RCAC First Meeting of the 2011/2012 School Year.

Location: Thames Valley District School Board Start time: 9:30 start time End time: 2:30 p.m. Minutes: prepared by: Ryan E. Attendance- Doug S, Jeff R. Kerry, Judy, Linda , Harry, Kenji, Cheryl, Carol, Ryan, Gidget, Carrie H, Travis K., John L., Bob Baran,

Opening call to order:

Discussion about the AGM and collaboration with COCA see reports below. Themes from June Meeting- See below in Historical overview for as Doug suggested that at the June meeting the Sharing is important

Action for Future Dates:

Dates have been booked: RCAC conference: Dec.8th is the Lamplighter Conference Date RCAC PD session for Committee: Dec. 9th Feb 24th, 2012- Follow up to Conference April 27th, 2012- PD for RCAC members AGM-Tentatively been booked for June 7th.June 8th as our own AGM.

Reports
Treasurers Report-Bob Baran John will obtain the report and then post it.- In general, Bob has reported that we are in good shape for the RCAC Conference. OSAPAC-Bob sends regrets Bob Baran and Karen Kassic (are our two reps). Karens role may be changing in the near future. We are not sure what this means to the RCAC. We will need an update on this item Historical Overview: Due to the fact there were several new members to RCAC present, it was requested of John L. to provide a brief historical context for the RCAC and their involvement with the OSAPAC. Main Points-Traditional there were 5 Regional groups set up as RCACs and each RCAC region was to send two reps to be the OSAPAC rep for acquiring new software.

Contact North is our counter part in the North region of Ontario Toronto group morphed out COCA the group extends from Hamilton TorontoKingston

Building ties with COCA-COCA RelationshipHarry and Doug reported how the relationship was strengthened with COCA at the year end AGM conference event held in Hamilton last June. It was great to be able to have members of COCA and RCAC in one place. This allowed for the acquisition of better sessions and support from vendors etcHarry is the chair of COCA- Leverage places RIM and Samsung, ACTIONPart 1- John or Doug will contact Bob for the Treasurers report and any important information for OSAPAC updates. These will be posted to our www.tinyurl.com/rcacprep Part 2-We may need a new representative for OSAPAC. (future discussion topic for RCAC meeting)

RCAC Conference updates within

All members are asked to use the RCAC Site: www.tinyurl.com/rcacprep This year we are lucky enough to have the conference registration taken care of by Pat Cruckshank and Rose Mousaly. They will continue to you the same process as in years past. Bill McKenzie wanted to establish a connection for next year. Ryan and Bob had started to explore using paypal on other online registration web-based solutions; however, we will differ back to the regular mail method for the RCAC Dec.8th, 2011 conference date. rcac@palenteir In general therefore: registration will be the same as it has always been. Contact Pat for block registrations i.e., Hamilton wants 50 delegates. It was stressed by Doug S. that the Individual registrations (cause a lot more work) we really need

Note: It was suggested by Carol that because of the late meeting date of the RCAC on Oct.14th, 2011 that we should extend the early bird deadline on Nov. 18th , 2011 has been switched.

We will still use snail mail-

Prizes update: We had a discussion about Prizes (Elaine is the lead contact).
There was some concern about Vendors wanting to have paper products for advertising distributed at the conference. (Whether we use bags to hand out advertising fliers etc) We discussed and agreed that paper is a need for the vendors we ended up agreeing the many of participants/attendees are still not as tech savvy and vendors still need this medium. Examples: ISTE is tons of paper, ECCO is bags,

*All members are asked to contact vendors and obtain prizes. This is key for our success. We are then asked to update the information in the online form that Elaine is helping to monitor and track. www.tinyurl.com/rcacprep under Symposium 2011 Prize List.

Action Regarding Prizes 5. Gidget will help Elaine organize on the morning of the event. (Deliver prizes to rooms etc) Everyone is asked to bring one Door Prize. Therefore, the member Action is that all members are asked to contact vendors and obtain prizes. This is key for our success. We are then asked to update the information in the online form that Elaine is helping to monitor and track. www.tinyurl.com/rcacprep under Symposium 2011 Prize List.

Key note speakers have been selected:

Doug S. reported that two Key notes have been booked: Lee Lever-Commoncraft.com (The art of explanation)

Dr. Helen Barrett- Seattle Pacific University- ePortfolios

Action regarding Communication and Registration

1. Fix the flier- Lamplight to Lamplighter and the computer (now completed by Doug S. as of Oct 19th, 2011_ 2. Early bird date: Nov. 18th, 2011 3. Produce the Back of the flyer- see below for /pdf flyer (Lynda, Ryan and Judy will solidify the Presentation descriptions and send to Doug S. by Friday Oct, 21st Action Regarding Advertising: 4. Ryan will be producing some Audio .mp3 RCAC 30 second Audio spots to send along to various schools board to help advertise the conference for Administrators etc

Discussion on the Recognition of Role Changes and giving credit to RCAC Members: Retirements or moved onto other Groups Ron Miller, Ian We will need volunteers to speak to their contributions, Action: Regarding Vendors: main contact is Elanie
Paper versions, we need to go back to meeting the night before to fill the bags off. Volunteer RCAC members need to commitment to the setup the night before Blossom volunteers with the bags

How will Vendors get their paper products to us?

Spreadsheet for Presenters and Breakout Organization

Action: (Judy and Ryan) will meet to tighten the blurbs and return back to Doug to
put together for distribution. Goal is the Oct. This information will be attached to the flier which Doug will be preparing over the weekend.

Conference Day of Support

Action: All are asked to sign up form the www.tinyurl.com/rcacprep. Pat and Rose: Ryan needs to Shadow Bob- Kenji will follow Bob Feedback from;

Request for RCAC Conference Feedback F-(Doug S.s )

Doug suggested that it would be great to collect RCAC Conference feedback. Historically, we havent really done this. We could therefore use some kind of on-line and analytical software to collate the information. We would like feedback on facilities, keynotes, presenters, session topics, food, prizes, etc It was suggested that if RCAC conference participants complete the form, they will be eligible for a draw prize such as an iPad. Location, speakers, registration, breakouts etc

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PD component: Johns topic

What is that you need to learn from RCAC

Doug asked us to be able to generate future Pd sessions for ourselves. The group came up with the following ideas for presentations and participation in the future: Can we present and share our resources? Catholic and Public Boards how do we have people trained? Process in Job Roles Large Roll outs: How you delivery Pd various models What are your boards priorities? Wireless world? Implementation of TabletsComputer Lab vs. Portable technology

Afternoon Session:
The Group generally discussed a wide variety of topics related to projects that are underway or about to start in the various boards. Windows 7, and Microsoft Solutions in the London Catholic board, iPad and iPod pilots in TVDSB and Avon Maitland. Jeff R. and Ryan gave updates from their school based projects. OSAPAC software and training methods. Wireless Access projects in schools in Hamilton, TVDSB, and Windsor etc.. Tablet projects- Catholic board,