GCABC President’s Report 2017-2018

by Lucila Saito

For those of you who missed the Annual General Meeting of the GCABC on Sep 19, 2018, the president’s report of the previous fiscal year can instead be read below.

GCABC Accomplishments
It was a productive year for the GCABC. Early on, the board decided to focus on bringing Dr. James Webb to BC for a multi-day conference in Vancouver. In addition, a priority has been to expand our communication channels, by starting Facebook and Twitter profiles.

The executive worked on the following tasks:

• Events
  • Partnered with the Lower Mainland Gifted Contacts group (LMGC) to run the “Power Up Potential” conference with Dr. James Webb, leading the planning and organization of the three-day conference for educators, psychologists, counsellors, and parents – April 2018, Coquitlam (hosted by SD43), Vancouver (hosted by Adler University), and Surrey (hosted by SD36). Altogether, almost 300 people attended the 3 days of events!
  • Held the AGM – September 2018, Richmond (hosted by Choice School for the Gifted).

• Advocacy
  • Participated in the on-going Public Education Funding Review, by meeting with Patricia Kovacs, Inclusive Education Director, submitting a written report, and speaking with the Independent Panel Chair about concerns and suggestions to better serve the gifted population.
  • Sent a written report about the status of gifted education in BC to the Canadian delegate for the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC).
  • Gave an interview about the status of gifted education in BC to TEACH magazine (national magazine for K-12 educators)

• Website/Communication
  • Created a Facebook account “Gifted Children’s Association of BC- GCABC”
    • Followed by 246 people
    • Liked by 200 people
  • Created a Twitter account “@GiftedBC” (212 followers)
  • Published blog posts on the website (51 followers)
  • Sent newsletters (388 subscribers)
  • Published a list of psychologists in the Lower Mainland who can do psycho-educational assessments for giftedness

• Constitution and By-Laws revisions have been completed in compliance with the revised BC Society Act, and this document will be presented for approval to the AGM in September 2018.

Goals for next year
Our goal for the 2018/2019 year is to create specific committees to work with the board while using a larger volunteer group that will help us increase our effectiveness in supporting families and allow us to expand our outreach beyond the Lower Mainland. The committees will focus on Advocacy, Outreach and Policy. We plan to continue expanding our website to bring relevant resources to parents, and sponsor or co-sponsor events that can inform and bring our gifted families together.