Friday, December 11, 2009
Cumberland is ready now
It's been exciting to wait for the mail and see that we've already had a turnaround on the RSVPs, even though invitations have only been in folks' hands for 3-4 days.
If the first wave of RSVPs is any indication of whether "Cumberland is ready now," I think we're on the right track.
Thanks so much to everyone for your thoughtfulness generating the invitation list. Your knowledge of the town, combined with your passion for learning in Cumberland, is a dynamic combination.
If the first wave of RSVPs is any indication of whether "Cumberland is ready now," I think we're on the right track.
Thanks so much to everyone for your thoughtfulness generating the invitation list. Your knowledge of the town, combined with your passion for learning in Cumberland, is a dynamic combination.
Monday, December 7, 2009
December 3rd meeting summary
Cumberland Town Wide Learning Community Steering Team
Meeting Summary
December 3, 2009
Donna Morelle, Paul Ouellette, Lisa Beaulieu, Ryan Pearson, Carol Bissanti and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat
We welcomed Paul L. Ouellette, Vice President of Community Development and Workforce Training, Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the steering team and partner in this effort.
The holidays arrived a bit early, with Donna bestowing a gift of reading to all of us. Each of us received a The World Café book, The World Café Resource Guide, The Art of Powerful Questions, World Café laminated reference card and a copy of the dissertation that started it all. Thanks to Donna for ordering the books and taking advantage of a great package deal. If you could not make the meeting, contact Donna to pick up your books.
We reached agreement on the following three questions:
1. What would it look like if Cumberland were renown as a "learning community" for all residents? (shared vision)
2. How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town's culture? (defining the action)
3. If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland became a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we take? (creating forward movement)
We still have time to refine the questions if necessary. If you have any other ideas about these questions, please let me know. We may also choose questions to ask at the beginning and end of the world café to solicit additional input.
We reviewed the list. Members of the strategic planning team, including Karen and Rosemary, were added to the list. We decided to have the school principals on the list serve as participants instead of facilitators. When we meet again, we will determine other potential facilitators based on the number of respondents. Donna and Paul will meet with Mayor McKee soon to discuss the event and invite him to give greetings.
We decided to limit the participants to local stakeholders only, so we removed Commissioner Deborah Gist from this list. The group agreed that we would like to communicate our efforts to Ms. Gist and other State officials at some other point in time.
Lisa shared the invitations and response cards. They look great. Cindy Chabot and Donna worked on the mailing list. Most of the invitations were mailed by Friday December 4th.
Carol, Donna, and Lisa will visit the Blackstone River Theatre to help inform specific arrangements for that day. Carol is working on a materials list.
The group will meet again on Wednesday December 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. We will review the RSVP list to date and plan our work based on the number of responses. We may need people to make phone calls ect. We also need to determine our parting messages to the group on January 9th. How will we communicate with them following the meeting? What are the opportunities for involvement? ect..
Respectfully Submitted:
Rosemary Reilly-Chammat
Meeting Summary
December 3, 2009
Donna Morelle, Paul Ouellette, Lisa Beaulieu, Ryan Pearson, Carol Bissanti and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat
We welcomed Paul L. Ouellette, Vice President of Community Development and Workforce Training, Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the steering team and partner in this effort.
The holidays arrived a bit early, with Donna bestowing a gift of reading to all of us. Each of us received a The World Café book, The World Café Resource Guide, The Art of Powerful Questions, World Café laminated reference card and a copy of the dissertation that started it all. Thanks to Donna for ordering the books and taking advantage of a great package deal. If you could not make the meeting, contact Donna to pick up your books.
We reached agreement on the following three questions:
1. What would it look like if Cumberland were renown as a "learning community" for all residents? (shared vision)
2. How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town's culture? (defining the action)
3. If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland became a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we take? (creating forward movement)
We still have time to refine the questions if necessary. If you have any other ideas about these questions, please let me know. We may also choose questions to ask at the beginning and end of the world café to solicit additional input.
We reviewed the list. Members of the strategic planning team, including Karen and Rosemary, were added to the list. We decided to have the school principals on the list serve as participants instead of facilitators. When we meet again, we will determine other potential facilitators based on the number of respondents. Donna and Paul will meet with Mayor McKee soon to discuss the event and invite him to give greetings.
