reflections

Reflection on class EDSA 535- School and Community Relations   On June 18, 2012 during the class we discussed meetings and implementing new programs and ideas.  At first when an idea is presented people may fear change. A tactic that can be used is to call a meeting and allow the staff members involved to voice their concerns. This opportunity will often leave participants feeling that they were heard, but they still may not agree on its implementation. What I learned was it is often necessary to have a pre-meeting to get a select few to further understand the program's purpose and request support when implementing the program to their staff members. Often this tactic will help initiate the program and make more staff inclined to willingly participate. Another thing we learned was that sometimes a program needs to be initiated and then all the people who have concerns and questions are met with individually and if possible modifying the program to address valid concerns. This will often remove the majority of dissenters and when more people join/support the program, it makes it easier to convince other support staff that were reluctant to join to now join as well. In the future, when I roll-out a program I plan to use these ideas when running a meeting or working with a supervisor to assist and support the implementation of new ideas.