Serving on State and Regional Education Organizations

Dana GoodierBlog, Lead Better, Manage Better

TL;DR:

  • Serving on the board of directors for a state or regional organization is a great way to give back.
  • When organizing a conference, consider who your keynote speaker will be.
  • You will also need to book exhibitors and sponsors.
  • Make sure participants get what they need and know where to go.
  • Ensure that session speakers have everything they need to get set up, including technology accommodations.

Serving on State and Regional Education Organizations

I’m writing this blog post coming off the yearly spring conference of the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers (CCFLT), of which I am on the board of directors. I was an active French teacher in Colorado until 2016 and attended that conference and ACFTL (the national organization) regularly. In 2020, when they had a call for volunteers to be on their board after the spring conference, I replied with my interest. Although I was/am still no longer in the World Language classroom, I wanted to give back to this organization that had given so much to me.

Joining the Board

When I joined the board, I felt honored to be asked. I’d actually been on the ballot for a board position in 2011 but wasn’t voted on at the time. We still had virtual monthly meetings until August 2021. We put on our fall conference 2020 and spring conference 2021 virtually. I started with being on the membership outreach committee and in 2021 became the chair of the communications committee.

I wrote this blog post for YOU to also consider being on the board of directors of a state or regional organization. It’s a way of giving back. Click To Tweet

One of the tasks of this committee was to examine whether or not to continue to publish a newsletter. We’d gotten very few submissions up until summer 2021. Since I was already a Teach Better blogger, I suggested we do a call for guest bloggers. This way, we were able to have people who submitted interest send articles every quarter.

Bringing In a Keynote Speaker

For the spring conference 2022, I was the one who brought in our keynote speaker, Steven “Étienne” Langlois, an “educational rockstar,” Code Breaker author, and French teacher from Ontario. I’d had Steven on my podcast a year prior, and during the conference, we did a live recording of another podcast episode, based on his keynote address.

Exhibits Committee

In the summer of 2022, I took over as the exhibits chair, since the former exhibits chair became president-elect. Since I had worked with exhibits at the spring 2022 and fall 2021 conferences, both of which were in-person, I had an idea of what was necessary for reaching out and booking the exhibitors and sponsors. I was pleased that we had 18 exhibitors and 7 sponsors this year!

Spring Conference 2023

The spring conference went off without a hitch. It was actually less stressful than a year ago. It could be in part due to the fact that the hotel had much more staffing than in February 2022. Or it could also be that I knew what to expect from being behind the scenes of a conference. While the total number of participants wasn’t too much higher than last year (around 250), still not up to pre-pandemic numbers, we on the board made sure participants got what they needed, knew where to go, and that the session speakers had everything set up in terms of A/V.

I’m proud to serve on a state organization of passionate educators. I’ve made a lot of friendships and we continue to bring on new board members when someone has to step off due to life’s business. I have learned a great deal about what goes on “behind the scenes” of putting on a conference and being the resource participants need.

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Leadership Opportunities

I’m transitioning from exhibits chair to president-elect as of April. I would not have considered being president of this organization had a few past presidents not mentioned it to me last February when the current president-elect hadn’t quite committed. While I’ve had a year to “warm up” to the idea, I’m honored to be voted on by my peers. While I have served in building leadership, state organization leadership is quite different. We’ll see what challenges arise and what positive outcomes I can provide Colorado World Language teachers during my upcoming presidency in 2024-25.

I wrote this blog post for YOU to also consider being on the board of directors of a state or regional organization. It’s a way of giving back. You will likely need to commit to one Saturday morning a month and a busier time during conference planning. The rewards are great.


About Dana Goodier

Dr. Dana Goodier has 23 years of experience in education. She has taught World Languages and English and worked as a middle school administrator. She completed her doctorate degree (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership early 2020. For her dissertation, she researched reasons parents were opting their students out of high-stakes testing at middle schools and how that affected the district accreditation rating.

She often speaks at conferences, providing educators with techniques to minimize off-task behavior and to increase time on task. She is the host of the “Out of the Trenches” podcast, which features educators who share their stories of resiliency. She’s also the author of the book, “Out of the Trenches: Stories of Resilient Educators.”

Follow her on Twitter @danagoodier and visit her website at: www.danagoodier.com