June update

Just in time too! So many things have happened since the last posting:

Reframing the Future forum in May in Melbourne, for the Change Agency project. This was interesting. The main points from that were: the project is more about my development as a change agent than about the project itself; therefore my goal is to reflect on my capabilities and extend my knowledge and effectiveness as a change agent. And I can use some of the project funding to engage a personal mentor.

So I have done that and after just one conversation I am finding that to be very beneficial. The conversation took place two thirds of the way through the workshop I conducted at SkillsTech and it helped me clarify my objectives for the third day of the workshop. It went very well, with great enthusiasm from the participants. We had a visit from Kay Giles on the last day and she is very supportive. Pam has already drafted an action plan for implementation of TROPIC.

So that is looking promising.

Here at home we have been busy with our action research plan. Following on from the last posting, Phil and I did contact the Mentors here at Tropical North and found that Mike and Lyndal are both very keen and are now part of the core action research group. Others responded they are interested but just too busy, and a few didn't respond at all. At least we know where we stand.

Our plan is to conduct one day Teacher Workshops on a monthly basis. The first one is next Monday and we have 14 participants signed up. We have scheduled another for August 8th and basically each month after that, with the aim of putting at least 60% of teachers through the workshops by June next year.

Our next action research meeting with the other institutes is July 29th and Peter is going to join us to talk about funding on the basis of achievement of milestones with the action research plans.

Had an email exchange today with Suzy McKenna and John Mitchell from Reframing the Future. John encouraged me to link the action research and change agency projects, with a focus on comparing my dual roles as external and internal change agents.

Not much else happening with the commercialisation or with extending TROPIC to other institutes. There does still seem to be interest but the regionals are focused on governance at the moment so the PD network has been more or less put on hold.

More photos from the SkillsTech workshop at http://www.flickr.com/photos/marthatropic/