More Food for Thought on Proposed Amendments

This continues a series of blogs related to proposed amendments to the DKG Constitution and the International Standing Rules recommended by the International Membership Committee. This post explains our proposal to remove the requirement that training for state membership chairs must be held prior to regional conferences.

Article VIII - Committees

Section B. Society Business

7. Membership Committee*- appointed

b. The committee and the appropriate professional staff shall provide training for incoming state organization membership chairs.

• By removing the restriction that training has to occur at the regional conferences, the Society is given the flexibility to conduct training any time that best meets the needs of the state membership chairs

Article X - International Conventions and Regional Conferences

Section C. International Conferences

1. Training

c. Training will be provided for incoming state organizational membership chairs.

• This gives the Society flexibility in how the training is presented
• While we feel it is best to be able to conduct training with other state membership chairs, that is not always possible due to job or family obligations and/or financial constraints prohibiting some state membership chairs from attending.
• The International Membership Committee piloted a set of webinars of the regional training for those who were not able to attend the last regional. These webinars can be found at https://tinyurl.com/ycu54wuz. Not only do these webinars provide information to state membership chairs who were not able to attend the preconference sessions but they also will serve as a reference for all state membership chairs.

Explaining the Proposed Amendment to Include Collegiate Members

 

This is the second in a series of blogs related to proposed amendments to the DKG Constitution and the International Standing Rules recommended by the International Membership Committee. This post will explain the proposed amendment to create a new membership classification for women preparing to become educators.

Article III Section B. Classification

4. Collegiate members shall be undergraduate or graduate students who meet the following criteria:

a. Undergraduate student collegiate members shall (1) be enrolled in an institution offering an education degree and have the intent to continue academically and professionally in the field of education; and (2) be enrolled within the last two years of their undergraduate education degree.

b. Graduate student collegiate members shall have graduate standing in an institution offering an education degree and have the intent to continue academically and professionally in the field of education. When a collegiate member starts her career as a paid educator, she will pay active member dues and become an active member. If a collegiate member does not pursue a career as an educator, her membership will expire upon graduation or withdrawal from the education degree program. 

• The Society’s Purpose 2 states, “To honor women who have given or who evidence a potential for distinctive service in any field of education.” Over the years, the emphasis seems to have been on women who have given distinctive service in a field of education and overlooked the phrase “who evidence a potential for distinctive service.” If we truly believe in our Society’s statement of purpose, we must search out women who show the potential for outstanding service and nurture them in order that they can achieve that distinctive service. How many times have you worked with a pre-service teacher and recognized that the young woman truly had the makings of a great teacher and could take advantage of the benefits of membership? Would you have loved to invite her to membership but realized you couldn’t under the current membership rules?
• This amendment would also support the DKG project, SEE – Support for Early Career Educators. According to a National Center for Education Statistics Study, “Among beginning public school teachers who were assigned a mentor in 2007– 08, about 8 percent were not teaching in 2008–09 and 10 percent were not teaching in 2009–10. In contrast, among the beginning public school teachers who were not assigned a mentor in 2007–08, about 16 percent were not teaching in 2008–09 and 23 percent were not teaching in 2009–10” (https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011318.pdf) Just think what type of impact on education worldwide DKG could make if these young women had this organization as a mentoring, supportive network as they journeyed through their pre-service training and beyond?
• By bringing these women into membership before they graduate and other opportunities and obligations arise we may be more likely to keep them after they have experienced what DKG can offer them.
• This amendment would expand the options chapters have when considering women for membership. It would be up to each chapter to decide if they wanted to include collegiate level members in their chapter.
• Wording is included in the amendment to include instances where a student might change her career goals and her membership would expire.

ISR 3.0 Membership–General

3.4 Collegiate Membership

3.41 A collegiate member may participate in the activities of the Society except holding office.

3.42 A collegiate member may serve as parliamentarian since the position of parliamentarian is not an elected office

ISR 4.0 Finance–General

4.1 Dues

4.11 International active dues shall be U.S. Forty and No/100 Dollars ($40.00), and international reserve and collegiate dues shall be U.S. Twenty and No/100—Dollars ($20.00). Beginning in 2012 international active and international reserve and collegiate dues may be adjusted each biennium based on the United States of America Social Security Administration’s Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) average for the previous two (2) years, rounded up to the nearest whole dollar

• These two proposed changes to the standing rules would give collegiate members the same membership standing as a reserve member.

For more information on this and other proposed amendments to the Constitution and International Standing Rules go to https://tinyurl.com/yd5do2mk where you will find videos and narratives explaining them.

