Mini-retreat

Tomorrow I am leading a four-hour PTA mini-retreat for the members of the board. Our board meetings are on the 4th Thursday of the month, so we lost November’s to Thanksgiving and we lose December’s to the winter break. We are making up those two hours, and adding two more, in the hopes that we can get in front of the rest of the school year. Fall was totally nuts for us; we felt like we were perpetually scrambling to catch up. No one wants a repeat of that this spring, so we’re trying to be preemptive. We hired someone to provide childcare for everyone and we’re hoping to get a lot done!

I have folders for everyone, with copies of all the resources we’ll be referring to. I’m hoping to spend 1-3 hours planning the big spring fundraiser and the date nights we hope to put on, and at least an hour looking at ways we can support the academic achievement of the students.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about how and why to create a family and community partnership school. It’s really exciting to think of what we could accomplish if we do the right ground work. Money and resources will be coming in as part of a Beacon Initiative, so this is definitely the time to be advocating for a community school. I have hope that we can make some positive changes.

I hope the meeting goes well. I want very much to be an effective leader and I’m always worried I’m doing a subpar job. I HATE meetings, and have spent my entire professional adult life avoiding them when possible, so leading them is a very new, and stressful, experience for me. I know no one on the board would ever speak negatively of my efforts, but I still worry about wasting their time. There is nothing I hate more than having my time wasted, I would hate to do it to someone else.

As is the case with everything PTA related, I hope things will go well, and be relieved when it is all over.