Clinicians pilot new communications platform
Stewards and members in IBHS, our union’s Northern California unit of Kaiser mental health clinicians, have been testing a new online communications platform called Mobilize.
IBHS stewards have long wanted a new communications tool, beyond a Google group, to communicate more efficiently with each other and with their members, who are scattered across dozens of facilities throughout Northern California.
Melody Keeler, a steward from Santa Rosa, spearheaded the effort to implement Mobilize, a group management and communication tool that has the potential to help stewards organize and communicate with members and other stewards. In a nutshell, Mobilize can be a one-stop shop to create listservs and send your colleagues emails, polls, event invites, files, and text messages. Members might already be communicating with each other through these means, but these functions can be centralized through Mobilize.
In the next several months, we plan to monitor how Mobilize works with IBHS, identify and troubleshoot problems, and gauge participation levels. If Mobilize proves successful, we will begin expanding its use to our other Kaiser bargaining units.