that Scenic does.
- 6:19And personally, for me, it is empowering. And I like to empower other people
- 6:23inside the association and outside the association. So we just want folks to
- 6:28know that there's a place for them to be.
- 6:30A lot of the younger folk also that I speak with, they may not be joiners,
- 6:34but they oftentimes want someplace to settle in and to give back.
- 6:39So that's something else that we hear. So when you say people want to be appreciated
- 6:43and they maybe feel like lawmakers don't appreciate them, sometimes we've talked
- 6:47about the fact that lawmakers honestly don't know a lot about.
- 6:50Yeah, I was actually just going to make the comment that public perception is an issue.
- 6:56The work that Scenic is doing not only benefits state employees' retirees,
- 7:01but it kind of gives the public an idea of what Scenic stands for and the people
- 7:06that provide the services for North Carolina, what they do.
- 7:10Right. And if you're a lawmaker running across this podcast,
- 7:13I know our districts are very open to posting any lawmaker that would like to
- 7:17come to a district meeting back home, you know, in their area with their constituents.
- 7:22And just talk, break bread with them and talk about the issues that state employees
- 7:26feel are most important.
- 7:27Stacey, since you're an active state employee still, what do you hear in the
- 7:30workplace as what people think is the most pressing issue for state employees right now?
- 7:36So I think right now our staff shortages, almost in every agency. I'm currently with DAC.
- 7:41However, I know the shortages go across everywhere. So I think that is the biggest
- 7:45thing that we need to work on.
- 7:46We need to try to figure out what we can do to draw those people in to apply
- 7:51for these jobs and stay with their jobs.
- 7:53I know benefits is something that a lot of people are looking at.
- 7:56So hopefully we can continue to advocate for better benefits for state employees
- 8:00and hopefully trying to change that table and get more people in the state government.
- 8:06You are an active employee. Are you hearing anything about the state health
- 8:09plan premium increase yet?
- 8:11I've heard a couple people talk about the premium.
- 8:15There was a conversation that was stated that they were going to try to do prorated
- 8:19based on the employee's pay status. heard people complain, well, that's not fair.
- 8:24So that's a concern because every time they feel like every time they get a
- 8:27state raise, something's going to be raised within that year.
- 8:31So then the employees again are back to square one.
- 8:34Yes, they may have gave a raise, but now we're charging more for premiums.
- 8:38So they do look at that very negatively.
- 8:40And a lot of that puts you in the hole, actually. Correct. Not just,
- 8:43you know, it's not a net zero. Correct. Yes.
- 8:47And, you know, some of our benefits, like some of our health benefits that people
- 8:51are paying, especially for family members, they can almost find somewhere outside
- 8:54state to get a better rate.
- 8:57So I think we'll wrap it up there, unless you guys have something else to talk about.
- 9:01This is just a small snip. We'll probably have you on many different times over
- 9:05the next few years. But thank you all for joining us. And let's move on to our next victims.
- 9:11Thank you for the opportunity. OK, well, joining us now is our president,
- 9:15Kurt Montgomery. And, Kurt, I'll let you introduce our other guest.
- 9:18Well, a lot of people don't know this, but the president has a person who keeps
- 9:22the organization going, basically by supplying them with the minutes and everything
- 9:27of that nature in reference to what's going on in the organization.
- 9:30So we have Miss Betty Gutier here with us.
- 9:33She has been the secretary for many presidents of this organization.
- 9:37She has been one dedicated individual that we all love and we cherish her because
- 9:42she has more knowledge in her head than we have in our minutes.
- 9:46And I'll be honest about that.
- 9:48Now look, let's ask the room since this is live at the training.
- 9:51Is Miss Betty Gautier the most popular person in scenic bi-alum?
- 9:59I don't know about you, Kirk, but that kind of chaps me a lot of the time.
- 10:03No, she is absolutely, literally, I don't think I've ever known anyone to be
- 10:08more beloved in this organization than you.
- 10:11But also, y'all, if you have anybody in your work that you reach out to,
- 10:15and maybe you're asking for a lot, But they come back not only quickly,
- 10:19not only to let you know they got your message, but with the answer,
- 10:23I've never seen anything like it.
- 10:24This lady's bulletproof. I can only imagine what you were like at Department of Agriculture.
- 10:29Pretty much the same. They always depended on me. There you go.
- 10:33Let's hear a little bit about Miss Betty. Where did you, so you're retired now,
- 10:36right? I am retired. I retired after 40 years of service to the Department of Agriculture.
- 10:41Okay. Wow. What was your position there? I was administrative officer.
