April Fools

We had our first group meeting in Bolton Street at two today.

In this pilot LEAD module all the members of the group happened to have the same three skills as follows!

This must follow good mentoring practice!

1) Communication
2) Problem-Solving
3) Planning and Organising

I think we learnt alot more by comparing similiar skills in terms of successes and failures and discussing how we could provide evidence of where and when we learnt these skills. The Learning Agreement was discussed in detail and members of the group presented some problems they had and reflected on how they could improve them for next year.

Over the next week we will continue developing and broadening our skills and most importantly providing evidence through photographs, films, scrapbooks and many other media forms. This will prepare us for the workshop on the 8th of April. At the workshop we will present our activities to the LEAD group in Cathal Brugha Street at 9.30am.

On reflection of the meeting the primary skill refered to was communication. In all three Societies present we reflected on how we could provide evidence for this skill. New avenues were explored showing evidence through films, Animoto (slide show for photos), minutes of meetings and e-mail messages as proof of our 'communication' skills developing.

On reflection, the problem the Planning Society experienced was the decrease in attendance at the Erasmus event this year. In March 2011 this event was organised for half seven and I think it was too late and some Members sent their apologies they could not attend. There was a drop in numbers from the year before by about ten people. I think the time was to late as many classes had finished earlier that day. This information can be 'communicated' to the third year Committee who are taking over the Planning Society next year. This is important feedback and the new Committee should take this advise on board when they are scheduling the Erasmus event next year.

I am looking forward to the 8th of April workshop, the LEAD group will learn more about reflective practices and will work on their writing skills. This will be followed by Presentations on the day which will further enhance 'communication' skills which we all identified and felt needed exploring.
The group exchanged emails and blog information so we can all comment on each others blogs and further practice our communication input within the LEAD programme.

The meeting concluded with many events to plan and alot of hard but exciting work ahead!