Welcome 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