January 15, Cluster 3, and Mary Ford ES

Our cluster 3 provided lunch to the faculty and staff at Mary Ford Elementary School. This school is near Cosgrove Avenue and is in a high poverty area of North Charleston. From the comments I believe all had wonderful food and fellowship. I have added three pictures of this festive outing. Kudos to Cluster 3...great job!

It is snowing in the Lowcountry?

It certainly has been a roller-coaster weather ride these last few days. I hope you all are dry and warm. We just got back from North Carolina where it snowed last Saturday night. Of course it was almost all gone by lunchtime.
Just a couple of reminders:
1. Nominations are due for officers ASAP. Please send your nominee's name to Carol O.
2. The flyer for the Red, White and Blue luncheon will be coming out shortly. Be sureto send in your form and the money to Paige.
Hope it gets warmer soon.

It was a light and fluffy snow fall.

"We Have a Voice..."

Today's meeting was attended by about half of our members. Several wrote me to say that they could not attend.They missed an informative sessions. Our secretary as well as our treasurer gave reports.  Our scholarship chair encouraged more donations so that we can fund two scholarships. She also read a thank you note from a previous scholarship recipient and met another recipient at the Friends of the Library book sale. This recipient was buying lots of books and is already teaching  at North Charleston Elementary. Cluster 3 took mugs filled with candy and other things for each faculty and staff member at NCES on December 10.  Next our current vice-president introduced our guest speaker. She spoke of the Justice Ministry. She gave a brief outline of the formation and mission of the group This group is a grass roots organization that is dedicated to bettering our community. After much research and discussion the group focused in on education specifically literacy. And through their massive persistence and dedication changes were voted in by the school board to expand CD programs to an additional 250 four-year-old children. The research the group conducted spoke volumes about the need for students to be reading on grade level by the fourth grade. If the child does not accomplish this his success rate in school diminishes. It also does not bode well for students becoming productive members of society. The group is now focusing on developing programs of prevention and intervention to keep youngsters out of the juvenile detention centers. A rally will be held in the near future. This group seems to be getting things done where other groups(like teachers) are stymied in their efforts to change things for all students. This is just a very brief summary of what our speaker told us about the Justice Ministry. Our speaker said to us, "We now have a voice..." Why have we not seen or heard anything through our media outlets about this group and what they have accomplished???

Our members listened carefully to our speaker.

Our group then had lunch which was provided by Cluster 2. The food was delicious. You should have been there.

The quiet before the storm.

Members enoying the great food.!

A New Year, A New Beginning

Good Morning,
What a great day Sunday is. It is a day of rest and relaxation. But come Tuesday our CCREA members will begin the process of nominating new officers. I hope all of our members will be in attendance. It is so important that everybody attends. Lots of members have a problem with the idea of our cluster groups. These groups were started to share the work load of setting up, providing refreshments, and cleaning up for one meeting each year. Some of the ideas were just suggestions. I am sorry that some members have decided not to join again because of clusters. So clusters will remain but we are looking to simplify all. So each cluster will be responsible for three things: setup, food, and cleanup once each year! Nothing else is expected of each cluster. So pass this along as you talk to those members who have not joined and ask them to reconsider.
See you at Tuesday's meeting.

Made any resolutions yet??