Reflections on State Organization Meetings Attended

Since November (after Thanksgiving), I have attended five of our state organization annual meetings/conventions: Panama (November), Alabama (February), Michigan and Maine (April), and Norway (May). Each Administrative Board member who attends such a meeting brings members in that state organization the latest news and "doings" at the international level: committee/board/Foundation work, and how members of those groups are working to move the Society forward successfully. We also fulfill assignments as requested: keynote speeches, workshops, closing remarks, holding installations/initiations, etc. We are not "visitors" or "guests," but Society representatives sent to work and help the state organization president mak the meeting as successful as possible.

However, as Society representatives to those meetings, it is also part of our responsibility to meet members and listen to their concerns and successes and to bring those concerns/successes back to international. All members everywhere are concerned with gaining and retaining members, and are eager to find ways to improve leadership and participation in their chapters.

Panama members were holding their very first state organization meeting, having only been installed the year before. Thirteen initiates nearly doubled the size of Alpha Chapter, and I enjoyed the energy and positive electricity that every single member exhibited. Four seminars for members and non-members were held prior to the initiation and were extremely well attended by younger educators. I worked on my Spanish pronunciation and gave my entire speech in Spanish, even though I do not speak Spanish!

Alabama members were still reeling from the unexpected death of Elizabeth Garner the month before, and her presence was palpable everywhere. New SE Regional Director Libby Watson, however, was making all members extremely proud of the way she was quietly beginning to fulfill Elizabeth's plans for the regional conference in Louisville. I think that, more than anything, Elizabeth's death pulled those members closer together than ever before, and they enveloped me in their cocoon of grieving and remembering, yet optimistically moving forward. It was a weekend of the best of "genuine spiritual fellowship."

President Jackie Smart made overhauling state organization bylaws appear easy and fun in Michigan. Her easy leadership and sense of humor engendered a sense of ease and fun throughout the weekend.  The current Michigan Teacher of the Year was an outstanding speaker and seemed very impressed with DKG, along with interest in becoming a member. Incoming State Organization President Olive Horning stated that her project for the biennium would be "Ten Women of Distinction," a novel idea for chapters. Over the course of each of the next two years, identify ten women of distinction in the community and invite them to a meeting to speak, meet and greet, participate in a panel, etc. They need not be educators, but having them come to the chapter is a fresh way to market the Soceity while helping members learn about their community, and, if they are an educator, meet potential new members!

Maine had the highest attendance at a state organization annual meeting in history, and members were excited and having fun! The site of the meeting in Auburn, Maine, was a hotel on the edge of a gorgeous waterfall. The main meeting room (and my room) looked out on the falls, and the sight and sounds of that falls was music to the soul! The first meeting of the 2013 regional conference steering committee was held, and the meeting room was filled with ideas bouncing in the air from person to person. Conference Chair Rena Kearney kept everything under control (most of the time!). I enjoyed being asked to sit in on the meeting.

Norway's annual meeting was held in Granavollen, about two hours outside of Oslo, in a lovely small hotel with a family feel. A speaker from the University of Norway in Oslo and one who was the mayor of Granavollen (both women) both made visual presentations and were excellent (I had translators whispering in my ears the whole time). Forty six of 77 total members were in attendance, and the business meeting was conducted efficiently, but with great participation and interst by members. Nearly all members speak English fluently, having studied it since first grade, and they were most gracious and hospitable to always switch to English whenever I joined a group. They all understood me when I presented (in English, as I do not speak Norwegian, either)  my international update, my presentation/workshop on the Educational Excellence Committee (that I did in three of the five meetings I attended) and gave remarks at the Saturday evening dinner.

Along the way, the terrible tornadoes and flooding from rain anad snow melt caused Manitoba and Indiana to postpone their meetings. Many of our members have had tornado, storm, and flood damage, and the Emergency Fund checks are being sent as quickly as we learn of their distress.

The winter and spring have been both wonderful and tragic, and I look forward to seeing those I met in their states again at their regional conferences this summer. We are truly a group of leading women educators whos projects and programs are impacting education worldwide. I am proud to call myself one of us.

The Difference We Make

I have been catching up on the newspapers that have accumulated since I was home two weeks ago and the negative educational headlines jump out at me: "Legislators' rhetoric over education still heated" (TN), "Dalton, Whitfield bicker over education spending" (GA), "Allowing tax increase for schools ruled down" (MO), "Schools headed for more failure" (under NCLB), "Gov. Deal revamping plans fo budget cuts to pre-k" (GA), etc.

