Networking

I am in the early stages of this very large project and this is a time to get the word out about this idea. I am putting the word out through announcements on public bulletin boards in Sutton village and Knowlton village. I plan to use the Ressource Familliale here in Sutton (Family Resource Group). They have a newsletter and I hope to be featured in their next newsletter. The town of Sutton also has a newsletter and I will try to get into that as well. There is another community newspaper for which I write a regular column, but it only comes out four times a year. The next one will come out in the winter. The autumn one has already received my submission. When I wrote it, this project did not yet exist!

Word of mouth and networking are strong tools to use for a project like this. I have an advantage in that I worked at the P.E.A.C.E. School (La Petite Ecole Alternative des Cantons de l'Est) in Fulford, which is about 25 minutes drive from Sutton, in 2003 and 2004. People around here remember the P.E.A.C.E. School and how we did our best there to provide an environment for self-directed learning for young children, kindergarten through grade 6 level. That school had a very head-strong founder and director and she took the school in a direction that some parents were not so keen on. That made the long drives on winter roads more trouble than they were worth. The school was also supporting 3 full time teachers when it could really only support 2. We had 24 children as a maximum enrolment. Still, people remember, and when I remind them, or inform them, that I worked there, they get a feel for my commitment to alternative educational environments and my history as an educator in this region.

The fact of the matter is that I do not socialize very much. I am a morning person and do not stay up past 8:00 pm most evenings! Yet over the past few days, I have been in a number of social gatherings and have made the most of them.

On Wednesday, I hosted my singing group and Niki, who produces the radio show that I am featured speaking about this project on, told me that the radio show will be re-recorded due to technical difficulties which I mentioned in a previous post. She also expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for this project and told me that her daughter might be my first client.

On Friday, I had tea with my friend Bobbie. Bobbie gave me some important information about Sutton School. Networking works both ways. We give out information about ourselves and our projects, but we also learn about the context within which our projects will be functioning and hopefully thriving. Bobbie's son's girlfriend is a new teacher at Sutton School. I had thought that Sutton School was very well run and a model of the Quebec educational system's progressive thinking and excellence. Apparently, the Sutton School lost a very capable principal about ten years ago, and since then, has been through four principals. They are with the fourth one now, and she is apparently proving to be strong enough to take on the challenges of the school. These include a rising student population, over-crowding and the usual disempowerment of teachers to the point that they cannot enforce appropriate discipline in their classrooms. They are teaching as many as 30 children in a classroom, using classrooms built to hold about 20 - 22 children. This is not good for concerned parents. I now have information that helps me to talk more knowledgeably to parents in the weeks and months ahead.

Bobbie also suggested to me that I make an appointment with the new principal of Sutton School, meet with her and explain to her what I am doing. I had not thought to do that.

On Saturday, Mary and Norm came over to my house to have supper with me and my husband. After supper, Mary and I were talking about my new project and she mentioned that I should register with the provincial authorities so that my business has a 'tax number.' I had not thought of that either! Here in Quebec, Canada, we are obliged to collect the goods and services taxes, both the federal and the provincial taxes, on all services provided. So, I guess I should look now into registering as a business entity. My friend Ilia recently started a business, so I will ask her how she went about doing that. I don't think it is very difficult or complicated.

Last evening, my husband and I were invited to a wine and cheese social at a neighbour's home. We enjoyed our time there and I spoke of this project to two women, both of whom work in the local school board as support professionals. One is a speech therapist and one is a psychotherapist. My hostess for the evening, Phyllis, is the psychotherapist. She is a very social person. Her husband worked at the local high school for many years as a math teacher, and between the two of them, they know a lot of people! Phyllis urged me to target parents of students at Knowlton Academy, which is the English elementary school in the neighbouring town of Knowlton. She suggested that I speak to the principal there, much as Bobbie had suggested that I speak to the principal of Sutton School. So, I'm getting a lot of urging to involve the local schools. The speech therapist even suggested that I train the local teachers in techniques and strategies to teach children to teach themselves! I'm not quite ready for that yet. But maybe I am getting there. Phyllis is friends with the principal of Knowlton Academy and offered to 'introduce me' to her, through a phone call or email. This is a very helpful connection! I shall follow up with Phyllis this morning on this and hopefully will be able to meet with the principal of Knowlton Academy within the next week or two, before school starts in September.