South Carolina GEAR UP
weekly memo
Many Thanks!
Thanks for making the DC trip relatively painless. There were some hiccups along the way, but we did manage to get 70 people up to DC, into rooms, into sessions and back home with minimal damage. We also saw 5 really good presentations from our State and those who presented truly made us proud. We continued to celebrate our accomplishments on a National level, as our very own Vanessa Madrid was selected as the National GEAR UP Youth of the year. She spoke eloquently and we could not be more proud of her.
We should discuss attendees moving forward, but I sincerely want to thank to you all for a great conference!
Weekly Reminders!
Budget changes for FY4 are due today! The changes should include any new programs, revisions to old programs, and HR adjustments! Remember, it's not enough to just give me a new award letter. If you've changed it, I want to know how and whether this is a request for new money or if you want to move funding from an existing line
Topics for GC Meeting
Each of you will need to come up with a topic to present to the GC's for the statewide meeting on August 26. So far, I've heard from Steve and he has chosen the topic of parent engagement! I'd like you to do 30min presentations, but if you feel like yours will go longer then that's okay, I just need to know in advance.
RETREAT!
I think part of my job as a manager should be to create more opportunities for you to grow professionally. While I'm a firm believer that the most growth happens from in the field experience, there is certainly some value to giving you the tools to do your job ahead of time. I also think we have such a set reason for the monthly meetings, that there often isn't time to get into the issues we face that are NOT on the agenda. So this is my attempt to accomplish these things. We will have a retreat on August 26th at Francis Marion. Vickie will provide details as we get closer, but I'm thinking something were we start at 9 and go until 3. I don't know how we feel about eating dinner together that night, since we do accomplish that at conferences. We will see how it goes.
New "Team" member
In the coming weeks, Ms. Catherine Team will be transitioning over to SC GEAR UP from the College Access Challenge Grant. Catherine will help out in various areas, but her major responsibilities will be incorporating college access activities into the GEAR UP schools (College Application Month, College Goal SC, CCTI, etc.) and driving the social media/marketing area push we are attempting. Please make Catherine feel welcome as we add her to the team.