All of this seems so discouraging, but it isn't anything new. Educators and education have received the brunt of politicians' and the public's frustration whenever social problems and finances are discussed. It sometimes makes us wish we had selected another profession.

Then I get a greeting card with a note in it, or talk to someone who tells of how a teacher made a differenc in their lives, and I realize that, no matter how negative or vitriolic the public debate gets, we are professionals who truly make a difference in the lives of those we teach. We need to remember that more.

I seldom go on Facebook; only when I receive an email that someone has sent me a message do I check it. But, I am gratified that many of my former students have found me and contacted me. My birthday was a couple of months ago (didn't realize tht putting that in my profile would be viewed by so many!) and among the more than 100 birthday wishes I received that day were two that really touched me. One said: Thank you for making my high school years so memorable and for being such a positive influence in my life. You're the best!"

The second, from a young man, said, "Happy Birthday to a wonderful teacher who spoke some words to me one day that helped make me the person I am today. Your impact on people's lives is bigger than you can imagine. May you have a wonderful day!"

I "tear up" even as I type those comments, because I honestly do not remember anything that I could have said to that young man to make such a difference. Nonetheless, these messages and others have been a wonderful reminder to me of the many positive, sometimes unknown, ways that we make a difference in the lives of those we teach.

My junior- and senior-year high school English teacher (a DKG member) was the example that made me want to teach English, also. A couple of years after I had been teaching, I thought about her, looked her up in the phone book, and called her, inviting her out to lunch. She said she had a cold and didn't feel like it, but to call her back in a few weeks. While on the phone, I told her that I had majored in English and history and was now teaching English, and how much her influence and example had meant to me. She was so pleased that I called. Three weeks later, I saw her name in the obituary column. I have never been so glad that I took the time to make that phone call.

We need to let our voices be heard about the positive effect on lives that teachers make. If you had one or more teachers who made a difference in your life, and you haven't told them, do it now.

January Happenings

January began sadly with the memorial service for Southeast Regional Director Elizabeth Garner, who died suddenly the end of December. I was privileged to speak at the service. More than 50 Society members from eight countries attended the service.    I am pleased that Libby Watson (AL) accepted the appointment for the reminder of the biennium.
   With all the technology we are using now, our committees are doing so much more work than in the past! Go To mEetings are a wonderful way to continue the teamwork after the face-to-face meeting, but it's hard when I'm a member of all committes except Nominations! I participated in three Go To meetings and a conference call the first week in January before flying to New York City for the CTAUN Conference, and will have three more GTM meetings the last week of this month!
   Speaking of CTAUN, I had a terrible time getting to NYC because of the snow and ice storm that blew through the Southeast last week. Chattanooga reeived the highest amount of snowfall (eight inches) of anywhere in the South, and Atlanta's airport was closed for two days and days behind after that. My flight on Wednesday to NYC was canceled and rescheduled once, twice, three times. I finally made my own change and Jim (my husband) drove me to Nashville to catch a flight from there. I arrived more than a day late and missed a meeting with the 2012 convention steering committee and a site visit at the convention hotel. I also missed a business dinner with the new Director of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and the director of the Schools for Africa Project for the Fund. Our Executive Director, Corlea Plowman, was there, however, and carried on without me.
   The CTAUN Conference was excellent, as usal. Kudos to Anne Marie Carlson and other conference organizers. The topic of the day was the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. NIcholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the New York Times, was the first keynoter. His message about the plight/position of women in the world was compelling. Other panelist and keynoters also presented wonderful information.
   I'm in Austin at Headquarters now. The Eunah Temple Holden Committee was here earlier this week, and the Golden Gift Fund Committee begins its meeting this afternoon. I continue to be so pleased with the work of all our committees, their commitment to furthering our biennial goals, and their enthusiasm for our work. Kudos to all!
  

