Tag Archives: meeting

Breakfast meetings

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I really think that the opportunity to ‘break bread’ at a meeting makes the meeting special. Breakfast and lunch meetings are more than a chance to get work done, they are also an opportunity to connect.

It’s not just about filling your belly, and it’s about the sharing of more than a meal. It’s an opportunity to build a connection that goes beyond the necessities of work. The act of eating together helps to build relationships in a way that a regular meeting doesn’t allow.

Breaking bread is a way to build relationships that simply doesn’t happen when food isn’t one of the things being shared.

Instant feedback

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Yesterday, at our welcome back session for principals, one of the assistant superintendents asks us a couple questions to get feedback on what we thought was important for our district visioning. This is a typical kind of exercise to start the year. Usually this data is collected then in a later session we look at the data and trends.

But instead, he had us do the activity individually, then connect as a table group to prioritize our results. Then one person per table put the top 5 answers into a Microsoft form.

The assistant superintendent then used Copilot, Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence LLM, to not only collate the data, but also to look for trends. He did this during a break so that we were not waiting on him. Then we came back and discussed not only the results but also his line of questioning.

Probably my favourite part of this is when he told Copilot, ‘here is the data’, but forgot to paste it in. Why? Because it’s important to model that you can make mistakes when trying something new.

I was discussing with a colleague before the meeting that I was hoping to see this happen. I’m tired of people collecting large amounts of data that will then take hours to assess, when we have new technology that can find trends invisible to us in mere seconds.

In the meeting we still did a lot of activities to connect us to our peers, we still had great table talks and meaningful conversations, but when it came time to collect and assess data we didn’t go old school, instead we took advantage of the technology available to us in a meaningful way. And yes, more analysis of the data may come later, and not all of it using AI, but to have this powerful tool use available and to not both use it and model it, would be a real shame.

It was really great to see this happen in yesterday’s first meeting of the year.

Travel to meet

I’m in Courtney, BC, for a meeting of BC Provincial Online Learning School principals. We are fortunate that we will also be joined by the Ministry. I took the ferry here yesterday and arrived in time to join 5 other principals for a late dinner.

The dinner was enjoyable even though 80+% of the conversation was work related. That’s the nature of these meetings, because my colleagues from other districts across BC understand my job in my district better than 95% of my colleagues ‘back home’. And as we talk, we learn, we seek advice, we share, and we support one another.

All that before the meeting even starts this morning. We are principals of online school. We can easily connect online and that’s mostly how we connect. But sitting at a dinner and breaking bread together; Seeing each other face to face and in group, adds something special; And the effort made to travel to be together makes us appreciate the opportunity even more.

Meeting face-to-face

Today I’m headed to Surrey to meet with other principals in charge of Provincial Online Learning Schools. My commute is less than an hour, some of my counterparts from around the province had to fly or drive in last night to get to the meeting on time this morning. We will be meeting with a representative from the Ministry of Education in the morning, and also have a full agenda for the rest of the day.

In many ways I have more in common with these colleagues from other school districts than I do with most colleagues in my own district. Being a principal of an online school has very unique demands, policies, and challenges which make our jobs unique. We don’t fit in the box of a traditional school principals, and often when I come across a challenging situation it is these distant colleagues that I turn to for support or clarification.

When we meet as a group it is usually online. But today we connect face-to-face. I can’t express the value it has provided to connect with these principals in person. Over the years I’ve made some valuable friends, and gotten to know some amazing educators thanks to these meetings. I’ve built relationships that would have been much harder to make if we only ever met through a screen.

There is a lot of power in physically getting together for a meeting rather than just doing so online. As a principal of an online school, that’s an important thing to remember and reflect on.

Online rather than cancelled

It started to snow massive snowflakes just before 3pm. I looked at the forecast and after a lull at 5pm there was a good chance of the snow continuing to fall for a few hours. Our school is at the lowest end of the city, not far from the Fraser River, and so when it’s snowing here, it’s a lot worse elsewhere… including at my house only 3.5 kilometres away.

We had a Parent Advisory Council (PAC) meeting scheduled for 7pm. I called my PAC Chair and she and I decided to move the meeting online, rather than hybrid as we’ve offered the rest of this year.

I sent a quick email out and we made the switch. Turnout was similar to when we have the meeting blended… and no one had to drive in our hilly city where snow ploughing doesn’t always happen in a timely manner. As it turned out, the snow wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and we probably could have held the meeting at the school. However, it could easily have been bad enough to cause issues for parents coming to and leaving the meeting.

Five years ago we would have either kept the meeting as planned with a poor turnout, or postponed the meeting. The idea of hosting the meeting online would not have been something we would have considered. But last night it was ‘business as usual’ with a full agenda and everyone meeting from the comfort or their homes.

A few weeks back I was in a meeting that someone was stuck in traffic for, and he listened in from his car. Before that, I was home with a bad cough, and was still able to join in remotely for a meeting that I really wanted to attend. It’s interesting how practices can change in a relatively short time. This can also have negative consequences, like expecting someone to join a meeting remotely even when sick or on vacation (not just by expectation, but also from a sense of obligation). But it can also be extremely convenient, saving hours of transportation time. I’m running a meeting on Friday and while 12 principals from across the province will be meeting at my school, most will come from nearby, and another 8 will join us online, saving themselves from ferry and plane trips, or from very long drives.

There is real value in meeting face-to-face and online meetings can be void of that connection you have in a physical meeting… but the convenience of meeting online is pretty amazing, and when it comes to things like inclement weather, a switch to remote instead of cancelling is a pretty good option!