Alberta Distributed Education and Technology Association

This last year has seen some very significant changes for ADETA that have important implications for the future direction. All of these changes contribute to the redefining of the association to better meet the needs of our members and all professionals working in this part of the educational sector.

1. Increase in Membership

We have successfully reached 500 members this year due opening up the membership process and eliminating the annual membership fees and making it easier for members to sign up.

 

1. New ADETA.org website and e-newsletter

The new Drupal based website and integrated e-newsletter has been implemented to give us a more interactive site that is easier to share the burden to developing and maintaining. It has taken us about a year to learn how we can fully exploit the potential use of the site and the communications committee is e planning a significant upgrade to the site this summer.

 

2. Decrease the operational costs

We have managed to significantly decrease the operating costs of ADETA by eliminated the costs of producing the print-base newsletter and administration of the membership subscriptions. The newsletter is now electronic and draws from resources on that members contribute to the website. The membership database is now self-managed so that each member can manage their own information and membership status.

4. Decrease the costs of conferences

We have been working successfully with partner organizations to organize conferences for our members to ensure we are providing valuable PD events at at reduced cost. ADETA has now assumed the lead role in planning and organizing the Distributed Learning Symposiums. The Symposium in October of 2007 even generated over $10,000 in net revenues for us. We are now busy planning the next Symposium in March 2009. Other conferences include the Synergize and Energize conference in Calgary, the CNIE conference in Banff and the Canadian E-Learning Conference this week.

5. Received 2 grants to fund Conference Convener and Communication officer positions

ADETA has been able to secure 2 grants from Alberta Education to fund three part-time staff positions to assist ADETA with the organizing of the two Symposium events and develop our position in contributing to the development of the Alberta Education's new Distributed Learning Strategy.

6. New Strategic Plan and Name

Finally, the board has been very busy working on developing a strategic plan for ADETA that will complete the process we started to redefine the association and better position ADETA to be a successful professional association in the coming years. This includes a proposed changing of the name to the Alberta Distributed Education and Technology Association.

It has been a great two year term for me as President and I look forward to continuing my work with the board as the Past President.

Rod Corbett