The BOSTnet Roundtable Year in Review

2008/2009 Leadership Roundtable Series Reflection

Overview
For fourteen years, BOSTnet’s Leadership Roundtables have been one of the many professional development services we provide to the out-of-school time (OST) field. They are a key activity in our approach to quality improvement that focuses on building staff skills around identified field competencies. This past year, we updated the format and began holding Roundtables in communities outside of Greater Boston that have limited networking and professional development opportunities. In the past the Roundtable relied on panel discussions in which participants discussed effective practices used in their programs. This season’s offerings combined networking opportunities with research-based training presentations and collegiate conversations to foster a more inclusive learning community. Training topics were sequenced to build a body of core knowledge and to meet the needs of program staff for professional development credits through the Department of Early Education and Care. Thanks to the generous support of For Kids Only After School, Inc., BOSTnet re-launched the Leadership Roundtable on the North Shore while the Shapiro Foundation, the Boston Foundation, State Street, and others provided support for the Boston series to continue into its fourteenth year.

Review of Activities
The sequencing of events was an original concept. It has long been recognized that staff at OST programs experience turnover during or after the summer and there is a need for refresher materials at the beginning of the academic year with older staff in new positions or assuming new program projects. To address this need to orientate OST staff (including directors, coordinators, and new staff), BOSTnet launched the fall series with Quality Environments for Youth, an overview of what makes OST programs a unique developmental setting for youth, how it differs from formal education environments, and its potential as the primary pathway to healthy youth development. This environmental approach to building quality programs represents BOSTnet’s view of the field as a complimentary support for children and youth from what they receive during the school day.
The series continued with Promoting Positive Behavior, purposely front-loaded at the beginning of the academic year to address behavioral and group management issues as programs are assembling. Behavioral support training is consistently one of most requested and well-attended trainings we offer. As the year continued, Project-Based Learning provided a working structure for programs to intentionally frame enrichment activities, meet academic standards, and allow program staff to develop their own fun and engaging projects. The beginning of the Spring Series we had the opportunity to dig down into more complex issues that are a perpetual challenge for providers, including accountability and inclusion. To help support programs faced with shifting expectations and increasingly complex requirements, BOSTnet surveyed the many different tools for measuring program quality and provided a forum for programs to discuss some current issues they are facing in obtaining meaningful data. Inclusion also raised many questions for programs that are seeing many disabilities manifest as behavioral challenges – especially as the definition of disability is shifting to include social-emotional or cognitive disorders. The final Roundtable in the 2008–2009 series set for May 7th, Effective OST Communication in a Digital Age, will discuss program communication, outreach, and new web-based technology.

The presentations provided built upon the knowledge we have gained over the past few years running the Lead to Opportunities for Youth with Disabilities (LOYD), Promoting Positive Behavior, Engaging Families, the Facilities Initiatives, as well as best practices gathered from BOSTnet’s fieldwork. Leadership Roundtables on the North Shore were hosted by different organizations such as Girls Inc., the YMCA of Greater Lynn, Boys and Girls Club of Salem, Community Teamwork, Inc., and the North Shore Community College department of Education who also generously provided refreshments. The Boston Public Library where wireless Internet allowed for “real time” web searches and video feeds hosted Boston Roundtables. Every roundtable was evaluated and reflected upon on the day of the event, elevating key issues and capturing quotes and conversations, while providing transparency as to effectiveness and participant satisfaction. Reflections were posted on the BOSTnet blog at www.bostnet.blogspot.com and indexed according to topic or initiative. Comments were welcome to these pages by interested parties and attendees, allowing for anonymous comments to create a higher level of academic freedom and dialogue in the field. Research support was provided by Michael Bennett Monica Zgola handled logistics. Evaluations were developed and reviewed by Manosi Datta.

Observations
Over the past year we have connected to many great programs and staff and heard inspiring stories from staff that are working hard to make a difference in the lives of children and youth. Nearly 500 attendees participated in the 2008/2009 Leadership Roundtables in Boston and the North Shore. The level of experience of attendees was on average ten years or more in the field. Some commented that they felt most professional development was not raising their abilities but “refreshing” strategies or approaches they already felt confident they knew. There was also consistent representation by “line staff” however; this was more the case for Boston than the North Shore.

