What's important from the Fall WAETAG newsletter?

WAETAG, the Washington Association of Educators of the Talented and Gifted, sent out their fall newsletter this week. There's quite a bit of content for a 10-page spread:

• The organization is soliciting nominations for their annual Leadership Award. If you know someone "who has positively touched the lives of gifted and talented students or educators in your area", it'd be a superior honor.
  
  
• The regional representatives write columns to share what's going on in their areas, and in her column the southwest area director brings up the idea of having regional meetings to spread the word about gifted education and try to recruit new members into WAETAG.
  
  I'll speak to the first goal specifically. As a union guy I believe in the power of local people to make a difference, and if educators who cared about gifted education could get together at the local level to push their local legislators and promote TAG programs, I think there'd be an awful lot of power to that. A day in Olympia is a great start, but imagine if that was followed up with a visit in Spokane, a question at the town meeting in Yakima, and a letter to the editor in Richland?
  
  
• Barb Sailors has stepped down as president after taking over on an interim basis last year. The world would be a far better place if we had more Barbs; she's a remarkable woman, and to know her is to be impressed by her.
  
  
• The program for the fall conference looks great. Any chance to see Margo Long speak is one you should take, and the other guest speakers have excellent credentials as well. You can find more information about the fall conference, in Richland beginning October 18th, here.
  
  
• Finally, I'll plug the organization. For $35 a year in dues you get a pretty good newsletter, excellent contacts, you're supporting gifted education in Washington State, and you've got the inside track to the yearly conference. If I was rating the state professional organizations that everyone should belong to, WAETAG would be right near the top of the list. You can get more information at the link above.

Tell them Ryan sent you. Won't mean much, but maybe I can get a free coffee out of the deal at the next Destination: Imagination tourney.