For Immediate Release November 18, 2004

For More Information Contact: David Williams, 317-274-2518 dawilli1@iupui.edu

New Program Revolutionizes Management of Union Organizing Campaign Information

INDIANAPOLIS - The IU Division of Labor Studies at IUPUI has developed a tool for unions that will revolutionize management of critical information they gather during union organizing campaigns.

A year in development with the assistance of active union organizers, the union organizers campaign program standardizes database creation and management. The software program was developed as part of the Organize Indiana Project, a civic engagement project with the IU Division of Labor Studies and 49 labor unions, and is available free of charge.

"The T-1 organizers campaign management program is unlike anything that's ever been available to unions," said David Williams, project manager. "The three elements that drove the development of this program were: the ability to gather and input organizing information quickly; that the information be maintained be in an inter-related manner and easily trackable; and that the organizer be provided with a user-friendly way to search the information," he said. A hallmark of the new tool is that it is quick, easy and very user-friendly, Williams said.

Until now, most campaign organizers had little or no ability to easily track information across campaigns, time, geography, employers, and industries, he said. In many cases, campaign organizers tracked information for each campaign separately on note cards or by traditional filing methods.

The T-1 program enables union organizers to easily search and report information from the database through a comprehensive query section, Williams said. "With the T-1 Program, union organizers now have the ability to pinpoint the exact information they wish to find," he noted.

Because the T-1 program becomes more useful as more data is added to it, project developers made it easy to enter information, Williams said.

"One example is automatic email links, once a email address is entered a link below the name is activated," he noted. "When the organizer clicks on that link, it launches an email program with the email address of the person ready to go."

Many cutting-edge features were added to ease the organizer's job. For example, mailing labels for hundreds of people can be prepared with a single click, he noted.

Another feature of the T-1 is that all screens have matching data collection sheets that an organizer can print and complete while gathering information in the field, Williams said. The data collection sheets are tabbed to assist whoever enters the information into the program at a later date.

According to Williams, the T-1 Program is designed with enough flexibility that any organizer in any union in any geographic location in any industry can use it and adapt it to their organizing strategy or methods.

###