Message from Chapter President

Brian Giddens, MSW, LICSW

It is hard to believe that the year is coming to a close already. Once again we are caught up in the rush of seasonal events, school activities, preparing our homes for the change in the weather, and spending much more time indoors as the darkness lingers longer in the mornings and comes back earlier in the evenings.

It is also a time for shifting activities for NASW Washington State. There are several updates to share with you. First of all, we are happy to say that the state job classification for social worker has not been eliminated from state personnel classifications! This is wonderful news, and hats off to all of the folks who helped by contacting their legislators, participating in conference calls, attending meetings with state officials, writing letters, speaking to union reps, and all the other activities that people took on to maintain a social worker job category for the state.

Unfortunately, while the classification stays, our other request to change the requirements to hold a social worker position (i.e., that the person needs to actually BE a social worker), was not granted. Thus, we are moving forward with an effort to propose legislation for title protection, so that no one in Washington State can be called a social worker unless they have a social work degree (bachelors, masters or doctoral) from an accredited School of Social Work. We’re not trying to dictate scope of practice only that our professional title is recognized as unique, and requiring specialized education and training. Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? But legislation and politics is complex, and we will need your help on this, as well as our other legislative priorities in the next few months as the legislative session begins.

And speaking of legislative activity, NASW’s Legislative Action Committee has been working overtime! We were quite pleased with the strong response to the recent survey to members regarding legislative priorities (and Social Work title protection came in first!), and the committee has been hard at work drafting position papers, preparing strategy for the upcoming session and planning NASW Lobby Day (February 19th-an event not to be missed!). Once the board approves the legislative priorities at the December board meeting, the position papers will be up on the web for members to review.

But, as you know, NASW does more than advocating for the profession and the people we serve. We also work to provide relevant, affordable and high-quality education for social workers, and the Professional Development arm of the state chapter has been moving forward on planning future workshops and the annual conference. For the annual conference this year, the group is trying to maintain the networking and updates that an annual conference offers, while also attempting to pare down the enormous cost and volunteer needs that the traditional conference has offered. This time, we are trying a model that will continue over two days, integrating in meetings of the major NASW committees, and offering up a series of continuing education sessions that everyone can attend, rather than having multiple concurrent sessions. This allows the conference to be more focused, more comfortable for attendees, less confusing, and much more reasonable given the amount of funds and volunteer assistance we have to work with. As always, we will want to hear from our members as to what works and what doesn’t work with the change, and will continue to strive for improvements based on member needs.

You may have noticed many references to volunteers in this message. NASW can use your help if we are to do what members ask us to do as an association. I encourage you to run for NASW office, join a committee, donate to the NASW Foundation (specifically asking that the donation go to the Washington State Chapter), or tell us if you have connections to legislators, or to potential sponsors. There are many ways to help, and by supporting us, we can do a better job of supporting social workers.