Hello everyone!
I hope that you’re having a great week. Here at RHS, we have two days of semester finals… so I have some time during the day to write!
Last weekend, the WACA Board braved the weather to meet in the Tri-Cities. Many drove over the snowy passes, only to be greeted by our three-day windstorm with gale force winds! Ah, such fun! And at the end of the meeting, I have a PLETHORA of items to share with you! Ready? Here we go!!
First: The WACA website – The website (wacaonline.org) is back up and running strong. Our Technology Coordinator Ryan Healy breathed new life into our ailing site. It has a great new look, and is pretty easy to navigate. One of the favorite pull-down menus is the “Idea Share”; it gets thousands of hits, from all across the country (yes, WACA rocks!!). Well, Ryan wanted me to remind you that you can add items. Got a cool activity or mini-lesson? Go to the website, click on the “IDEA SHARE” tab at the top (it turns green for you), and scroll down to the “Your Ideas” section. Follow the easy prompts, and submit. Try it out!
While you’re in the idea share area, notice that there is a button for “Leadership Videos”, lots of great short clips for use in your program. Most videos are 3-5 minutes in length; although there are some longer ones, like “The Butterfly Circus”. Take a peek!
Next: The WACA Conference, WACA 2014 – Help! (Beatles theme) is just around the corner! I’ll start with the “surprises” I mentioned in my last email. There are a few!
Okay, now for some conference “bits and pieces”:
Okay! That’s enough for now (that’s a lot of info!) Give me a call if you have any questions/comments.
And have a wonderful evening!
Jb
I hope that you’re having a great week. Here at RHS, we have two days of semester finals… so I have some time during the day to write!
Last weekend, the WACA Board braved the weather to meet in the Tri-Cities. Many drove over the snowy passes, only to be greeted by our three-day windstorm with gale force winds! Ah, such fun! And at the end of the meeting, I have a PLETHORA of items to share with you! Ready? Here we go!!
First: The WACA website – The website (wacaonline.org) is back up and running strong. Our Technology Coordinator Ryan Healy breathed new life into our ailing site. It has a great new look, and is pretty easy to navigate. One of the favorite pull-down menus is the “Idea Share”; it gets thousands of hits, from all across the country (yes, WACA rocks!!). Well, Ryan wanted me to remind you that you can add items. Got a cool activity or mini-lesson? Go to the website, click on the “IDEA SHARE” tab at the top (it turns green for you), and scroll down to the “Your Ideas” section. Follow the easy prompts, and submit. Try it out!
While you’re in the idea share area, notice that there is a button for “Leadership Videos”, lots of great short clips for use in your program. Most videos are 3-5 minutes in length; although there are some longer ones, like “The Butterfly Circus”. Take a peek!
Next: The WACA Conference, WACA 2014 – Help! (Beatles theme) is just around the corner! I’ll start with the “surprises” I mentioned in my last email. There are a few!
- This year, the WACA conference will have a yearbook! Yep, every delegate will receive a “yearbook” of our conference. One of our vendors, Balfour Yearbooks (Kerri Smead, out of Renton), is offering the service. Balfour will take photos of each delegate, and cameos of the various activities, and they’ll create a yearbook. Then they will deliver a yearbook to each delegate (no charge!) soon after the conference ends. Way cool!
- If you’ve checked out the website, then you know that we’re offering an extra Pre-Conference session this year. Since we’re here in the Tri-Cities, President Tim Turner thought it would be great to offer a Hanford site tour! So he arranged for a tour of the historic B-Reactor. The tour starts early – Wednesday morning at around 8am; we’ll ride out to the site and have a grand tour, and have lunch on the return trip… about 4 hours all in all. It’s at the regular pre-conference fee. What a cool opportunity, and I imagine that area 8 folks probably have the easiest time getting to the session. One condition though – the tour is based on a minimum number of attendees (but has a maximum of 40). So, if you’re interested, be sure to sign up. The deadline for reserving your spot is February 15th.
- The WACA Social: In past years, at the end of the awards banquet, we’ve had some entertainment prior to the official start of the social. Well, this year we have a special speaker – Mr. Robert Fulghum. If you’re familiar with the name, you’re already jumping up and down. If you’re not sure, he’s the author of the book “All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten” (He has a number of books to his name, all great reads, all filled with inspiration, humor, and down-home wisdom.) So be prepared for an hour of warmth and laughter after dinner on Thursday.
Okay, now for some conference “bits and pieces”:
- Meals: If you’re doing a pre-con, lunch on Wednesday is included. Dinner on Wednesday is “on your own”. (The predominant feedback on conference evaluations suggested that people wanted Wednesday night to touch base with friends. If you want suggestions for dining in the area, check out the ”conference location” bullet on the conference 2014 menu of the website). Thursday, all of your meals are taken care of. On Friday, breakfast is provided, and we’ll close the conference and send you off with a “box lunch”.
- Lodging: The Hilton Garden is already full, but the Red Lion has lots of room. And there are a variety of other hotels in the immediate area. Check out the website for a list, and for contact information.
- Attire: Casual attire is the conference norm. Some folks dress up a bit for the Awards Banquet on Thursday. And everyone wears school colors on Friday (wear your favorite school shirt/sweatshirt).
- Don’t forget that part of the conference involves elections. President-Elect, the Middle-Level Representative, and our Area Representative are all up for election. In addition, we’ll take applications for two appointed positions, the Program Coordinator and the Treasurer. Check out the website for position descriptions, or chat with me – I’ll be happy to share ideas/info with you.
- Past-President Kari Bradley is organizing the Resource Table this year. She wants me to remind you that she will have lots of books and other items to peruse/purchase this year. So file those POs, warm up those P-cards, dust off those checkbooks, and get ready to haul away some great resources.
- In our area meetings, we always have give-aways/drawings. So, let’s continue the tradition. Like last year, if you’d like to participate in ourChocolate Basket, just bring some of your favorite chocolate. When you drop it in the basket, I’ll give you a ticket. We’ll draw a winner on Friday. Likewise, if you want to win our Movie Basket, just bring in your favorite DVD or your favorite movie treat, and get a ticket for a drawing on Friday. I’ll have some other surprises and drawings as well… but you’ll have to wait and see!
- And don’t forget, we’re going to have lots of presenters from Area 8, sharing all of the neat things that we do in our programs over here. Let me know if you’re interested in presenting, or if you know someone who does something really neat that THEY should share. Check out the website for Session Presenters application, or again, just let me know.
Okay! That’s enough for now (that’s a lot of info!) Give me a call if you have any questions/comments.
And have a wonderful evening!
Jb