BCTEA President’s Message – Sept 11, 2023
As we enter the last quarter of the year, it’s the time where timetable planning and grad events start taking over. Hopefully student projects are taking form and all is well with you. The BCTEA executive met last weekend in the beautiful Comox Valley to spend a couple days mid-year planning (not mid school year, but midway to the next conference.) and visit the PSA Day conference sites. All the members of the executive are excited for the conference in October and hope you are looking forward to it as much as we are. With an understanding that a conference on the island will incur more travel costs for most, you will notice the conference costs are lower than last year. The local committee in Courtenay/Comox and the executive are working to make this another stellar experience. A number of Tech Ed teachers have already applied for additional Pro-D funding through their local and have been covered for travel and accommodation, I encourage you all to look into options in your districts, often there are many thousands of Pro-D dollars waiting to be used.
Other than conference planning, the executive worked through ongoing initiatives. These included updates to the BCTEA Best Practices Guide, improving our lines of communication to you the members (through multiple avenues,) planning priorities for the next bargaining round, creating documentation to improve enrolment in Tech Ed teacher training programs, connecting and making plans to further collaborate with the Washington State version of our organization (WITEA) and planning resources for you through materials and potential grants. We are planning on resurrecting the e-view newsletter and the first edition will include more detail on all of these initiatives. Stay tuned in the weeks before summer for a lot more information on what the executive have been working on. Until then, stay well and keep creating.
Nigel Reedman
President
British Columbia Technology Education AssociationWelcome back to another school year, on behalf of the BCTEA executive I hope
it is a good one for you. As we move into week 2 of school, we are already
hearing concerns of teacher shortages, and this of course is nothing new in
Tech Ed shops. We know it can be stressful when there is a lack of TTOCs and
some programs are even closing but we are all doing the best we can with what
we are given. The BCTEA are continuing to look for ways to support both the
addition of an accelerated TTED program at BCIT and increasing the supply of
qualified Tech Ed teachers through other institutions.
Fall is always an exciting time for the BCTEA as we get near to the annual
PSA Day conference. The executive are indeed excited to be meeting up with many
of you in the beautiful Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. The teachers at G.P.
Vanier (and throughout the district) are working hard at getting everything
organized for us all. The main conference on Friday October 20th is already
looking to have a wide variety of presenters and as usual there will be vendors
to chat-up and all sorts of time to catch up with old cohort friends. The
District Collaboration Session happening the day before (on Thursday) will be
an excellent opportunity to learn about what is happening among the Tech Ed
community and collaborate with LSA presidents or district representatives from
all across the province (and possibly the Yukon and North West Territories.) If
it sounds like you may fit into this role, please see the website and reach out
to Peter Orlandi (our secretary.) See the conference website (at bctea.org) to
help plan your travel and for the many accommodation options and make a weekend
out of the trip!
The executive worked on many projects last year including updating the BCTEA
website and re-starting the group wide email server. We continued looking into
options to achieve Red Seal recognition towards category increases and made
connections to start a partnership with the Washington Industrial Technology
Education Association. After many meetings and rewrites the committee working
on the Best Practices Guide also achieved approval from BCTF Legal and we
expect to formally release this new version in the next couple of weeks.
Here’s wishing you all a great 2023/ 24 school year full of surprisingly
smaller class sizes and additional funding. Hey one can dream right?
Executive
positions up for renewal this year
As many of you know, every year roughly half of the executive positions come
up for renewal. Voting for candidates happens at the AGM during the October
conference. As noted below some members are interested in continuing in their
current role and other positions will be vacant. Should you have any questions
specific to the roles see the BCTEA website or feel free to contact Nigel Reedman
for more specifics. The following positions on the BCTEA executive are
available this year and except as noted are 2-year terms.
• VP (Vacant)
• Treasurer (Mykola Misiak)
• Secretary (Peter Orlandi, but happy to hand off this position)
• Conference Liaison (Vacant)
• Communication and Membership Relations (Vacant) – 1 year term
• Member at Large (Stephen Cobb)
Hopefully some of you are seeing the position on the executive you’ve been
waiting for! Regardless if the current member is interested in moving on or the
position is vacant if any of these looks interesting to you please put your
name forward.
The BCTEA executive wish to express a huge amount of gratitude to Russell
Evanisky, Steve Claassen, and Peter Halim for all the work and volunteer time
they have put in on all our behaves. You will be missed in our meetings.
Nigel Reedman
BCTEA President