SFER National Summit NOLA 2013

General Themes Community Organizing Tension between SFER at the national and individual chapters Increasing collaboration with other groups How to respond with criticism Learning how to run a non-profit Increasing diversity

Tension Between SFER National and Individual Chapters PDs were fired/quit without warning Political reasons for some states having PDs while others don't criticism of the lack of communication between national and state SFER Lack of a clear stance to get behind SFER National refusing to admit their political agenda Acknowledgement of political action over knowledge of issues

What Should We Take from These Tensions? The network SFER provides is amazing BUT SFER is a vehicle to promote education reform, not education reform itself SFER will be most effective by collaborating with other established groups and people already in the field SFER's ability to become more inclusive and communicative will determine its success We must remember how old SFER is and who it was started by

Communication solutions going forward o Weekly s from Catherine and Alexis. o Reviving the yammer group. o Resource Groups o SFER Voices o Looking at formats for weekly/monthly calls so everyone can be a part. o Student leadership council (new) o Individual Skype session

More about Diversification of Base "The movement is tone deaf to the real things people are going through. It gets too technocratic; if we can just fix this... a magical solution will take place. People of color, people who have the most to gain from ed reform aren't in the discussion! The disadvantaged people need to be a part of the conversation! Space for people to talk in the first person, not the third person. Connecting across barriers of race, class, privilege!" -Chris Stewart, African American Leadership Forum

The Road Ahead SFER/TFA: known as white organizations. How do we include more minority people into this movement? These are “nice” organizations. It’s going to be difficult to get people to join right away. How do we make this happen?

What Should our Chapter Take from Summit? Work toward better communication with national SFER--skype call on 4/8 Learn from and collaborate with other groups on campus Understand and prepare to deal with criticism of national SFER--examine negative press Diversify our base--reach out to students with different experiences Work to understand sensitive issues that affect education--class, race, healthcare, cultural norms, etc

The Road Ahead - Improving SFER: St. Olaf Emphasis on the “why” tasks are important (flyer example) Feedback is important!! How could we measure feedback in our St. Olaf chapter? Surveys? Giving AND getting feedback. During meetings: establish norms/meeting structure. How are we going to spend our time together? Think about successful events (PP.. H4H) INPUT!

Importance of Storytelling Story of self – summarizes what you're doing in this movement. Doesn’t have to be short or quick. You telling someone WHY you're doing this work Purpose of story of self--using for recruitment You never have only one story of self – the story of self should shift. Practice with a partner!