Programs are stressed by shifting and increasingly unrealistic expectations, inconsistent directions set by funders and policy makers, and, of course, the economy. Many see a diminishing of the community they found in the OST movement, and are interested in continuing to network and share ideas. A major obstacle to this is the limited funding strategies available to programs that creates a more competitive environment and less cohesion in the movement. Many current leaders (many attendees over 20 years in the field) wonder about the upcoming leaders that are needed to keep the field growing and strong. Response to the Leadership Roundtables was positive, as evidenced by solid attendance, increases in blog readership, and positive reviews collected in evaluations. With fewer professional development dollars available and increasing professional development requirements for licensed programs, many providers see BOSTnet’s Roundtables as their primary staff-training option. We will continue to use participant’s feedback to improve our offerings to better serve the field. A few of the suggestions we are currently evaluating include providing specific Roundtables for different level staff, and providing more afternoon trainings for direct staff when they have paid program time.

The Coming Year
We are currently working with partners to plan the upcoming series and expand the Roundtables in the South Shore and Central Massachusetts for the 2009/2010-year. As BOSTnet assumes its role as the Massachusetts’ affiliate for the National Afterschool Association, some changes may be made to both the delivery and geographic reach of our Roundtables. We are constantly developing new topics and refining old ones based on lessons learned from our fieldwork and research. In collaboration with the DEEC, Roundtables will be evaluated according to standard expectations of training organizations and other entities may be involved in delivering these events or informing the content. Funding for these events may be provided by organizations acting in unison, as was demonstrated by organizations on the North Shore this past year, or assistance may come from private or governmental channels as has traditionally supported the Boston series. The series topics with locations and hours will be listed on www.bostnet.org.

Teamwork and its Discontents

What are the limitations of teamwork? We hear a great deal about the 21st century workforce and how we need to learn to cooperate and work in teams to produce... whatever it is that we are going to be producing to base our economy on... We are not always sure what this is, but we know what it is not. We are told what this is not a) industrial b) agriculture.

We are told it is "Service" or "Knowledge" or other vague concepts that translate into - hey, we really don't have any idea what we are preparing kids today for in the jobs of tomorrow but let's all pretend we do know and pass on the savings. We may be preparing children and youth for the complexities of climate control and nano technology, or a world filled with George Jetson jobs. We talk a great deal about "21st century skills" or "readiness" and that these skills, this readiness requires "teamwork." We don't know what the future work is or the conditions, but we do propose more than ever we need cooperation and teamwork. The only problem is, how do we teach teamwork? What is the value or limitations of teamwork?

Have we as a field really thought critically about what teamwork means as concepts as well as the difficulty in educating children and youth to work together? Are 21st Century Learning Skills just buzz words that perk the ears of funders? When so many of our peers and organizations cannot collectively make a simple decision, it does make one muse whether this is so important because - as Freud proposed - we seek to impart to others that aspect of ourselves we lack?

We try to develop many skills of children and youth during Out of School Time. We want our children and youth to work together, to live together, and in many activity-focused programs, how to solve questions and make discoveries that raise awareness among the entire group rather than benefiting a few "good students." Raising children and youth in groups necessitate a certain amount of teamwork whether for fun activities or for just the basics of maintaining order.

Teamwork, then is something those working in youth development should get to understand in-depth and to practice on a more regular basis both within our organizations and between organizations.

In a recent Boston Leadership Roundtable, we led an activity called "Chess Club" based on the management concepts of Dr. Malik who proposed that teamwork was pushed onto areas it does not belong and that what "we are increasingly confronted with today are senseless forms of organization and impracticable types of labour division, which prevent almost any productive work or make it inhumanly difficult" to accomplish goals to which we need to work individually and for which "teamwork" is an organic part of what it means to be human rather than a learned skill that can be taught. Dr. Malik proposes that often matrix organizations (the division of labor) are part of organizations that actually are "performance-hindering" rather than separating out areas of expertise or flattening the workload.

