It can be lonely at the top. This can be especially true for the leaders of charter school authorizing offices. You might have a challenging board. You almost surely face political pressures. Sometimes it’s hard to fill open positions, and it may be getting even harder to keep the talent you’ve got. The list of challenges that you face each morning when you arrive at work is long. The good news: you’re not alone.
There is a place for you to identify common obstacles (as well as common solutions) and lean on your peers for support. It’s called the NACSA Heads of Authorizing Office Community.
This Community, one of several created by NACSA to better serve its members’ needs, is focused on bringing together the leaders of charter offices—all types and sizes of authorizers—to provide meaningful opportunities for collaboration and professional development.
One of this Community’s features is a “buddy system.”Participating Community members are paired together based on mutual contexts and goals. Participants have an instant phone-a-friend to bounce ideas off of, share experiences with, and grow together.
The Community also recognizes the importance of face time. It hosted its first meeting in March of 2015. During this day-and-a-half summit, attendees shared their leadership stories, engaged in conversations about strategic planning and director evaluations, and had plenty of time to build stronger relationships with their peers. Based on popular demand, the Community’s co-chairs, along with a content committee, are gearing up to host a second summit in early 2016.
Members of the Community also participated in an interactive session at the 2015 NACSA Leadership Conference in October. The session was designed as a peer-to-peer consulting engagement, with members helping dissect real problems and offer possible solutions to issues facing their peers.
The Heads of Authorizing Office Community is preparing for another active year, but it will only be successful with robust involvement from NACSA’s authorizer members. NACSA encourage all heads of authorizing offices to participate in this group so that together they may ensure that all authorizing leaders have the tools they need to guide their offices.
Community members: stay tuned for exciting announcements regarding upcoming activities for this group. If you are not currently involved in this Community but would like to be, please contact [email protected] for more information.
