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The WEAC Summer Conference will have a new location and an entirely new agenda for 1999, with a dominant focus on developing strategies and skills for implementing the Great Schools Initiative.
The conference will be August 1-5 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, a beautiful campus slightly south of and midway between Madison and Milwaukee. But the change in scenery will be overshadowed by the change in the conference itself.
“This conference will be like none before,” said WEAC President Terry Craney. “It will be built around the singular goal of implementing this enormous initiative that will dominate WEAC's energy and resources for years to come.
“This is not business as usual."
3:00 - 5:00 p.m. Registration
5:30 - 6:15 p.m. Welcome and General Session
6:15 - 12:00 a.m. Picnic & Dance
All Day Sessions (8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.)
This is a wonderful opportunity for you to apply team building skills in a real life outdoor setting. Teams, if they are effective, have dual responsibilities. These responsibilities are to accomplish a task (task function) while maintaining their effectiveness as a group (maintenance function). In addition to assessing your team roles, you will have an opportunity to connect organizational systems to natural systems. That is, to examine the forces that form nature and to compare them to the forces that form organizations.
You and your teammates will spend a full day on the beautiful Bark River which flows through the State Wildlife Area. In addition, a variety of activities are planned including the formation of teams, team planning, canoeing, sharing observations of natural systems, applying this knowledge to organizations and storytelling.
Introductory material will include a viewing of the video by Margaret Wheatley, author of the book Leadership and the New Science.
You may sign up by teams or individually. Individual applicants will be placed in teams by the trainers. This great outdoor experience assures success for the experienced as well as the tenderfoot by providing fellowship with your colleagues in the natural beauty of the foothills of South Kettle Moraine State Forest and the Rome State Wildlife Area.
This hands-on interactive session has been designed to give participants the tools needed to respond to their local issues. It replicates the PR/Communications training offered to UniServs throughout the year. The centerpiece of this session will be the recently developed PR Handbook. This handbook includes strategies for use in assessing local needs, local message development and delivery tactics, and centers around the development of relationships with the media, the community and the members themselves. This session will emphasize helping locals assess, identify and clarify their issues, and then develop PR/Communications programs which can meet those local needs in a positive way. Participants will get great ideas and will leave with the knowledge of how to develop a locally successful PR/Communications program. Local PR contacts, association vice-presidents, and local PR teams are especially encouraged to attend this training.
This is a two-part session. The all day session will include both part A and B. Part A only will be repeated in an afternoon session.
This is a full day specialized session for members of the Student WEA affiliate.
All state leaders, chapter leaders and members of chapter and state committees should attend. A special invitation is extended to all StWEA who want to become more involved in chapter and/or state activities. Members from across the state will have the opportunity to meet one another, network, learn, enhance their organization skills, and develop leadership skills/competencies. What better way to start the membership year?
Topics include:
Lodging is available for those StWEA members who wish to arrive Sunday for this Specialized Session.
In this daylong workshop, we will explore the opportunities web pages provide for organizing class research projects. We will learn how to design basic web pages to support curriculum units, as well as design simple projects using the Web. Bernie Dodge’s “WebQuest” framework will be used to facilitate these activities.
Consistent with the Great Schools Initiative, skills gained in this workshop will enhance opportunities for educational personnel to communicate with parents and the community to build support for quality public education.
Participants should be able to negotiate the Internet comfortably, have good command of word processing and graphics tools, and possess an interest in using the Web to support classroom work.
Enrollment is limited.
Half Day Sessions (Morning & Repeat in Afternoon)
This three-hour session will allow participants to learn about a number of policies which are of importance to educators. Topics to be discussed include the following:
Written materials will be provided and participants will be given an opportunity to discuss these issues.
New technology requires mastery of new skills. Rapid growth of the Internet requires knowing how to browse the Web. As the Internet becomes more integrated into classroom curricula, web browsing becomes more of an "essential" skill to be mastered.
This session familiarizes new users with the Internet software used to view and navigate the World Wide Web. It introduces search techniques to find specific information among the millions of pages on the web and gives an overview of OnWEAC, WEAC's award winning website.
This session will focus on legal liability issues that relate to educational employees in the area of sexual harassment. It will review the federal basis of sexual harassment law, and the significance of state law and School District Codes of Conduct. The session will also give an overview of the legal distinctions between employee-employee, teacher-student, and student-student sexual harassment. There will be a presentation on recent developments in sexual harassment laws and their impact on school employees.
The second part of this session will review the provisions of both state and federal Family and Medical Leave Acts, the situation in which one and/or the other applies, and the advantages of using each law, depending on the circumstances. The session will also provide an overview of basic provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and will demonstrate the distinctions between the ADA and the FMLA.
Additionally, contractual issues related to bargaining will be discussed. How will recent decisions related to age discrimination, cafeteria plans and tax-sheltered annuities affect your contractual rights?
Also, we will discuss your issues and concerns dealing with legal issues in education.
Half Day Sessions (Morning Only)
Teams are always changing and are affected by internal and external forces. Even the most complex tasks can be successfully achieved if there are a common goal and a solid team foundation.
