School Council Chair Training session

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Permalink Reply by Gord Wyse on August 17, 2010 at 1:44pm

Birgit, I have attached a Powerpoint presentation I do for all school council chairs in our Board on how to run effective meetings.
Of course the real life Questions and Answers are the real meat- after I present the material there is usually a healthy sharing of concerns and potential solutions, we also have the Principal's sit in so everyone is working on the same assumptions.
Good Luck
Gord

Attachments:

• Running effective meetings.ppt, 1.5 MB

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Stewart on August 17, 2010 at 10:34pm

Glad you shared this Gord. I saved the one you sent me awhile back too. I really liked it. Thanks for sharing again!
Sheila

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Permalink Reply by Lorna Costantini on August 19, 2010 at 11:54pm

Terrific presentation Gord. Thanks for sharing. You make some really good points about staying on track.

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Permalink Reply by Hazel Peel on March 2, 2011 at 10:33pm

I just read the powerpoint presentation you provided.  Thank you!!  This will be very useful to me!!  So glad this older discussion is still available to us.

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Permalink Reply by Gord Wyse on August 17, 2010 at 2:23pm

Birgit, one other thing- you should acknowledge that meetings and likely topics will be different between High school and Elementary and the expectations at the different levels should be discussed ie. if someones experience is only at elementary school level, they shouldn't assume that what issues/solutions they have can be carried over to High school councils. Although some topics like running meetings are true for all levels and for that matter all types of meetings school or not. If this is not clear or you would like an example let me know.
My last wow comment would be- The Principal and the Chair need to "bond" or at least respect each other and this comes only through working with each other. So I beleive it is important to match the Chair training with the Principal also participating.
Gord

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Stewart on August 17, 2010 at 2:26pm

I second your last "wow comment", Gord....:)

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Permalink Reply by Birgit Knoll-McArthur on August 17, 2010 at 6:31pm

Thank you so much, Gord. The importance of having the principals involved in the training session seems to be really important and beneficial.
Big THANK YOU also for your power point presentation.
Birgit

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Permalink Reply by Birgit Knoll-McArthur on August 17, 2010 at 6:40pm

Hi Marion,
I will certainly check that out. Thanks for sharing, and for your input regarding school councils in general. You are right, as school council chairs we need to be sensitive to all of our parents' concerns, no matter if our children are at the beginning or at the end of their elementary or secondary school career.
Thanks again.
Birgit

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Permalink Reply by Joanne MacEwan on August 19, 2010 at 3:22pm

Great topic: We, at Ottawa Catholic, have run a Forum for 4 years now. Our format works for us. Our Director invites all the principals and the school council chairs to an evening event. We have a speaker for the first half of the evening on the topic(1 hour max). Then we break into small groups (12-15 people) and have the groups discuss the topic and report back to the organizing committee. We use a high school and we use classrooms. Then we produce a pamphlet. The questions are in the pamphlet. Our first Director's Forum was call School Council Best Practice brochure It has really built a lot of trust and good relationships in our board. The results and our pamphlet is on our Catholic School Parents Association website. www.OttawaCSPA.ca. Look under announcements on the right at the bottom. Feel free to use any of this information. I agree with what has been said, you need to have the opportunity to have everyone at the table talking and working together and building trust.
Good luck! Joanne

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Permalink Reply by Birgit Knoll-McArthur on August 20, 2010 at 8:48am

Hi Joanne,
I like the idea of having a speaker , to start the event, and include group sessions to allow for networking. The pamphlet is an add on which would be helpful after the event. I appreciate the sharing, and the permission to use any of the info on the website.Great stuff.:)
Birgie

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Permalink Reply by Lorna Costantini on August 19, 2010 at 11:53pm

Hello Brigit Here is some of my experiences with School Council Chair training sessions. Niagara Catholic DSB hosts a Chairs' meeting annually in October. Every School Council Chair is given a Board logo School Council Chairs handbook which contains the MOE School Council Handbook; information on how the Regional School Council/PIC is organized; contact info for School Board administration and trustees. We have found having break out sessions allows for small group discussions and reporting back to the entire assembly helps cover a large number of topics. The break out sessions are lead by parent members of the Regional School Council. Key issues in leading meetings and the role of the school council chair are some of the topics discussed in the break outs. We try to keep the formal part of the evening short to allow for networking. This gives School Council Chairs a chance to learn from each other and form partnerships. The Secondary School Council Chairs have found it helpful to have their own breakout session. Principals are in attendance with their School Council Chair. Administrators are encouraged ( really encouraged) to keep their presentations short to maximize the time parents have to talk to each other. Nothing is worse then having parents leave to take care of their families when the session goes over time. Creating an email list of contacts and distributing it to everyone is welcomed. Feedback and session notes are distributed to the School Council Chairs after the evening.
Hope that is helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Birgit Knoll-McArthur on August 20, 2010 at 8:54am

Yes, that was very helpful. I have had a great response to my question, and I am able to take something from all of them and hopefully turn it into something, chairs can build on , having basic guidelines and the benefit of the networking.
Our event will happen at the end of October,just after new trustees may be elected and this might also be a good time to have trustees involved, who are going to represent parents at the board level . Our principals will definitely be there.
Thanks so much for your comments.
Birgit

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