The History of Female Leadership in the NALC
This podcast’s purpose is to give a history of women who have stepped into leadership roles within the National Association of Letter Carriers, and discuss the leaders of now and into the future.
The History of Female Leadership in the NALC
Michelle Paulsen
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This episode features Michelle Paulsen, Region 5 ROA. Michelle is a member of Branch 352, Des Moines, Iowa.
Welcome to the History of Female Leadership in the NALC podcast. I'm Craig Schaefer. I'm a city carry in Branch 1015 in Cape Girarde, Missouri. Today I'm excited to have one of my favorite people from Iowa. If you don't mind, go ahead and introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_01Uh my mate, my name's Michelle Paulson. I'm uh from branch 352 in Des Moines, Iowa.
SPEAKER_00All right. And how long have you been with the NALC?
SPEAKER_01Uh I started with the in 2026 as a CCA.
SPEAKER_00All right. 2026.
SPEAKER_012016. I was like 2016.
SPEAKER_00You've had a meteoric rise. Okay. So okay, you've been with the uh post office since 2016, I'm assuming then. Yeah. And uh what brought you to the post office in the first place?
SPEAKER_01Uh so it was one of those never intended to be at the post office, but I ended up here. Um I went to college, I graduated from Iowa State with a bachelor's degree, and then I got a job right out of college working for um Dewpot Pioneer, which is a seed company out of Iowa. And I worked there for about four years, and then they were going through a merger, and so I got laid off. Um, and I got five months of severance pay to try to figure out what I was doing next. And I was like, Well, I gotta find something. There was a whole bunch of other people with a similar skill set that got laid off at the same time. So staying in my field was not gonna be easy. And the post office was hiring, and I told my sister at the time it was just gonna be temporary until I could find a position back in my field, and clearly that's gonna happen because it's been 10 years and I'm still here.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, we're glad you're here. Uh, I'm glad I'm not glad you got laid off, but I'm I'm glad that you got with the post office because I I'm very fortunate that I got to meet you. So that's awesome. Um what you know, obviously, uh, we'll kind of get into it, but obviously you have uh decided to pursue a leadership role in the NALC. Uh, was there something that caused that?
SPEAKER_01Um, I guess I've been like being as I went to college, I've been kind of a driven person to have some form of advancement. And when you started out as a letter carrier, you realize that the only form of advancement at the post office is sitting around for years to get more seniority to get better routes. And so another carrier and steward introduced me, got me more involved in the union. I became a union steward, and then I saw I was like, well, hey, this can be where I can kind of strive for that advancement. I can get involved with the union activities, and it gave me that extra thing that I needed to continue. I mean, it's the reason I continued working at the post office is that my involvement in the union.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, um what positions have you held?
SPEAKER_01I'm in a number of them. So I've been uh steward for a long time, I've been trustee and sergeant of arms for my branch. Um I'm currently the uh Iowa State Association treasurer. I've been the I was the food drive coordinator for about eight years. Um I publish our newsletter for my branch, and I am probably will say the region five unofficial IT support.
SPEAKER_00I can see that, yes. I uh I every time I see you, you're not very far away from your computer. I'll put it that way. I you're always plugging away on it.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, and usually when there's a technical issue, they're they're looking for me in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00Yep, yep. And so now, um what are your what is your current duties or what is your current position, and then what are the duties that go along with that position?
SPEAKER_01So and I've been in it for about a month. Uh I am the regional office assistant or ROA for the Region 5 office. And so um that position is where you kind of handle the front desk, uh, you answer the phone, you deal with the mail. I'm also the one that actually sends the um impasse grievances to for arbitration, and you're kind of the office manager in a sense, and you deal with a lot of different things um to help the R O Rga R RAAs and the MBA at the office.
SPEAKER_00So you just kind of do everything.
SPEAKER_01Kind of that jack of all trades. What needs to get done's got to get done.