Chess Club riffs off of the idea he proposed that one cannot play chess as a team as well as the crowd chess site where an organization of a thousand people attempt to beat a single chess master. This is exactly what we are asked to do in Youth Development. We are given a game - developing youth - we may know from experience having played it as a youth ourselves but not touched as an adult, or we studied it and have practiced it for years learning basic and advanced moves, there are defined rules, there are multiple pieces each of which act in predictable but well defined ways, and we are having to not only consider all of the multiple complexities of our own pieces but the pieces, the strategy, and the ability of our opponents - detractors of youth development, etc. We play chess with regulations, families, communities, funders, children and youth, staff, schools, lawyers and courts, and our own personal lives and that like chess, youth development success is achieved over a very long time period - a length of time few spectators want to follow as they are increasingly demanding that each move we make produce a "win."

We made the rules to Chess Club simple. The room was divided into teams arbitrarily. Everyone had to be involved, but the roles were suggested. We were not there to teach anyone how to play chess. They had to hope to find that knowledge in their team. What happened was very interesting.

Each side, after an initial discomfort, brought themselves to understand who had what knowledge and what roles they were going to assign. There was a great deal of laughter but OST people are generally very gregarious and able to deal with disorder and ambiguity. Teams formed by much discussion and "who wants to be the" and "I never played chess." The possible roles were commonly sited aspects of teamwork; coordinator (the leader), shaper, team worker, completer finisher, and monitor evaluator. The majority of the participants didn't remember or know how to play chess and this caused a great deal of initial anxiety. After some discussion, each team was able to identify a person who knew how to play and could teach others. These individuals were assigned different roles on each team. They were also the younger people in the room. One team (team 1) huddled up and looked over the possible roles, talked about who was strong in what area, and voted on who should be the leader and placed the person who knew about chess as the shaper, the person who is full of drive to make things happen. The other team was in disarray and everyone wanted to have the role that was three steps away from the board (the coordinator) but not actually make decisions associated with the coordinator's role. The person who knew how to play chess (taught by his grandfather) on team 2 was pushed into the coordinator position. Team 1huddled and started discussing strategy at once. Team 2's coordinator looked over the roles that were assigned and then identified two roles that were indispensable - the team worker (the person who could move the pieces) and the completer finisher (the person who could finish moves involving a capture of the opponent's piece) and the other members of the team moved to the sidelines offering to repeat the rules or self-assigning tasks (cheering, saying "yes" etc.).

The play moved along with great gusto and fun and laugher... and then, after team 2 made its first capture, a pale of seriousness came over the room. This was about winning. Moves were timed based on estimates rather than fixed, and each group had a few minutes to communicate to their group, think about strategy, agree on direction, and make their needed move or gear at the opposing team.

What occurred when time was called was interesting. Team 1 that had grouped together quickly, really thought about roles, discussed movements, huddled together with their backs facing out, shared ideas, concepts, and discussed strategy... captured one pawn.

Team 2 where the coordinator was shoved into his position and who actually took the hand of the team worker and/or finisher and moved their arm a la Ratatoue while the rest of their team stood by doing... nothing.... captured a pawn, a knight, a bishop, and had the only "check" of the play before time was called

It is up to interpretation as to who won to this point and would would win the overall game had it been played to "checkmate." Would it be the team that worked involving all members but capturing a single low level piece, or was it the leader who was so involved that while they "could not touch the board" managed to find wiggle room by guiding the hands of the workers and captured several pieces and was leading an offensive move at the close of game? At the call of time, who had won?

We would have to play an entire game to discover this while most people would say that team 2 won at the call of time. Would the first team more effective in the long run while losing short term terrain? Would those who were being directly manipulated stop laughing and resist or would they learn by example and fall into being able to provide advise as well as action? Would any of the other watchers in the second team actually do anything?

Think of your organization and the teamwork experiences you have had. What of teamwork can we "teach" children and youth, and what opportunities can be provide where teamwork evolves organically as we communicate and create common goals? There is a great deal of talk about working together today. When was the last time you experienced teamwork bring about a successful project on time and on budget? Were you part of team 1 or team 2 when that happened and are we talking about a long-term play or the short win when time is called?