There were 19 people in the room, all women. Well, actually, there were 22, including Mary Norton, JILL STANLEY and myself.
Jill is the Professional Development Coordinator for the LCA and had contracted Mary and me to team-teach a 3 day training program for new literacy coordinators. The three of us spent hours trying to decide what a newly hired coordinator would need to know first. In a meeting room at Garneau United Church in Edmonton we gathered together to learn about the literacy network in Alberta, learning styles, the theory of reading, interviewing and assessing students, tutor training and fundamental program management, and, even more importantly, about each other.
Literacy work has so many components that Mary and I decided there was no easy way to introduce even the most basic information. At one point, BONNIE WALTER from Ft. Assiniboine was feeling so overwhelmed she said, "Boy, right now a job waitressing at the ESSO looks pretty good!"
At the end of the second day I checked in with JOCELYN DOUCET. I wanted to know if she was feeling confident that she had the information she needed before she headed back to her home in Fahler, a bilingual community 100 km northeast of Grande Prairie. "It's not the content of the workshop that is most important, it is the humanity present in this room. The coordinators here are really concerned about helping the students and doing the best job they can. They really care about doing things right - for the students. That's the common ground. Everyone comes from such different backgrounds but there is still a feeling of comraderie and caring. No one tries to judge the qualifications of the others; nobody assumes that because you have a certain background that you will make a better coordinator. It just feels good to be here."
A lot of changes have come about in the 5 years since I attended my first literacy meeting in 1986. The coordinators who came together for this meeting were much more aware of literacy issues and "the bigger picture". What wasn't different ,however, was the enthusiasm each of the participants expressed about their new literacy jobs. Jocelyn put it well when she said, "What also really impresses me is that even though literacy is not something that people (the students or the public) want to talk about or deal with, these new coordinators are prepared to do the job. They know it's going to be tough talking about a subject nobody wants to hear about, but they are prepared to try it anyway. They're really brave."
After the New Coordinator Training I headed down to Calgary to participate in the 2nd Annual Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI), this year as a volunteer.
After waiting for the sun to come out and warm the frost from the greens, the tournament was in full swing and I had a great time. I was supposed to sell tame tickets for an expensive set of golf clubs with Senator Joyce Fairbairn from Lethbridge but I was so bad at it she eventually suggested that my skills might be better used giving out hotdogs for lunch. A keen supporter of literacy Joyce talked to and cajoled the golfers, selling over 100 tickets to the participants in the Tournament (including Gzowski). The $1000 she helped to raise for the Calgary Learning Centre was added to another impressive fund- raising profit of over $60,000.