#ECOOcamp

Your ECOO Board of Directors met on Monday, September 14th, 2020 for the regular ECOO business meeting.  The meeting commenced with the reading of the Board’s Human Rights Statement.

Highlights from the September 14th meeting include include:   

ECOOcamp Ontario, preliminary report:  Feedback from participants at ECOOcampON was overwhelmingly positive. The 3-day virtual event featured 135 presenters across 105 sessions, in addition to 13 sponsor sessions in the Lunch ‘n’ Learn and Vendor Playgrounds, 3 keynotes, the opening panel discussion, and the closing evening post-conference chats. The event was supported by a conference committee of 15 volunteers and a team of 15 session moderators, and drew over 500 registered participants.  Session recordings and presenter resources have been uploaded and are available for on-demand access by event participants/attendees through the session schedule. A new, strand-based navigation has been developed for the recordings/resources and will be launched shortly. The event established a very positive precedent and model for the Fall Support Series starting later in October.

BIT20 Update – Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, there will be no face-to-face Bring IT, Together event in 2020. The Administrative Committee with OASBO-ICT continues to monitor the evolving situation regarding options for 2021. 

Annual General Meeting  In light of the cancellation of BIT20 event, the Board has determined that the AGM will take place online and has set the date/time of the 2020 Annual General Meeting for Wednesday, December 16th, 7:00 pm ET.

Based on the date of the AGM, the Call for Nominations for the ECOO Board of Directors will be announced immediately, with the date for closure of nominations set at November 7th, 2020. Lisa Noble is again serving as Nominations Chair.

ECOO.org Website Page loads on ECOO.org during the month of August reached a new all-time high of over 19,000, surpassing the previous record established in October 2013 in the lead-up to the first BIT conference.

Membership   August also saw membership increase considerably, with over 150 new members. The membership now stands at its highest point since the introduction of the $0 membership fee in November 2018, with 2019-20 memberships more than doubling the numbers reached in the 2018-19 year.

Bylaw Review – The Bylaw Review committee has had some preliminary discussions regarding potential adjustments to the roles and terms of ECOO Board in order to improve the functioning of the Board and the organization. Any proposed changes will be shared with ECOO membership once potential changes are clarified. Changes to the Bylaw require the approval of the membership.

Treasurer’s Report – The Board received a report from the Treasurer and the ECOO accountant. A draft budget for 2020-21 was shared and a number of fixed annual expenses are under review in the context of the coming year under the pandemic.

The ECOO Board continues to actively seek options to support the membership and Ontario educators during this period of extreme turbulence within our schools and education system.