The Alberta Teachers’ Association

At the 2017 Annual Representative Assembly (ARA), members approved a resolution to strike a committee tasked with reviewing the current vision, mandate, structure, governance, operation, financing and programming of teachers’ conventions.

During the 2017/18 school year, the Committee on Convention Review consulted with members from across the province through surveys, focus groups and symposia. Based on members’ feedback, in October 2018, staff presented Provincial Executive Council with a preliminary report that outlined a number of possible future directions that the Association could take to improve teachers’ conventions.

At Council’s direction, staff sought further validation of these findings during the 2018/19 school year, and the Convention Review Validation Survey was administered, which garnered 2,888 responses. In addition, the Convention Review Symposium was held in conjunction with the spring Professional Development Area Conference (PDAC), which included deep discussion on the proposed directions with the table facilitation and data collection led by the Association’s professional development facilitators.

On Oct. 24, 2019, staff presented a final report to Council, which approved the findings in principle, disbanded the committee with thanks and directed staff to develop a draft implementation plan.

What’s happening now?

Staff are preparing an implementation plan for each goal, beginning with those that are low cost, low complexity and low risk. Recommendations will be presented to Table Officers’ Committee and/or PEC and ARA (if there are budgetary implications), in accordance with the Association’s normal operating procedures. As decisions are made about those recommendations, associated adjustments to administrative guidelines or other operational and procedural documents, those changes will be communicated to members.

Check out the convention review website

Updates, committee reports and a visual summary of the implementation goals can be accessed on the Convention Review Implementation Update page.

If you have any questions or comments about teachers’ conventions or convention implementation, please contact me at daniel.maas@ata.ab.ca. ❚