SEAC Update

I love e-mail. It gives me the ability to communicate in the most efficient way I can. I can send e-mails to as many people as I want, yet still maintain some semblance of organization. E-mail gives me the opportunity to edit my thoughts and hopefully relate my feelings in a non offensive but strong manner. I can be also be a pain in the you know where and still feel I am trying to be nice.

I have no idea if I am successful. I do get positive response from my e-mails, but perhaps people are being nice, or just trying to dismiss me. I do care about perceptions, but this is outweighed by my desire for results. Time will tell.

That said, we recently had our third SEAC meeting. I am genuinely feeling good about these meetings; the enthusiasm and participation is positive. However, when a group of people meet, and have no formal structure or guidelines in place, meetings can be haphazard and disjointed. I recognize it does take more than three meetings to form a cohesive group, but I am getting concerned that the school year will be over, and we will not have accomplished anything.

This was my recent e-mail to our ad hoc planning team. I hope they do not think I am being a *itch, merely a concerned organizer who likes to see results.

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping to get your buy-in as to what I believe some next steps are for our new SEAC. Last night's meeting was good, and S’s work a great step in getting our structure together.

I'm not sure you all noticed, but I am getting a bit concerned as to our progress (I am kidding - I think I was way too transparent last night). Anyway, as we noted, the school year is almost over and if we do not have some semblance of committees in place I believe we will need to completely regroup in the fall, and lose some of the forward momentum we currently have. I also believe we should meet over the summer.

So - I propose that before the next meeting the following tasks are accomplished:

1. Draft by-laws distributed to distribution list with edits to be sent to G (J - I am going to edit to incorporate Sally’s mission and goals – will send to you by end of week)

2. Information about subcommittee interest be distributed and response sent to J. This includes the following:
a. Which subcommittee(s) are you interested in?
b. Would you like to be team member or a Chair?

3. Initial subcommittee homework be distributed by J as follows:
a. Take the goals we agreed on, and based on your subcommittee use these as the basis for the subcommittee goals (two or three). There will be a lot of crossover, but this is good, it will help us execute to our goals.
b. For each goal identified - think of one or two action plans to reach this goal
c. For each action plan identified - think through a measurement where we will know we were successful.

For example – if you want to be on the Communication Committee and the goal you chose is:

To seek advice from parents on district practice and policy relating to special education to involve parents in influencing decision making

Your action plan may be to have three open meetings with parents to communicate this, and the measurement would be having the three meetings and gather information to present to the District.

I hope this makes sense to everyone….please let me know if you have any concerns or comments, just hoping to get us on a faster track. Since I am so good at over committing myself I will prepare #2 and #3 and send to J, or whoever would like, to distribute.

Thanks for all your hard work.

My promised tasks have been completed and forwarded on. The next step is distribution and cooperation. As I said before, if we want to make a difference in the education of our children we have to collaborate. I feel the desire in the air, but actions will speak louder than words. Come on, let’s get this going!