Transcript for "Membership is Powerful" with Mit Joyner
One thing that I really like about the dual membership is I'm from Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania might be very different from Iowa, so it allows you to really look at your state and what other specific areas in your state that need to be improved. But not only that, we meet in regions, so I am in the Philadelphia Brandywine Chapter. It is there, but Philadelphia is very different from Westchester, Pennsylvania, so we really have that regional piece.
We have a bill that we're pushing right now in Pennsylvania, and something comes out from the executive director of Pennsylvania's NASW chapter, we're all able to respond immediately. But I really do like the regional piece, because it helps you do a glance and an assessment of people within your area, what services do you need to provide, the knowledge that you need to have.
When I came out of the school of social worker, there was no such thing as AIDS. I had to learn all about it after I left the schools of social work, and NASW provided me that knowledge, brought the people in. I was able to earn my CE credits through that area, so it is very unique because it allows you to look at things in three ways; looking at it from your region, participating from your state, and being on the national level, and it's just one membership. That's what it allows you to do, have a voice in all three of those things, kind of like the micro, the mezzo, and the macro areas of social work.