Paper Lanterns and Peace

Recently, DKG/UN representative Lochie Musso was privileged to attend the screening of the film, Paper Lanterns.  Below is her brief summary of that occasion.

Paper Lanterns and Peace

Seventy-three years ago, on August 6, an event occurred that changed the world forever – nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, it brought an end to World War II in the Pacific Theater, and it also transformed the way we looked at war.

One young 8-year-old boy on that day, a survivor, remembered something else. He recalled that shortly before this happened, 12 soldiers from an American plane crash nearby were imprisoned in a military jail in Hiroshima. Years later, Shigeaki Mori began a journey of almost four decades to tell the story of those 12 U.S. soldiers killed in the atomic bombing.

Mr. Mori was the guest of honor at a recent UN briefing sponsored by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Japan. Paper Lanterns is a documentary film depicting the unselfish efforts of Mr. Mori’s research and determination not to let these men be forgotten. His persistence in reaching out to all 12 families was his reward, he said. Now they knew the true account of their loved ones. Today, this history can be found in the text books of Japanese students. Two years ago, President Obama was invited to and participated in the annual August 6 memorial at Hiroshima where the 12 men were officially recognized for the first time along with the others as victims of the bomb.

During the Q and A that followed, Mori was asked what kept him at this endeavor for so long. Through an interpreter, he said, “We are all humans. No one should be forgotten, and no one should be subject to this again.” His message was one of peace.

Paper Lanterns, a film by Barry Frechette, should be seen by everyone and especially young people. For more information on the film go to http://wwwpaperlanternfilm.com or contact Mr. Tom Kono (konot@un.org).

15 Privacy Settings You Should Change Now!

Online privacy continues to be an issue. Almost daily, an article is published about companies sharing private information. There are many settings in the various apps and online connections that you can change to protect your privacy.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, this blog will be linked to an excellent article by the Washington Post “Hands off my data! 15 default privacy settings you should change right now!” by Geoffrey A. Fowler (with permission).  The directions are in layman‘s language and cover Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.

DKG members are encouraged to tighten up their privacy settings. Make cyberspace a bit safer.

World Fellowship: Meet Nargiza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Nargiza

Nargiza is a Fulbright scholar from Kazakhstan who came to the United States to study International Educational Management. Her dream is to open an educational agency in her home town back in Kazakhstan. She would like to create a computer program/website that would allow students to become more proficient in English.

Read in her own words about this technology that she wishes to support:

“I learned while working for a Taiwanese company that our world places a great importance upon technology. For that reason, I strongly endorse this online teaching platform. It provides so many practical advantages for just about every student. I strongly believe that this online platform should be used for audiences in Kazakhstan. It's already been tested on students in China and Taiwan, and we've found that they were able to learn English whenever they chose and wherever they were at. All they needed was access to the Internet through a mobile phone or a tablet. Isn't that amazing?

It is also very convenient for teachers, too. In addition to teaching English, I am a young mom. If I didn't have this platform to work with during the hours that my baby is asleep, I really couldn't say when I would fit teaching into my schedule. Instead of wasting time in a daily commute to an office or classroom, I conveniently work from my laptop at home. This online teaching platform has become not only a necessity for me, but also for physically handicapped English teachers, for whom a commute would be a real struggle. With a laptop and home wifi, these teachers are able to earn a living online, sharing their linguistic knowledge in a way that would have been impossible before this platform was available. Think of it — with a single website dedicated to Kazakh teachers, we could bring in young moms, the mobility-challenged, and really just about anyone who wanted to teach English and earn extra money for their well-being.”

Generic Email Addresses

Who do I send this to? What is her email address? I can’t remember where this form goes! Why can’t this be easier?

I’m sure most of you have been in this position at one time or another. To alleviate this problem, many DKG groups, particularly at the state organization level, are introducing generic email addresses.

What is a generic email address? Instead of sending to the state president (suzie@gmail.com), you would send to president.tau.rho.state (By the way, that is a fictitious address.) The rest of the Executive Board would have similar emails: vp.tau.rho.state@gmail.com; rec.secty.tau.rho.state@gmail.com; etc. Committee chairs could be included: membership.tau.rho.state@gmail.com.

These should be set up by one person. The information, both addresses and passwords, are recorded and securely saved.

The officers and chairs would use their generic emails strictly for DKG business (not personal) during their tenure. When new officers and chairs take over, the generic email addresses and passwords are passed along.

The members are the real winners. They don’t have to remember/find a personal email address. Updating email addresses on documents as well as the website and newsletter will be a thing of the past.

Are you ready to simplify correspondence? It may take a few minutes to set up but will make things easier in the long run.