board updateS
WATG and the Midwest Affiliates of the National Association for Gifted Children
While our midwest sports teams often tend to keep us divided, the midwest affiliate meetings of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) most certainly bring us together. Did you know that in addition to leading the state organization that advocates for gifted and talented students in Wisconsin, we also participate in much larger meetings with others from Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio? Every other month, the leaders from these neighboring gifted state affiliates come together to discuss all things gifted and talented. We share resources and find new ways to collaborate and support each other! Whether we are talking about paradigm shifts, conference strategies, or brainstorming ways to engage our volunteers, every meeting is valuable and encouraging.
You see, gifted and talented is a world where collaboration is necessary. It’s a field where we can and must learn from each other. The best practice for any student, gifted or not, is what we all strive to implement. Within each school in your district, each district in your state, each state in our country, the gifted and talented state affiliates are advocating for the same student needs. Sure, they might live closer to Lambeau, not Soldier field, spend weekends at Wrigley instead of at Comerica Park, but all of the students and families we serve are unified in their desires. They need our state affiliate organizations to provide programming for teachers and administrators, support them in their advocacy efforts, connect them with schools that can help their students find success, and to work with their government leaders to ask for funding.
Each of these state organization’s leaders comes to our bi-monthly meetings with ideas, challenges, and an open mind. Sometimes our bi-monthly discussions are spontaneous. It may start with a report on someone’s most recent conference, an announcement about how someone is reorganizing their board or replatforming their website, or perhaps a call for collaboration on an upcoming event. While each state hosts its own in-person events, it has been fun to connect and learn about what is working and what isn’t. We brainstorm together to solve challenges and take notes from the successes of others to implement when our own conferences draw near.
The state affiliate leaders also get to meet in person at the NAGC conference each year. This past year, it was so much fun to finally see leaders from our midwest group in person in Seattle vs. on zoom. NAGC hosts a wonderful speaker and morning of connecting with other affiliate leaders throughout the country, each sharing common missions, visions, and goals. Discussions ensued about membership pricing and benefits, gifted identification methods, and where funding comes from for each state. WATG’s board president, president elect, membership chair, and two committee members were on hand in Seattle to take part in this Leadership Development “un-conference” and we brought back ideas to share and implement with our board.
Each month we can’t wait to connect with our neighbors again. Whether we are hearing about the structure and success of Illinois’ Leadership Summit, helping Minnesota navigate organizational changes, or taking notes on the updates to Michigan’s conference location, each call is so informative. We are better together, and WATG looks forward to continuing the conversation with the midwest affiliate leaders…as long as the sports team allegiances can stay out of it!
- Mary Pape, WATG President-Elect
