We are facing difficult times in our state and the many challenges you face as members of a school community are significant. MIEM is here to help you face those challenges by providing programming that is meaningful, which in turn will allow you to provide the tools that students need to achieve and learn.

Dan Pappas, MIEM Executive Director

Our theme for the 2009-2010 school year is, “MIEM is your connection through tough times.” Recently, one of our members wrote, “thank you for all you do to make sense of things in a non-sensible era.” It is true that the environment we work in is always changing. We are facing difficult times in our state and the many challenges you face as members of a school community are significant. MIEM is here to help you face those challenges by providing programming that is meaningful, which in turn will allow you to provide the tools that students need to achieve and learn.

As many of you probably know, our MIEM Team is made up of people who have responsibilities to not only MIEM but also to either MSBO or MASA. Besides being the Executive Director for MIEM, I am the Associate Executive Director for MASA. When wearing the MASA hat, my primary role is that of overseeing MASA conferences and professional development. MASA recently held its 2009 Midwinter Conference in Kalamazoo.

A book was recently highly recommended to me. I found it to be a valuable resource. The title is Influencer: The Power to Change Anything from the authors of Crucial Conversations (Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler). They state, “A few behaviors can drive a lot of change” (Pg.23).

I am proud to report that our 22nd Annual Support Staff Conference for Administrative Professionals, which recently took place in Grand Rapids, was both well attended and very well received. More than 330 very focused and committed professionals did an outstanding job of enhancing and learning new skills as well as networking with each other. The Crystal Award winners represented the whole group extremely well.