My first pick is MinneMinds, a coalition of seventy plus organizations in Minnesota campaigning to increase public funding to provide access to quality Early Childhood care and education for three and four year olds who live in financially challenged homes. The organization has impressed me in it's ability to harness resources and lobby with laser like focus. Although I am not interested in working for them, in a way, I lobby on behalf of their efforts. To be a competent lobbyist, one needs an extensive knowledge of public policy and how it gets crafted and know how to build relationships with policy makers, legislators, and other stakeholders. I have good people skills.
www.minneminds.org
My second pick is Minnesota's network of Early Childhood Initiatives or ECI's. ECI serves greater Minnesota's efforts to provide quality early childhood experiences to children and support for providers who care for them. I chose this organization because I am familiar with the work they do. I am often invited to a community by an ECI to speak to business and community leaders in support of investing in Minnesota's youngest learners. ECI's are lead by regional directors. To be an effective regional director, one needs to understand the communities represented in the region, have the ability to collaborate with other professionals, and organize activities. I would need to be a much more organized person to competently fill the role of an ECI director.
www.smifoundation.org
My third pick is the Minnesota Association for Family and Early Education (MNAFEE). MNAFEE is a professional organization representing teachers, administrators, and providers in the field of early education and parent education. The organization supports high quality family and early childhood education for children and their parents in the state. The organization is run by one person who supports the work of several boards within the organization. The position is largely clerical. Computer skills, scheduling skills, and office management skills are all necessary to the position. Although I would be able to do the job, it does not make use of what I do best, work with people face to face.
www.mnafee.org
Hello Kathy
ReplyDeleteThat is wonderful that you are already experienced with working with one of these organizations. I admire that. It seems that even though you may think you need better organizational skills to better regional director, there must be a spark in you that ECI sees when they invite you to speak for them. It is wonderful that already you have participated in a CoP. I hope to learn from you during this course.
Ivelisse
Katy,
ReplyDeleteSo nice to talk to you again. I know we are not in the same class, but we are both blogging again. LOL Great ideas on your state and or local organizations. It is amazing what we have in our communities and in our states when we really start to understand and build our communities of practice. Hope to talk to you again, Melissa
Katy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing some of your early childhood resources in Minnesota. It is always interesting to me to see the programs offered in other states. This especially intrigues me coming from living most of my life in Illinois and moving to Iowa and experiencing teaching in both states.
I look forward to reading more of your blog entries!
Nicolette
Katy,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your choices and I am amazed by the wealth of resources that you seem to have in Minnesota. I wish we had as many in North Carolina! I always gain much information from reading your posts on the discussion board and I know that I will also glean just as much from your blog posts. I look forward to working with you during this course! Monette
MinneMinds sounds like such an amazing organization! I wish that where I lived we have more organizations like this. I wish there were more people that advocated for children in this area. I think that being a regional director for an organization that advocates for children would be a great experience and quite a rewarding one. What an awesome experience to be able to speak to business and advocate for children. I think if you were to stick with it you will gain those organization skills to become a great leader!
ReplyDelete