We decided to limit the participants to local stakeholders only, so we removed Commissioner Deborah Gist from this list. The group agreed that we would like to communicate our efforts to Ms. Gist and other State officials at some other point in time.
Lisa shared the invitations and response cards. They look great. Cindy Chabot and Donna worked on the mailing list. Most of the invitations were mailed by Friday December 4th.
Carol, Donna, and Lisa will visit the Blackstone River Theatre to help inform specific arrangements for that day. Carol is working on a materials list.
The group will meet again on Wednesday December 16th from 6:30-8:00 pm. We will review the RSVP list to date and plan our work based on the number of responses. We may need people to make phone calls ect. We also need to determine our parting messages to the group on January 9th. How will we communicate with them following the meeting? What are the opportunities for involvement? ect..
Respectfully Submitted:
Rosemary Reilly-Chammat
Friday, November 20, 2009
Karen's response
Hello Everyone:
Karen had some trouble with the blog, here is her feedback:
I like them all, I would propose making the first question a little simpler though, like "How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town's culture?"
Rosemary
Karen had some trouble with the blog, here is her feedback:
I like them all, I would propose making the first question a little simpler though, like "How can we collaborate to make learning a core component of our town's culture?"
Rosemary
Monday, November 16, 2009
third question
Hi
I agree. We need to engage stakeholders and they need to see how they can benefit. Would we get at that in responses to the first question about collaboration and community assets?
Rosemary
I agree. We need to engage stakeholders and they need to see how they can benefit. Would we get at that in responses to the first question about collaboration and community assets?
Rosemary
Third Question
What if the third question is more of a 'what's in it for me?'.
We are encouraging stakeholders to involve themselves as an more integral part of the long-term solution. Our desire for their commitment extends far beyond this single event, as we have all agreed. I propose:
Why would a town learning community benefit stakeholders?
We are encouraging stakeholders to involve themselves as an more integral part of the long-term solution. Our desire for their commitment extends far beyond this single event, as we have all agreed. I propose:
Why would a town learning community benefit stakeholders?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
How can we collaborate to enhance and leverage our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture?
I changed it slightly because it did not grammatically seem to flow.
If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland becomes a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we choose?
Would it be 'becomes' or 'became'?
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown as a "learning community" for all residents?
replaced 'being' with as.
I think they are great questions!
I changed it slightly because it did not grammatically seem to flow.
If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland becomes a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we choose?
Would it be 'becomes' or 'became'?
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown as a "learning community" for all residents?
replaced 'being' with as.
I think they are great questions!
Update World Cafe Questions
Hi Everyone:
Donna, Tom, and I have all weighed in once with three potential questions. We each selected the question:
How can we collaborate and enhance our community assests by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture? What do others think? Are we begining to build consensus on this question?
In terms of creatign forward movement, I also like the bold steps question Donna posed and the idea of Cumberland as a model in Tom's new question, so I tried combining.
If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland becomes a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we choose?
I am still mulling over the others. I do like the idea of questions that define learning as part of a shared vision. I still like:
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being a "learning community" for all residents? I think that whatever question we chose, it should reference all residents.
Rosemary
Donna, Tom, and I have all weighed in once with three potential questions. We each selected the question:
How can we collaborate and enhance our community assests by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture? What do others think? Are we begining to build consensus on this question?
In terms of creatign forward movement, I also like the bold steps question Donna posed and the idea of Cumberland as a model in Tom's new question, so I tried combining.
If our success was completely guaranteed and Cumberland becomes a model for townwide learning, what bold steps might we choose?
I am still mulling over the others. I do like the idea of questions that define learning as part of a shared vision. I still like:
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being a "learning community" for all residents? I think that whatever question we chose, it should reference all residents.
Rosemary
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Focus Questions for World Cafe
Building on Carol's and Rosemary's thoughts, as well as the feedback from Tom, I've come up with these 3 draft focus questions for the World Cafe:
- If we were successful in creating Cumberland as a townwide learning community, how might we define learning? (Creating shared vision)
- How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town's culture? (Defining the action)
- If our success was completely guaranteed as a townwide learning community, what bold steps might we choose? (Creating forward movement)
I posed these questions for two reasons. First, they all focus on learning as the core element...the web that ties the work together. Second, I tried to pose questions that build on each other and are interdependent.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Donna
Sunday, November 8, 2009
gentle nudge-world cafe questions
Hi Everyone:
Last week I posted an online assignment regarding our World Cafe questions.