Through a series of experiential activities, participants will explore five disciplines that are key to building an effective association. These activities will also provide participants the opportunity to share new ways of forming self-managing teams, practice their communications skills and build consensus. This program will provide a fun-filled learning experience for those who attend.
WEAC Tax Sheltered Annuity Trust: WEAC TSA Trust Professional Staff
These 90-minute presentations are intended to give local leaders an overview of the programs provided by the WEAC TSA Trust. The services of the Trust will be highlighted; attention will be focused on the seminar series that is available to local leaders for member education in their local. A participant can take one or all of these sessions.
WEAC Member Benefit Trust representatives will discuss the valuable personalized insurance and financial products and services available to WEAC members. Individual long-term care insurance was introduced last year for active members who are not able to successfully bargain this important coverage, retired members who no longer have access to WEA Insurance’s group coverage, and parents of WEAC members and their spouses. Seminars are held continuously throughout the state so members can learn more about closing the gap in their health insurance, preserving assets, and maintaining their independence. Come find out more about the individual long-term care insurance program and the difference between individual and group programs.
Managing your personal insurance risks and your premium dollars will be emphasized. Tips on how to manage your risks appropriately and get the most out of your premiums will be offered. Learn why liability insurance is so important and how much is enough. Find out why choosing higher deductibles is the right choice for most people.
The session will include a discussion of our newest member benefit,
the WEAC IRA; the differences between a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA
and a TSA investment; and why the WEAC IRA is one of the best IRA
investments our members can make.
Take a lesson from Jack and Jill. Jill went up the hill to fetch an early retirement. But Jack started later, so it cost four times more and he worked all the way till the end. The time to start a TSA is now!
Personal savings are a critical component of a successful retirement plan. WEAC members are able to save on a pretax basis by means of a TSA. This seminar is designed to explain the benefits of enrolling in the WEA TSA Trust early in one's career. The centerpiece of this session is an illustration that highlights the tremendous power of compound interest and tax-deferred saving for achieving financial independence during a typical teaching career.
You may feel like Jack's mother (Jack and the Beanstalk), when you are trying to find answers to questions such as how will I make ends meet in retirement? This session may help you retire with a goose that lays golden eggs.
Good planning is critical for achieving financial independence. In this seminar WEAC members are taught to use four easy steps to reach financial independence. The material reviews general retirement savings topics, helps participants collect and analyze retirement planning data, and offers useful retirement planning strategies if a shortfall exists. The centerpiece of this session is the new WEA TSA Trust Retirement Planner software.
Half Day Sessions (Afternoon Only)
This hands-on interactive session has been designed to give participants the tools needed to respond to their local issues. It replicates the PR/Communications training offered to UniServs throughout the year. The centerpiece of this session will be the recently developed PR Handbook. This handbook includes strategies for use in assessing local needs, local message development and delivery tactics, and centers around the development of relationships with the media, the community and the members themselves. This session will emphasize helping locals assess, identify and clarify their issues, and then develop PR/Communications programs which can meet those local needs in a positive way. Participants will get great ideas and will leave with the knowledge of how to develop a locally successful PR/Communications program. Local PR contacts, association vice-presidents, and local PR teams are especially encouraged to attend this training.
This is a two-part session. Only Part A is included in this afternoon session.
Because regular and special education are based on divergent philosophical, pedagogical, and legal models, public school educators have been forced to deal with the inevitable conflicts that have arisen under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This session will explore:
This session will provide an overview of an innovative program for educators pursuing a practical and meaningful approach to continued learning. Comparable in rigor to a master’s degree, the standards-based PDC is designed to coincide with both the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the proposed re-licensure process for Wisconsin teachers. PDC candidates choose their own focus of study and program content, work closely with an advisor, and receive instruction in core areas such as reflective writing and conducting action research.
The WEA Professional Development Academy has been working closely with UW-Green Bay to make this program a reality. The first class of PDC participants is scheduled to begin in the fall of 1999. Representatives from UW-Green Bay and WEAC will present this overview.
As in the story about the tortoise and the hare, sticking with your plan wins the prize.
Making sound investing decisions is critical for achieving financial independence. In this seminar WEAC members are taught to use four easy steps to choose an investment strategy. The material reviews general investing topics, helps participants collect and analyze investment planning data, and offers various investment strategies to select from. The centerpiece of this session is the asset allocation module designed in our new WEA TSA Trust Retirement Planner software.
Sound retirement planning means safeguarding your retirement nest egg to avoid ending up like Humpty Dumpty.
Costly mistakes can scramble a sound retirement plan. In this seminar WEAC members are taught about the five biggest pitfalls to financial independence. The material reviews "fairy tales" spread by some people that work in the financial services business. The centerpiece of this session is a tool for sorting out fact from fiction when comparing TSA programs.
4:15 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. Volleyball, Golf Outing, Bowling Tourney, Road Rallye, Movies, Dance
8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. General Session
9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Building Personal Power
9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Building Power Through Knowledge
4:15 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. Volleyball, Softball, Pool Tourney, Movies, Dance
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Building Power For Unity
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Building Power in the Local Community
4:15 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.Volleyball Finals, Movies, Dance, Participant Showcase
8:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Building Power for Action in 1999-2000
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Review and Evaluation
11:30 a.m. Picnic