- 10:44And is there a specific section that you worked in?
- 10:48I first went to work for plant industry for 29 years. And the last 11 years,
- 10:54I worked with food and drug.
- 10:55Okay, cool. What's the biggest secret at the Department of Agriculture that no one knows?
- 10:59I think a lot of people think of it as just agriculture, but you need to understand.
- 11:04It encompasses so much more, as I just said, food and drug.
- 11:07Food and drug can be anything from your pharmacies to your distribution areas
- 11:12to grocery stores, inspecting things like going out to the fair, the state fair.
- 11:17I know the county departments also inspect the food trucks or whatever at the
- 11:22state fair, but also the inspectors from food and drug inspect as well to make
- 11:26sure everything's going to be safe for the citizens.
- 11:28What's a secret we need to know about Commissioner Steve Troxler?
- 11:32A secret? No, I'm joking. I actually really thoroughly enjoyed working with
- 11:37him. A huge friend to us. Yes, yes. He's a great man.
- 11:40And even before him, we had Commissioner James Graham. And I started working under him.
- 11:45Okay. He was a fantastic man, and he was also a character.
- 11:50One of the things that we always, you could hear him walking down the halls towards you.
- 11:56You could hear him coming down because where I used to work,
- 11:58my office was actually across from the boardroom.
- 12:01So you could hear him coming down that hall, clonk, clonk with his big old cowboy boots.
- 12:06With one pant leg. Yes, one pant leg in, right. And he would always stick his
- 12:11head in though and speak to everyone.
- 12:13Well, that's neat. So what made you get involved in Scenic first off?
- 12:18I was just one of those people that, you know, the boss just came around and
- 12:21said, just sign this and you're a member.
- 12:24That's simply that. I wish it was that easy now. It would be. It would be nice.
- 12:29But there, you know, I was just a member on paper and I talked it up in my particular
- 12:33building, but I really didn't become active till around, I'd say, about 1999, 2000.
- 12:37That's when my kids started high school and I had more flexibility to be able
- 12:41to join things like working more actively with Scenic. And starting in 2008,
- 12:47I was asked to be the secretary for Tony Smith, and it's just progressed from there.
- 12:51So what's that? I'm doing math. I'm not very 16 years as a secretary.
- 12:56President Montgomery, I mean, you can explain why the secretary has to be somebody,
- 13:00as we've described, or bulletproof.
- 13:03Because we have a lot of minutes and we have a lot of meetings.
- 13:06And so we have to make sure that we keep detailed minutes stored.
- 13:09And there has been no one that I've seen who has been at the level that Miss
- 13:13Betty's been at. She has been very thorough.
- 13:16If there's information that we need nine times out of 10, if she doesn't know
- 13:20it off the top of her head, she'll be able to research it within a few minutes and get it to you.
- 13:23And that's been a value that you can't put any dollar figure on.
- 13:27And, you know, we lovingly call you Miss Betty, but I think we need to point out, too,
- 13:32that Betty not only takes care of the executive committee, the board meeting
- 13:36minutes, but every committee that we've got with CNIC, Miss Betty takes care
- 13:41of recording the activity of that.
- 13:43I work with eight committees, including the Board of Governors and Executive Committee.
- 13:46So it's not every committee, but yeah. Most committees.
- 13:49It's a big job. That's a full-time job working. It is.
- 13:52Yeah, we couldn't do it without you. Betty's like, where's my pay for that?
- 13:55Yes. Yeah, stop getting her thinking.
- 13:59Thank you so much, Miss Betty, for everything you do. Thank you,
- 14:03President Montgomery, for getting her to come on the podcast.
- 14:06I didn't think she would.
- 14:07Yeah. Can I say one other thing? Oh, look, now we can't stop her.
- 14:12Yes, ma'am, you can say whatever you want. Scenic to me is always a family.
- 14:16You've always been very supportive of me, but to all the members of Scenic,
- 14:21but also all the employees of the state of North Carolina, Most people just
- 14:25don't understand that without Scenic, we would not have the benefits,
- 14:29the salary increases, all of it.
- 14:31So thanks to Scenic, you know, state employees are doing good.
- 14:36We can do better. But thank you to Scenic for what they do.
- 14:39Yeah, I guess over 40 years, you saw a lot of that change. Yes, yes, a big change.
- 14:45You know, we've gone from some years without having any increases to Scenic
- 14:48going to the bat and fighting for you to get increases, trying to keep benefits,
- 14:52all of it. Well, thank you for joining us. Thank you.
- 14:55Have a good rest of your day down in Wilmington. Bye. Bye.