Please find some time this week to review and comment. I'd like to have some consensus on questions to use by November 20th. The following week is Thanksgiving so it will be difficult to get work accomplished and we will meet again on December 2, 2009. Since we are not meeting at all in November, it is important to participate on line. It would be helpful for our discussion to have narrowed down the questions we think will work best. We can discuss in more detail on December 2nd.
Thanks and take care, :)
Rosemary
Last week I posted an online assignment regarding our World Cafe questions.
Please find some time this week to review and comment. I'd like to have some consensus on questions to use by November 20th. The following week is Thanksgiving so it will be difficult to get work accomplished and we will meet again on December 2, 2009. Since we are not meeting at all in November, it is important to participate on line. It would be helpful for our discussion to have narrowed down the questions we think will work best. We can discuss in more detail on December 2nd.
Thanks and take care, :)
Rosemary
Sunday, November 1, 2009
World Care Questions- interim assignment
Hi Everyone,
Carol provided a comprehensive summary of where we are to date and tasks to be completed. We have made great progress to date. Paul Ouelette of the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce accepted an invitation from Donna to co-sponsor the World Café with us. Lisa secured the Blackstone Valley Theatre for January 9th and is looking into January 23rd as a snow date. Lisa is also working on a save the date and an invitation for the event. The list is being shared among all of us to populate with potential World café participants.
At the last meeting, we also agreed to begin an online dialogue about the questions for our World Café.
Carol provided a handout including questions we had initial agreement on at our meeting on October 6, 2009 including:
1) What would it look like if all community representatives partnered with schools to take mutual responsibility for student achievement?
2) How do I envision my role in the community where all adults clearly assume collective responsibility for every student’s success?
3) What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents?
4) What are the opportunities/dilemmas in developing a partnership between all community members and the school department on behalf of the town students and residents?
5) What would it look like if every member of the community contributed to the education of our youth?
6) If our success was completely guaranteed as a Town Wide Learning Community what bold steps might we choose?
Other potential questions including how they can assist in moving the work forward might include:
7) What would it mean if Cumberland’s motto read: Cumberland a town where opportunities to learn are abundant? (defining the vision)
8) What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being “a learning community” for all residents? (defining the vision)
9) How might we “band together” to contribute to a town wide learning community where learning is a priority for everyone? (defining the action)
10) If we were successful in creating Cumberland as a town wide learning community, how might we define learning? (creating a shared vision)
11) How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town’s culture? (defining the action)
You will note that there is some redundancy in the questions. Carol advised that we consider:
1) The scaffolding of the questions rather than sequence.
2) The questions should be independent yet related.
3) Consider key components or domains of inquiry. For example: I identified three potential domains within each set of questions:
a. Learning community defined (questions 1, 6, 7, 8, 10)
b. Contribution to the learning community (questions 2, 3, 5)
c. Collaboration within the learning community (questions 4, 9, 11)
Please review the questions. We need to have three questions for our World Café.
Please choose three from the list or generate others to post on the blog.
I would offer:
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being “a learning community” for all residents? (8)
What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents? (3)
How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town’s culture? (11)
What are thoughts about these questions. Do you think they will help facilitate the work at our World Cafe? Will the questions help us engage the participants and identify next steps in our work?
I look forward to your ideas and the discussion.
Rosemary
Carol provided a comprehensive summary of where we are to date and tasks to be completed. We have made great progress to date. Paul Ouelette of the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce accepted an invitation from Donna to co-sponsor the World Café with us. Lisa secured the Blackstone Valley Theatre for January 9th and is looking into January 23rd as a snow date. Lisa is also working on a save the date and an invitation for the event. The list is being shared among all of us to populate with potential World café participants.
At the last meeting, we also agreed to begin an online dialogue about the questions for our World Café.
Carol provided a handout including questions we had initial agreement on at our meeting on October 6, 2009 including:
1) What would it look like if all community representatives partnered with schools to take mutual responsibility for student achievement?
2) How do I envision my role in the community where all adults clearly assume collective responsibility for every student’s success?
3) What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents?
4) What are the opportunities/dilemmas in developing a partnership between all community members and the school department on behalf of the town students and residents?
5) What would it look like if every member of the community contributed to the education of our youth?
6) If our success was completely guaranteed as a Town Wide Learning Community what bold steps might we choose?
