ECOO Board of Directors

Decompress and Socialize

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ECOO is hosting a social event — join us to decompress and socialize with your fellow ECOO members!

It’s been SOOO LONG since we’ve had an opportunity to gather together to see old friends and get reacquainted. Perhaps you have almost forgotten the feeling when you see a colleague down the hall at BIT and rush over to catch-up on everything that has happened since you last met-up? We’re going to use the magical Wonder.Me experience on March 2nd to recapture a bit of that feeling.

Some of you may recall the Wonder.Me meetup from our ECOOcamp Ontario 2021 event — if you’ve not tried Wonder.Me before, it’s amazingly intuitive in the way it allows you to connect and chat in an informal and spontaneous manner.

Members of the ECOO Board will be on hand to chat about ECOO stuff, but the goal is to give you a chance to meet-up and chat with your ECOO friends and meet some new ones at the same time!

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Summary of ECOO Board Meeting – May 4th, 2020.

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Your ECOO Board of Directors met on Monday, May 4th, 2020 for its regular monthly meeting. The meeting commenced with a round-the-table wellness check-in, followed with the reading of the Board’s Human Rights Statement.

The Board continues to plan for ongoing activities to help you through these unprecedented times and to enhance your membership in the organization. Please keep tabs on ECOO.org and your email for further information and activity in the coming days.

Highlights from the May 4th meeting include include:

Pandemic Response – Since our emergency response meeting on April 6th, the Board has implemented a number of items to support Ontario educators and learners in coping with the pandemic.

Our message of collaboration and working together is supported by the hashtag #OntarioEducatorsUnited. Tweets celebrating the efforts of our peers and promoting the concept of personal wellness continue daily.

The ECOO.org website has undergone both a face-life and a significant increase in features to include:

- - School Boards COVID-19 resources
  - Online Tools
  - Coding Platforms
  - Subject Associations
  - Wellness.

In addition, an Upcoming Events section features online events of interest to our members and educators in general. Members are invited to submit resources and events via the Suggest a resource and the Tell us about your event links on the respective pages.

More than 20 new posts have been made over the past three weeks, highlighting new content on the site. Page visits in April exceeded those of all other months since October 2014.

Our Ontario: Learning Together at Home podcast has 10 episodes completed and posted. An further 11 interviews are in varying stages of production, with additional invitations extended and awaiting confirmation.

BIT20 Update – The Conference Administrative committee has confirmed that BIT20 will take the form of an online/virtual event sometime this fall. Details will be developed and will take into account the teaching/learning conditions in place at the time. Date and format yet to be determined. The committee is also investigating options for a venue for a possible BIT21 face-to-face event.

ECOO Update – ECOO Updates mailings to the membership and Life Members continue to show a much higher engagement than the industry average with open rates ranging between 55 and 80%. Members can now update their membership profile via a personalized link within their ECOO Update email.

Membership – The former spreadsheet-based sign-up form has transitioned to a new form integrated with our mailing list software. Membership has increased on the order of 10% since the new form was implemented two weeks ago.

Special interest Groups – The two new Special Interest Groups (SIG-TELL and SIG-C4G) are up and running under the leadership of Harry Niezen and Tim King respectively. Following a recent meeting with TVOntario, further work will be undertaken regarding the existing SIGs on that platform: SIG-Elementary, SIG-Secondary, and SIG-Cybersecurity. Melanie will coordinate the work in that area.

Bylaw Review – A committee was struck to review our current Bylaw and make recommendations to the Board regarding potential revisions.

Treasurer’s Report – The Board received the Statement of Financial Position and Statement of Operations for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020.

The Board enjoyed a positive, caring, collaborative meeting and looks forward to continuing to serve the membership in the months ahead.

May the 4th be with you always.

ECOO Board of Directors welcomes Jason Trinh

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Responding to a vacancy that arose on the ECOO Board in February, the ECOO Board of Directors undertook a process during a Special Meeting of the Board on February 10th to source and appoint an ECOO member to return the Board to full strength. The appointment was approved at the March 2nd meeting of the Board.

We welcome Jason Trinh, hybrid-teacher Digital Lead Learner with the Toronto District School Board. Jason is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified Innovator, and also serves on the organizing committee of #DigCitTO. Jason is passionate about educational technology, STEM and equity. He is a co-moderator of #tdsbEd Chats and speaker/blogger on technology and digital equity.

Jason will serve in a Director-at-Large capacity until the end of the term of this Board, at which point the vacancy will be filled through the annual Board renewal process.

ECOO Board Implements Human Rights Statement

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Following an introductory discussion at the December 3rd, 2019 meeting of the ECOO Board of Directors, a motion was passed at the January 13th meeting through which ECOO adopted a Human Rights Statement. The statement will be read at the beginning of Board meetings, Committee meetings, and other gatherings of ECOO members.

Drawn from the text of ECOO: A Culture of Safety, Respect, and Trust, this initiative was brought forward by ECOO Vice President, Jen Apgar.

Human Rights Statement

ECOO expects its members to communicate professionally and constructively, whether in person or virtually, handling dissent or disagreement with courtesy, dignity and an open mind, being respectful when providing feedback, and being open to alternate points of view.

As such, it is also important that the Board of Directors and all committees of the Board adhere to these expectations in all of their virtual and face-to-face interactions.

By doing this we model:

promoting mutual respect, understanding and co-operation as the basis of interaction among all members.

neither tolerating nor condoning behaviour that undermines the dignity or self-esteem of individuals or the integrity of relationships

As a member of ECOO, actively engaging in the work of the organization all members commit to the above when taking part in any ECOO related business.

This recent addition to protocol complements the ECOO Equity Statement and ECOO’s Expected Behaviour and Event Code of Conduct.