Busy Times at Parents Plus

So I really do have an excuse for the lack of updates this time: I got very sick after I returned from the conference in Green Lake, and my workload multiplied by a million as soon as I had enough energy to do work. luckily, things have slowed down enough that i can give a decent update now.

unfortunately for anyone reading this, there is not a whole lot of exciting news to report. i'm going to report everything that passed in november on a weekly basis.
Nov. 2nd-Nov. 8th: We had our monthly SGC meeting on November 2nd. attendance was nowhere near as impressive as the previous month's meeting, which proves that parentlinks are not the best way to relay information. I'm going to stick to flyers and phone calls from now on. We discussed details on a breakfast with santa fundraiser that we're planning to help rebuild the tot-lot. The next day, i went to west allis to see a fellow VISTA's Action Team training for his school. things got a little crazy during my commute to his site, because when I called to tell him that traffic on I-94 was terrible and that I would be 15 minutes late, his response was to ask me if I could babysit during the meeting. the girl who was supposed to provide childcare still hadn't shown up and he couldn't get in touch with her. i told him i would, but naturally the girl showed up just as i got to the school. november 4th was the neighborhood meeting from hell. i'll leave it at that.

Nov. 9th- Nov. 15th: i went to a dpi regional meeting in johnson creek with other VISTAs and their supervisors on nov. 10th. it was nice to see everyone again and have a chance to have some large group conversations, though i did get a little embarassed when my supervisor told everyone that my ATP would be having their first meeting that thursday. i wanted to tell everyone that it was more of a Q&A session for people who are interested than anything else, but i decided to keep my mouth shut. i think this worked in my favor. this brings us to thursday, the date of the ATP meeting. I walked into the conference room with an expectation that more parents than teachers would be present. however, i was shocked to realize that the only parent who showed up was the school's HIP coordinator (who is super-awesome). I was happy with the overall turnout, though, and think we have a strong group.

Nov. 16th-Nov. 22nd.: went to an atp facilitator training from mps on monday, during which i was told that VISTAs are expected to solicit donations from businesses as incentives for parents to come to the trainings, as well as take care of childcare for the evening sessions. it took a lot of self-control not to rip my hair out over this. we also went over the powerpoint and agenda for the meetings, which just confused me. i was on information overload and felt like i was going to throw up from the stress. i was feeling tense, especially because of the busy couple of days i had ahead of me. a poverty simulation organized by another VISTA was scheduled for the next day. however, after battling traffic on I-94 and getting very lost, the event was canceled because there were not enough facilitators or participants for an effective simulation. I was disappointed to hear this, but at least it gave me some time to sit in my apartment and have some well-deserved me time. i really needed this to get through wednesday's two-hour staff meeting at maple tree. i need to start bringing seat cushions to those, because those chairs are so ridiculously uncomfortable. Seeing Sarah W. on Saturday night was also nice. we talked about how VISTAs seem to have no social lives, so we created a biweekly VISTA poker group. i'm excited to see if this works out.

so now we've made it to this week!

yesterday i spoke to a pastor of a nearby church about participating in our breakfast with santa fundraiser, and he told me that his church may be able to make a monetary contribution to the fundraiser in addition to donating his time, which im really happy about. yesterday was also the rsvp deadline for the one-day action team trainings, so i spent most of my day frantically calling parents and community members about whether or not they could come. two parents are going to the alternate evening sessions for parents and community members, and a representative from growing power will be at the meeting with the maple tree staff, which i'm super-excited about!

so, there it is...you're all caught up with my life!