Other potential questions including how they can assist in moving the work forward might include:
7) What would it mean if Cumberland’s motto read: Cumberland a town where opportunities to learn are abundant? (defining the vision)
8) What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being “a learning community” for all residents? (defining the vision)
9) How might we “band together” to contribute to a town wide learning community where learning is a priority for everyone? (defining the action)
10) If we were successful in creating Cumberland as a town wide learning community, how might we define learning? (creating a shared vision)
11) How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town’s culture? (defining the action)
You will note that there is some redundancy in the questions. Carol advised that we consider:
1) The scaffolding of the questions rather than sequence.
2) The questions should be independent yet related.
3) Consider key components or domains of inquiry. For example: I identified three potential domains within each set of questions:
a. Learning community defined (questions 1, 6, 7, 8, 10)
b. Contribution to the learning community (questions 2, 3, 5)
c. Collaboration within the learning community (questions 4, 9, 11)
Please review the questions. We need to have three questions for our World Café.
Please choose three from the list or generate others to post on the blog.
I would offer:
What would it look like if Cumberland were renown for being “a learning community” for all residents? (8)
What would I contribute (knowledge, skills, experiences, human/program resources) to assist our community in supporting learning for all Cumberland students and/or town residents? (3)
How can we collaborate and enhance our community assets by focusing on learning as a core component of our town’s culture? (11)
What are thoughts about these questions. Do you think they will help facilitate the work at our World Cafe? Will the questions help us engage the participants and identify next steps in our work?
I look forward to your ideas and the discussion.
Rosemary
Friday, October 30, 2009
CORRECTION TO NEXT MEETING DATE
Hi Everyone:
Thank you to Carol, for noticing an error in the posting about the date of our next meeting. It should be Wednesday December 2, 2009. I previously said the third. Please make the correction in your calendar.
Thank you and take care,
Rosemary
Thank you to Carol, for noticing an error in the posting about the date of our next meeting. It should be Wednesday December 2, 2009. I previously said the third. Please make the correction in your calendar.
Thank you and take care,
Rosemary
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
A Fitting Quote...
"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.", Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
next meeting
Hello Everyone:
I hope you had a chance to enjoy this beautiful day.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday December 3rd from 6:30-8:00. In the meantime, we will move forward with our work via email and the blog. Donna will be sending out "the list" with instructions soon. I will post information on the blog this week related to domain and question development for our World Cafe discussion. Finally, Donna is reaching out to the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce to ascertain their interest in partnering with us in this endeavor. I am looking forward to a positive outcome.
Rosemary
I hope you had a chance to enjoy this beautiful day.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday December 3rd from 6:30-8:00. In the meantime, we will move forward with our work via email and the blog. Donna will be sending out "the list" with instructions soon. I will post information on the blog this week related to domain and question development for our World Cafe discussion. Finally, Donna is reaching out to the Northern RI Chamber of Commerce to ascertain their interest in partnering with us in this endeavor. I am looking forward to a positive outcome.
Rosemary
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Hi Team,
Establishing a Purpose and Intent for the Cafe
We are definitely closer to reaching consensus with regard to the Cafe intent. The grant introduction has created the vision for the purpose:
"Imagine a town where learning is a priority for everyone; from children to grandparents, a place where learning is a core component of the town's culture... A place where the town bands together to give everyone opportunities to grow and capitalizes on its existing resources by bringing together key stakeholders to make a difference..."
Based on our on-going discussion the purpose of the Cafe would be to introduce, explore, and consider what it would take to turn this vision into a reality. The Cafe would be the precurser to the work, but provide information vital to action planning.
Let's be ready to determine who the key stakeholders are that need to have this World Cafe "conversation" with us.
Carol
Establishing a Purpose and Intent for the Cafe
We are definitely closer to reaching consensus with regard to the Cafe intent. The grant introduction has created the vision for the purpose:
"Imagine a town where learning is a priority for everyone; from children to grandparents, a place where learning is a core component of the town's culture... A place where the town bands together to give everyone opportunities to grow and capitalizes on its existing resources by bringing together key stakeholders to make a difference..."
Based on our on-going discussion the purpose of the Cafe would be to introduce, explore, and consider what it would take to turn this vision into a reality. The Cafe would be the precurser to the work, but provide information vital to action planning.
Let's be ready to determine who the key stakeholders are that need to have this World Cafe "conversation" with us.
Carol
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)