Monthly Collegial Meetings.

The main reason that VIT started their CRT Network initiative was to encourage CRTs to meet on a regular basis because they often missed out on this opportunity through schools.  Teachers with positions within schools are able to use appropriately themed sections of staff meetings as valid PD submissions and they wanted CRTs to have access to the same collegial sources as their non-casual counterparts.  To accomplish this the Wodonga CRT Support NEtwork runs 11 collegial meetings per year.

Our meetings are held monthly on alternating Wednesdays and Thursdays (usually) in the Wodonga South Primary School library. We have avoided "the second Wednesday of every month" type scheduling because we don't want to exclude those who have other meetings or their child's piano lessons every Wednesday and so on. Alternating between Wednesdays and Thursdays allows us to work around these sorts of scheduling in people's lives outside of the Network.  

Meetings are held from 4.00pm to 6.30pm on the scheduled days and we do our best to remain as flexible as possible!  If you have arrive late or leave early then by all means do so!  If you have to leave half an hour early?  That is perfectly OK too!  The idea behind the structure is to allow as many people as possible to participate in a way that's perfectly suitable to them.

Meetings that are PD workshops (and this will happen occasionally) are a little more rigid and we do prefer that you attend for the proper amount of time in these cases.  At the same time we also realise that sometimes late arrivals or early departures just can't be avoided, we only ask that if at all possible you arrange to be there for the full duration if the meeting is a workshop.

Meeting schedule 2015:

• No Meeting January 2015
• Wednesday the 18th of February 2015 - concluded.
• Thursday the 12th of March 2015 - concluded.
• Wednesday the 29th of April 2015 
• Thursday the 28th of May 2015
• Wednesday the 17th of June 2015

Note:  We will be posting 2015 meeting dates at the earliest possible time.

A new page for each meeting will appear on our main blog in the lead up to the next meeting. It will set the main topic as well as provide any specific details that may be needed.  Announcements will also appear on this blog with a link to the relevant page.

Meetings dates may suddenly appear in RED along with an announcement!  These dates are specially scheduled meetings arising from an opportunity we have been able to take advantage of.  This could be in the form of a guest speaker, a visit to a school for varying purposes and so on.  These bonus meetings will be at times which are unusual and therefore outside of our regular schedule - other speakers will be incorporated into the regular meeting schedule when possible.

What goes on at meetings?

Our goal is to make sure that meetings remain friendly and social as well as be informative and a source for your annual VIT registration renewal PD requirement. We like to keep things as informal as possible with an open structure to allow everyone to benefit by attending while at the same time keeping it on topic to help you down the road to your renewal.

Although topics are set to drive discussion, meetings are somewhat of an open format and subject to change should the need arise. We always have a plan before we start the meetings but if someone brings in something of importance or interest to look at then we are able to go with that instead should enough people want to. If only a few people want to have a look at the topic someone has brought in? Then we encourage a small group to break away for a while and discuss it! The whole purpose of these meetings is to get you what you need when you need it, not for us to decide what that is for you!

Because some of us are coming right from work to attend the meeting we also provide afternoon tea to tide you over until dinner as well as a capsule coffee machine for all of your coffee/hot chocolate needs as well as tea and so on. We cover this cost with a simple gold-coin donation at the door.

If you have any special dietary requirements please inform us prior to attending a meeting by emailing me at wodongacrt@vit.vic.edu.au a couple of days in advance.  Please put "diet for meeting " as the subject so we can get right on top of it!

Meetings and formal PD.

Occasionally, if the opportunity arises, we will replace the monthly meeting with a 2 to 2.5 hour PD with a presenter. We don't envisage this happening very often but sometimes an opportunity presents itself that's just too good to pass up! While we strive to bring hands-on workshop experiences to our members, the format of these PDs could be anything from question and answer sessions to workshops or more "chalk and talk" lectures. Unlike many of our PDs these are member only sessions - I remind everyone that membership is completely free with absolutely no attendance requirements.

If this is going to happen we try to give everyone at least 6 weeks notice but it's not always possible.

Melinda Lichnovsky-Klock

Wodonga CRT Support Network Coordinator.