SPEAKER_00Hey, that's uh extremely important position. And uh I think you know, I I had to call and bug you the other day, and you helped me out. So I think you're doing great at it. Even you know, a month in, you're already killing it. So uh, well, um, you know, you've been around for about 10 years, you said, and um, you know, you've seen a lot of stuff, you've done a lot of stuff. Have you uh had any personal experiences with any kind of discrimination or harassment? And uh, if so, how did you deal with the situation and do you feel it was got resolved?
SPEAKER_01Um, so I thought I thought about this one hard, and then I haven't had, you know, those really heart-wrenching experiences, but I have had a lot of times um when I was first starting with the union where I kind of got told that I needed to wait my time to do certain things or that I was getting too far ahead of myself. And it made me kind of take a step back and be like, well, just because you're not ready to for me to be in this position doesn't mean I'm not ready for that. And what really helped was that, you know, while certain people said those things, there were other people in the union that saw my potential and gave me the opportunities that it might have been missed otherwise. And so it was really just that, you know, if somebody doesn't recognize your talents, other people will.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. And um, I was very fortunate to come hang out with you guys for a couple days at one of your fall trainings up in Iowa. And you guys have a great group of people up there. I I really, really enjoyed my time with you guys, and it was very supportive. Like you could tell that you guys were a cohesive unit and uh were getting the jobs done. So yeah, that I'm glad that I'm glad you didn't let those people uh tear you down. I'm glad you kept fighting through. Um another question, and this actually this question, you know, is very relevant to you with what has transpired over the last month or so. Um, you know, in your new position here, has this, you know, normally I'm I'm angling it like, oh, you travel and you're away from your family, or you know, you're dealing with uh steward positions and you're away from your family, you're on your phone, you're on your laptop with you, you literally had to pick up and move to St. Louis from Iowa. And has has that, you know, how is that how is that working for you? Has that caused any trouble for your friends, your family, you know? Uh what what are you how how is that working for you?
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, it's it's it's a little both ways. Um most everyone has been super supportive. They understood why I took the position, and you know, this is my advancement. There are people upset, of course, me leaving. You know, I lived in Des Moines for my 15 years before, you know, so I have a lot of established there. I lived with my sister, you know, my other sisters there with your kids. So there's a lot of people upset, but understanding, you know, I was like, you can be mad, that's fine. But you have to understand that I gotta make choices for my own life. I mean, the hardest one for me was like make my boyfriend is course still back in Des Moines, and so making the decision to move here without him, but it's also like he understood you know, my passion for doing this. I mean, I spent I think I looked at it last year with the amount of times I was in St. Louis at different times and being the outside steward for different offices. I probably spent six months working for the union last year. And so I was like, it's it's time I do it full time, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And I mean, the that's awesome that your boyfriend is supportive of you and understands your passion and everything. So that's that's that's I would think that would be super helpful because I it seems to me that the the ladies that I've interviewed, the ones that have that supportive backbone behind them saying, hey, go get them, get them, you know. That's uh the it it it just works. So you don't have that on your mind when you're trying to do the work of the union. So that that's great. That's shout out to your your boyfriend. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Well, and look luckily for the two of us is that we're both really nerdy and we enjoy online gaming, and so that has become our date nights is online.
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, and if you're even in the same room, you're sitting at a different computer, because I've seen my daughter and her boyfriend doing it, and they're playing and they're in the same house, but they're completely not talking to each other other than on the the the computer screen. So, hey, I mean that works out, and I guess that's a good thing about technology these days, you know, even when you're away, you're not really away.
SPEAKER_01You're not too far.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So I think that kind of leads into my next question. Um, what do you when you do finally shut your laptop off and when you turn the the work phone off and you are ready to just chill out? What do you like to do? How do you unwind and relax? And do you what are your hobbies?
