Leadership Forum
Thursday, April 11, 2018
9:30am - 4:00pm
RiverCentre in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Cost: $35 ($28 for MÂCHÉ members)
The 2019 Leadership Forum is going to be another encouragement-filled day for Minnesota homeschool support group and co-op leaders.
You face unique challenges that others don't experience. Not only are you homeschooling your own children and keeping your home running smoothly; but you are also leading a group of families...which means planning, scheduling, organizing, communicating, and making decisions on top of everything else.
The Leadership Forum is designed to help you get away from your everyday routine and enjoy a time of delightful encouragement and relaxing refreshment ... as you revitalize your vision.
The cost is $35 ($28 for MÂCHÉ members). If you register before March 30, a luncheon meal is included. If you register after March 30, you may still attend but you will need to purchase a meal from the café and bring it with you to the luncheon. Sessions will be held in Meeting Room 7; the Leaders Luncheon, in Meeting Rooms 8-9.
Onsite registration begins at 8:30am on April 11.
Forrest and Beth Mora have an engaging wit which, along with their practical ideas, will motivate and encourage you as leaders. Come, relax, and enjoy this fun day ... created just for you!
The Road to Homeschool Co-op Utopia
Teacher: Beth Mora
9:30am - 10:45am, Meeting Room 7
Are we there yet? Homeschool Co-op Utopia is a place where community, learning, and great memories live. However, the road to a great co-op experience is not without ups and downs or unexpected turns. A well-organized co-op can make all the difference between success and an “I’ll never do that again” road trip. Join Beth Mora, homeschool co-op leader and teacher as she shares from her years of experience and piles on an armload of resources to help you create a successful homeschool co-op. If you are in a co-op, thinking about starting a co-op, or wondering what life is like in a co-op, then this session is where you will want to take a seat and fasten your seatbelt! We are going to great places!
THERE ARE NO HANDOUTS FOR THIS WORKSHOP.
Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers
Teachers: Forrest and Beth Mora
11:00am - 12:15pm, Meeting Room 7
Volunteers are the backbone of nonprofit organizations. Without volunteers, visions crumble. How do you recruit qualified volunteers? How can a leader strengthen a volunteer to go the distance? How do you inspire your volunteers to serve with passion? Forrest and Beth Mora will share ten key principles to help you form a team that will thrive and create a lasting impact.
THERE ARE NO HANDOUTS FOR THIS WORKSHOP.
Embracing Marketing Shifts in the Homeschool Community
Teachers: Forrest and Beth Mora
2:00pm - 4:00pm, Meeting Room 7
We all know it. We all must face it and embrace it. The new homeschool family is an online family shaped by budget constraints and cyber-culture. In this session, we’ll explore new ways of meeting the needs of the next generation of homeschool families. We live in an exciting time that’s filled with more opportunities to serve than ever!
THERE ARE NO HANDOUTS FOR THIS WORKSHOP.
BETH MORA, and I (FORREST) have eight children and have been married for 18 years. After blending two households together and adopting two teen boys, we affectionately call our family of eight children, “Yours, Mine, Ours, and Somebody Else’s.” We have been homeschooling for about 20 years and have loved the joys of homeschooling. Most of our children are grown and have “flown from the nest,” but our youngest child remains at home. And she was the reason Here to Help Learning began.
It was a sunny day of homeschooling when our unit study on Native Americans went sour. Since the beginning, Beth’s style of teaching has always been hands-on. And with our large family, we always had plenty of eager children to make any activity fun and memorable. Well that fateful day, Mom and daughter began the Native American “Bear Dance” around our outdoor fire pit, dressed to the hilt in Native American construction papered costumes. Mom began with her usual enthusiasm. However, our daughter blankly stared at her mother. “I don’t think this is going to work, Mom,” she said shaking her head. Beth never could figure out how to homeschool one child.
So we decided to start a business providing supplemental homeschooling classes to local homeschool children. Our goal was to have just five students for a couple of days a week for a small cost and provide our youngest with a co-op setting. This was the beginning of Here to Help Learning. Five years later, Beth was serving about 60 families with eight different classes -- including two literature classes, two writing classes, art, history, drama, and science. Here to Help Learning co-op earned the reputation of doing the “messy projects and cool experiments” and Beth earned the nickname, “The teacher with the “Right” Brain.”
She also hosted workshops to introduce families to homeschooling, creatively manage household budgets, and teach young children to write. She enjoyed co-leading the Home to Home support group in our area and still loves to encourage homeschool moms through her writing and blogging. All these experiences led her to the next chapter of Here to Help Learning.
One day, one of the moms asked Beth for some information on a historical subject; and Beth went to her computer, found a worksheet that she had created years ago, and printed it for the mom. When asked, “Where did you get this?” Beth just said, “I don’t know, I’ve had it for years.” What this mom said next led us to the next phase of Here to Help Learning. “You have to put this on the internet and make this available to homeschool families everywhere,” the mom replied. And so began the most adventurous project of our lives, HereToHelpLearning.com.