My DKG Present

First, apologies that I have not updated my blog in so long! I resolve to do better in the new year!
As things calm down as the holidays move forward (what a switch! Things usually get incredibly hurried for me the closer Christmas comes!), and Jim and I re-assert that we are not giving each other presents (instead, giving to our favorite charities), I look back on the accomplishments of the past several months (when I've been too busy to update my blog!).
Every meeting this fall has seen each committee of which I am a member (all but Nominations) examine how its committee's role can focus on chapter strengthening, educational excellence, and membership diversity and, as a result, the amount of new initiatives and refocused efforts has been astounding! Finance: writing a quarterly newsletter for chapter finance chairs and treasurers to help ensure the financial soundness of chapters; Communications: Broadcasting the Buzz is including news and reminders to chapters from international committees as well as fresh ideas for marketing chapter efforts; Educational Excellence: implementing three major goals of 1) Schools for Africa project implementation, 2) focusing on early-career educator support, and 3) providing resources for five program goals; Constitution: Working to ensure that all state organizations and chapters have written and/or updated bylaws and rules (committee reps from Europe, Canada, and Latin America especially important in this area of chapter and state organization strengthening); Leadership Development: planning the entire new state organization presidents' training around their major role in strengthening chapters; Membership: focusing on retention of members through rewriting all orientation and reorientation materials and process as well as providing a modern/professional initiation ceremony in addition to the traditional one; International Speakers Fund: Working on increasing visibility and funding of ISF and having biannual application periods; Expansion:  Refocusing on chapter strengtheing outside the US in efforts to reinstitute dissolved state organizations and strengthen others.
In addition, regional directors are providing professional foci at each conference that will be advertised and open to non-members, and scheduling SAP training for all state organizations, with the intent that this effort will be continued with chapters in those state organizations (SE did this in 2009, so will not do again).
I don't know of a better present to the president of an organization than to see its members working so enthusiastically and energetically toward a common goal that will ultimately strengthen the entire organization--design its future.
As we move forward into the new year, I am eager to see how the remaining international committees will add to this effort. I truly believe that we have turned a corner in our long-term productivity and vitality as an organization. I am tremendously encouraged. I hope you are, also. Happy Holidays.

Great Orientation/Planning Meetings Accomplished Much!

As I sat at each meeting last week in Little Rock (Regional Directors, Administrative Board, Committee Chairs and Board, Educational Foundation), I just kept pinching myself over the powerhouse group of women who are our 2010-2012 DKG Team. The attentiveness to detail, the ideas, the enthusiasm, the willingness to work for the Society--all palpably shown in every single minute of the meetings.

We are so fortunate to have these women as our leaders, and I look forward to the beginning of committee meetings next week in Austin. September meetings include Performance Appraisal Team, Finance Committee, and Editorial Board, with Communications and Publicity following close after the first of October. Every member of every committee is as eager to serve as their leaders. It's going to be a great biennium!

First Month as International President

My first month as international president for The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International has been so busy! I would use the word "hectic," but that indicates frenzy and it hasn't been that. I came home from the international convention in Spokane and began contacting members to serve as committee chairs and members. The immediate, enthusiastic response was gratifying, and I feel as if, now that all members are in place, we have a "dream team" for 2010-2012.

I went to Headquarters in Austin for four days the first week in August to begin planning, with professional staff, the series of orientation and planning meetings that will occur in Little Rock, Arkansas, in early September. Agendas were discussed for 1) planning meeting with new regional directors, 2) orientation session with the new administrative board and professional staff, 3) a business meeting of the administrative board, and 4) a planning meeting with administrative board, professional staff, and international committee chairs.

I came home and continued to correspond with members about committee appointments. I contacted members about responsibilities on one or more of the planning meeting agendas, talked by phone nearly every day with one or more professional staff members and with International Parliamentarian Jean Gray, and began work on my first President to President newsletter for state presidents that will go out the end of this month.

I continue to work on the planning meetings, read and respond to 50-75 emails a day, have proofed the September/October edition of the DKG News, and am writing thank-you notes as a followup of the convention.

Oh, yes, and my husband and I spent time last week cleaning up the outside and inside of our house (a little weeding, watering of plants, pressure washing the house, killing spiders and tearing down webs, cleaning up the screened porch, dusting and vacuuming the inside of the house--that kind of "stuff"!) preparing for my chapter meeting on Saturday. We had 26 members in attendance and had a wonderful time with the theme of "Celebrate." We celebrated not only my election to the presidency (they presented me with a tiara!!), but also one of our own, Barbara Northcut, being the Tennessee recipient of the Star of the Southeast award at our Southeast Regional Breakfast. We celebrated that our chapter was recognized at state convention in June with a bronze-level Chapter Excellence Award, and that one of our young members is expecting her first child in November! It was a great meeting.

Now I sit here at the computer composing my first public blog, and I hope to update it as a means of keeping our members (and others interested in our educational organization) updated about what the work of an international president entails. I already know that it takes many people to help one person do this job, and I am grateful for all the support of everyone who wants our organization to continue to move forward in promoting the professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. We are, indeed, Leading Women Educators Impacting Education Worldwide.