- 15:00So today we're joined by Charles Streeter, the Growth and Expansion Committee
- 15:04Chairman, and Tracy Webb, our Emerging Leaders Council Chairwoman.
- 15:08We're talking about how to get younger members involved in Scenic and how to
- 15:12get younger members to go into state service.
- 15:15We had a little technical difficulties. So, Charles, you were telling us a little
- 15:19bit about how you see Scenic growing with younger members.
- 15:23Right. And I said that it really is boots on the ground that gets young people
- 15:27involved in the organization. It was someone who was a member of Scenic,
- 15:30and she kept asking me for years to join.
- 15:33And I was young in my career, and I thought, that sounds like a commitment.
- 15:36But she kept pressing me until eventually I joined. And then it was actually
- 15:40someone else who came along and said, well, actually, you need to be coming
- 15:44to these meetings because you're a member. You're not showing up at the meeting.
- 15:47So it's boots on the ground. It's member driven.
- 15:50So really, that's the first place that we start, as well as the organization
- 15:53itself doing recruitment at different locations.
- 15:55As I said, I work at UNC Chapel Hill, doing recruitment there,
- 15:59trying to get people involved, and then also figuring out what this new generation,
- 16:03what drives them, what will make them interested, because it's definitely different.
- 16:07Generation Z is different than the millennials, which is different than Generation X.
- 16:11And so we have a shift in the workforce. And as we grow as an organization,
- 16:16in order to stay alive, we need to evolve and figure out what those younger
- 16:19folks need and how we can appeal to them. Amazing recap.
- 16:24Thank you, Charles. The only thing you left out is where you took a swipe at
- 16:28Duke. Yes. It was awesome. Yes. But we'll leave that there.
- 16:32But, Charles, what about the state itself and the problem the state is having?
- 16:37Recruiting young people, not necessarily to come work. They might want to work
- 16:41there for six months a year to get some experience, but to make state government
- 16:44a career, has anything in your work with growth and expansion given you any
- 16:48insight into something that might help the state to recruit and keep young people?
- 16:52I wouldn't necessarily say with growth and expansion just in general,
- 16:55and that's the state keeps taking away some of the benefits that when I started
- 16:59being a state employee, the reason why people work for the state were the benefits.
- 17:03You might not get paid as much as you could in the private sector,
- 17:06but there were benefits that are being taken away.
- 17:08And so as they chop away those benefits, it's going to become less appealing
- 17:13to someone coming into the workforce and they're going to say,
- 17:16well, I'm going to move on.
- 17:17I mean, already millennials and Generation Z, they don't stay at a job because
- 17:22they're trying to advance, advance, advance.
- 17:24However, some of those people who are millennials who came with,
- 17:27especially at the university, I know they would stay, but they have those benefits
- 17:30and, you know, things are changing 2025.
- 17:32We have some changes that are coming down the pipeline as far as state benefits.
- 17:36So if you take away the benefits and you're not keeping up with the raises,
- 17:39you're not going to keep up with the staff.
- 17:41And especially someplace like the university, you need to keep that knowledge
- 17:46because if you let the people go, that's going to disrupt the system because
- 17:51you're going to constantly have to keep training someone, spending that time.
- 17:55And as soon as they get trained, they have that knowledge, the system becomes
- 17:58efficient, they're out the door and that does not work.
- 18:02Well, and I love that point because of the... It's incredibly expensive.
- 18:05Turnover is incredibly expensive for the state, taxpayers, the state,
- 18:10taxpayers. And the university system is so essential to persuading businesses.
- 18:14You know, there's so much effort and so much economic incentive thrown into
- 18:17getting businesses to locate here. Yes. And we have to have them.
- 18:21And the private sector is very important,
- 18:23but you have to have a proper infrastructure or they won't come.
- 18:25So the UNC system is... The university system is such a big part of economic
- 18:30development. So thank you for that insight. Good public services, period.
- 18:33That does people in the United States. Yes, it is. Across the board,
- 18:36the things that state employees do is what brings people to North Carolina. It is, certainly.
- 18:41And Tracy, your committee is kind of tasked with building leaders in the association.
- 18:46Yes, yes, we are. What's the status of that pursuit? And do we have a lot of
- 18:50great leaders in your committee that are willing to step up?
- 18:53Yes. So once we've seen it grab hold of the growth from the growth and expansion,
- 18:58you know, bring younger people in, you know, that could be a part of the Emerging Leaders Council.
- 19:03Meaning it used to be Emerging Leaders Council. You had to be under the age
- 19:08of 40. But now any age can be a part of the Senate Emerging Leaders Council.
