Hello SRI Affiliates and Friends –
What a busy and exciting time of year. You can expect to hear from us often in the coming months as we share with you updates on Winter Meeting 2013, annual board member election, and our fundraising efforts.
If you are receiving this email it means you have subscribed to our email news list. We have approximately 3,150 friends subscribed to our email list. If you are an SRI affiliate, you have taken an extra step to let us know you’d like to actively participate in the organizational development and leadership of SRI. We have approximately 540 affiliates of SRI.
There is no financial requirement or obligation associated with SRI affiliation. Affiliation is simply a way to be actively involved allowing you to join working committees, participate in board elections, run for election, and make you eligible to apply for our scholarships, learning grants, and facilitation opportunities.
If you have voted in previous elections, run for election, received a learning grant or scholarship, or know you’ve clicked the “Yes, I would like to become an SRI affiliate” on an SRI form in the past, then you are among the 540 current SRI affiliates.
If you are not sure of your affiliation status, complete an on-line form to become an affiliate.
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SRI Board Nominating Committee
When the founding members of the board of directors opened the doors of the School Reform Initiative in the fall of 2009, they were committed to creating and sustaining a mission-driven organization. Since then, SRI has continued to develop processes and opportunities for transparency and shared leadership in all areas of our governance and operations aligned with its mission. The board work was guided by a collective commitment to developing an elected, diverse, and representative board. We are excited to begin work on the third annual board election. At the close of this election, the board will be composed of all elected members! In addition, the board will have several non-elected members including SRI staff, who are ex-officio members, the past board chair, and Gene Thompson-Grove, who serves the board as a founding leader of SRI work.
We hope you will participate in the process.
One immediate way you might participate is to serve on the SRI board nominating committee. The nominating committee has three tasks:
- To seek out and encourage members of the SRI community, based on the characteristics identified for open board seats, to be candidates in the annual election;
- To accept nominations on behalf of the SRI board from the field;
- To submit a roster of candidates to the SRI board.
The nominating committee will work during the months of October and November to assemble a field of candidates who are willing take on the responsibilities of an SRI board member. The final roster of candidates will be submitted to the board and an online election will begin in early December. New board members will be announced in early January and will be officially seated at the Winter Meeting in San Antonio.
We are seeking three (3) SRI affiliates to join Sue Ellen Wortzel, representative from the organizational development work group and Gene Thompson-Grove, representative from the board who are serving as co-chairs of the nominating committee.
We hope you will consider serving as a member of the Nominating Committee. This is an important role vital to the future of our organization. If you are interested in serving on the Nominating Committee please contact Sue Ellen Wortzel at suewortzel@talica.org by October 26th
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Winter Meeting Work Group – Your opportunity to help shape our annual gathering
As we launch the 2013 Winter Meeting in San Antonio, our 17th annual Winter Meeting, the SRI board is turning its attention to thinking more broadly about the nature and purpose of the Winter Meeting. As SRI’s flagship event of our organization, Winter Meeting has always been a learning event for those attending, a time and place to do the work that matters most. As we deepen our commitment to holding this annual gathering, we want to raise up and articulate the elements that make the Winter Meeting unique so we can plan future Winter Meetings with the most significant elements in mind.
In the spring of 2012, a group of board members, led by Gene Thompson Grove, began some initial thinking and discussions about the aims and guiding principles of Winter Meeting. We are now ready to broaden these conversations and convene a working group comprised of people in the SRI field.
This is a call for participants to join a working group whose charge is to make recommendations to the SRI board about the role of Winter Meeting in SRI, financially and programmatically, beginning with the 2014 meeting. The original board members of this group created a charter to guide their work. Please click here to read the group’s charter.
The group will work electronically via email, conference calls and other online tools, such and Skype and Google, and will conclude this next phase of the work by March 2013.
Are you interested, or do you have questions? Please contact Gene at gthompsongrove@schoolreforminitiative.org.
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SRI Out and About
Will you be at the CES Fall Forum? Kari Thierer, SRI’s Organizational Director, and Gene Thompson-Grove, SRI founding board member will be there hosting a School Reform Initiative booth! Make sure you find them and say hello!
SRI will also have a presence at the Learning Forward conference in Boston, December 1-5, 2012. If you are planning to attend this conference, check out some of the learning sessions in which SRI affiliates and board members are leading. Don’t miss the opportunity to purchase your copy of Leading for Powerful Learning: A Guide for Instructional Leaders. The authors will be leading a session at the Learning Forward conference.
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Hope to see you all in San Antonio this coming January!
Kari Thierer and Heidi Vosekas
On behalf of the School Reform Initiative