SPEAKER_01So I would say I always tell people jokingly, I'm a pretty crafty person, and you can take that definition however you want. Uh, but in this sense, uh, I like to do crafts. So I crochet, uh, I do cross stitch. Um actually two years in a row, I submitted cross-stitch projects to the Iowa State Fair. Last year I won four ribbons for the different projects that I submitted. Um I my fake claim to fame for Region Five would be the little Dave that I had at the Region Five Rap Session this last year, um, that now hangs out in the rest of his office. But yeah, I liked craft. Other than that, it's video games and hanging out with my dog.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Hey, that's um sounds like you're you're keeping yourself busy anyway and doing some fun stuff. So that's that's all that matters. That's awesome. Um, so um, you like I said, you've been around for 10 years, you have done an amazing amount of things in those 10 years. So if there is someone out there listening to this podcast right now and thinking, you know what, this might be something I want to do. I might want to, you know, start dipping my toes into some union activity. What would be uh piece of advice that you would give that person?
SPEAKER_01Um, so another thing we haven't talked about to add to this, to understand where this is coming from, is that I I as long as I've been in the post office, I've been in scouts. Um, cubmaster, my nephews and niece were in the program. So one thing I always tell the kids, and I tell anyone that asks you learn from every experience. Good experiences, bad experiences. You learn and grow. And in the union, as you learn and grow, you'll find your area, your niche, the thing that you do that you can do better than everybody else. And that may not be what you thought it was at the beginning, but as you go through those good and bad experiences and you take those pieces with you, you'll find where you belong in the union.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. You're right. That's that's great. Um I think that once again, I highlight this on any episode that anyone says anything relatively like that. It's not all about a title, it's not all about, you know, you know, frankly, it's not all about just filing grievances. There's other parts of the union, and you can find your spot if if that's not your thing. Now, there's a lot of people that just love the grievances and being a steward and everything. That is great. And so, but there's also people that like doing the food drive, and that's super important. And so, yeah, I I think I I always appreciate when we have someone that is obviously, you know, a a contract enforcer, someone that knows that contract and enjoys that, to say, hey, other jobs are just as important. I think that because a lot of times people that are more into community services or whatever might be like, well, I don't think I'm as important as that. And so it means a lot coming from someone like you that, you know, like I said, is a contract guru to tell other people that, you know, hey, you don't have to do this. This is not for everybody. There's other jobs that are important. So thank you for that. I appreciate that because I'm personally one of those people that is just not a big steward contract grievance guy. It's just not my thing. I don't enjoy it. I'll do it, but I don't enjoy it. So yeah, thank you. That made me feel good. So thank you.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I the the food drive has been such a passion of mine. I mean, this leaving, I moved my start date back so that I could be at my branch for the last food drive because I was like, I've been on this for years. Yeah, worked so hard this year to to get it to where it was. And I mean, we collected I mean, in Des Moines we collected four times as much food this year as we did last year. Wow. And so I was just like, like, that's one of those, you know, grievances, sure, I can win. You can beat management, you can know the contract. Okay, that that's easy. But the impact, the community service stuff we do and with MDA, with the food drive, that doesn't just affect letter carers, that affects everybody.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. You're you're exactly right. And we uh we have a new food drive coordinator that just started this year for our branch, and he did a great job. And I was really, really proud of him. He he stepped up out of nowhere and said he'd take over because I'll I just got to the point where I was like, I got too many things going, I just don't have time. And he stepped up and so, yeah, and and really I he's the same way, he's like very passionate about it, and it that's super important. Um, so um I I'm out of questions, so I'm just gonna turn it over to you, ask you, is there anything that I missed, anything you want to add? The floor is yours.
SPEAKER_01I just want to say the biggest thing I've learned and all the things I've done is that leadership's a choice. And if you make the choice to be a leader, then your decisions matter. Now, it doesn't matter if you're a branch president, if you're just a union steward, if you're just a food drive coordinator, if you're just helping the union out. You chose to be a leader over all your coworkers, all your fellow letter carriers, so what you do matters. The title, that's nobody cares about your title. It's about what you do.
SPEAKER_00There you go. That's can't make anything better. That's perfect. Thank you. Well, uh, Michelle, I really appreciate you doing this. I know you've had a long week, uh, and you I sure could have been doing something else this evening, but you you you uh chose to do this with me tonight, and I really appreciate it. I won't hold you on here anymore. Um thank you for being on, and thank everybody else uh for listening, and uh be safe and be kind of a little bit of a lot of people.