- 19:15And so what we do is we give back to the community. We, in addition to build
- 19:20leaders as well within Senate.
- 19:23Emerging Leaders Council is basically members that are leaders within their
- 19:27workforce, as well as their personal life, as well as Senate.
- 19:31And so we like to one day be a officer, a Senate officer one day.
- 19:36So we try to learn what we need to do to emerge as a scenic officer.
- 19:41We also give back in the community. Yeah, talk to us about that,
- 19:44because I don't think people realize that scenic does a lot of things,
- 19:48not just the legislature, you know, and the policy work that we do. Okay.
- 19:53Well, in the community, we have a signature project called Adopt the Highway.
- 19:57We adopted this highway like two years ago. And what we do is we go out quarterly
- 20:02and clean up the highway. where we partnered with DOT to clean up the highway
- 20:08four times a year. Highway is 1.3.
- 20:11Six miles. And we do that. We have different members from across the state to
- 20:17come and join us from the Piedmont region, the West region, the East region,
- 20:22North Central and South Central and clean up the highway.
- 20:25Also, we have a signature project where we go and we give back to the Ronald
- 20:31McDonald House, as well as the Senate House, where we pretty much give donations
- 20:36of toys to the Ronald McDonald House.
- 20:38And we give back to feed, pretty much we feed the residents of the CQ House as well.
- 20:45I think that's an important part of leadership is to be active.
- 20:48Yeah, because you made what? Brownies and cookies. You folded laundry.
- 20:52Yes, we did. We saw carols, Christmas carols. We danced. We played musical bingo.
- 20:59We have a lot of seizure projects that we give back to communities.
- 21:02We have a community health and wellness event that we do yearly.
- 21:05And we pretty much invite all audience from across the state of North Carolina
- 21:10to come and learn about their health because health is wealth.
- 21:14And so we have different vendors that come and partake in our annual community
- 21:19service project where we learn about diabetes, cancer, what you can do better to better yourself.
- 21:25And we also have fun and we do online dancing, boxing, all of that good stuff.
- 21:31So Emerging Needs Council is a good, good, good committee to be on within SENA.
- 21:36And we love to help SENA as far as recruiting members, because our goal is to recruit members.
- 21:43We're trying to recruit at least like 50 members a month.
- 21:46That's the goal I'll put out to my members. That's the challenge.
- 21:49Please recruit at least 50. Well, if you can't do 50...
- 21:52Per month, do 50 for the year if you can. Well, and a lot of state employees
- 21:57don't feel like particularly political people.
- 22:00They want to make a difference. And this is a great committee for doing that.
- 22:03And I think that if you're a state employee and you are trying to figure out
- 22:06where there might be a place for you, this is why we're letting all of this
- 22:10information get out there to the folks, even though you may not think this affects
- 22:14you, there may be a perfect place for you here.
- 22:18And I know districts also do a lot of community things. I don't want to leave
- 22:21the districts out of this.
- 22:22I know there's districts that, you know, one district bought a scoreboard for
- 22:26the facility where the members of that district worked, you know, for a state facility.
- 22:30There's things like that that happen all over the place.
- 22:33Scenic's got a rich history of serving. But and I think for the younger generation,
- 22:37Charles, a lot of what y'all talked about is that there's more and more of an
- 22:41emphasis on, look, I want to feel like I make a difference in my community.
- 22:44Yeah. So this is a great pairing.
- 22:46It's called in higher education, they call it sense of belonging.
- 22:50That belonging is what the younger generation really, when you start talking
- 22:55to them from some of the things I've been on, that they want to feel like they
- 22:58belong to something that's missing.
- 23:00And as much as we can do to make them feel like they belong.
- 23:03Then we can have that rapport and have members feel like they belong part of
- 23:07an organization, they will stay.
- 23:09So that's one of the biggest things for them. Thank y'all so much.
- 23:12Can I add one plug for Growth and Expansion? If you are a member of Scenic,
- 23:16if you join, the Growth and Expansion Committee has a scholarship to attend
- 23:21the annual convention that we have in Greensboro.
- 23:24So if you are a member, look for that announcement in the scoop that will be coming out.
- 23:27You can apply and then you can come and see exactly what we do at our delegate
- 23:32convention in September.
- 23:33And once you come to a convention, you're hooked. Yes, you are.
- 23:37And then come on and join and then join the Emerging Leaders Council.
- 23:40We're allowed to have you.
- 23:42That's right. Charles will hook them in and then you put them to work. That's right.
- 23:46Thank you all so much for joining us. And we, I think that. Thank you.
- 23:52Music.