President’s Letter: Champions of Change

When I think of fall, I think of change. Changing leaves, change in weather and changing sports seasons. As an avid Twins, Vikings, Wild and Gopher fan, I am used to changes, just maybe not always winning. As a mom of toddlers, I am also getting used to changing moods and not having a lot of free time. In school counseling, we are making changes every day – and I don’t mean just schedule changes!

Our students’ needs are changing, our communities are growing and school counselors have to be ready for whatever comes our way. The MSCA Board is actively making changes this year to meet the needs of Minnesota school counselors. As your needs are changing, the MSCA Board is striving to meet those needs.

As a board, we are working on having more professional development opportunities for our members. We will offer two conferences in 2020 as we transition to an annual fall conference. Instead of skipping the 2019–2020 school year, the board voted to have two conferences. The decision to move the conference to the fall came from our membership survey in 2018. As the spring conference often interfered with testing, other statewide conferences and end-of-year activities, the board voted to move the conference to the fall. In addition to two conferences in 2020, you can now earn CEUs online through the members portal on the website. These offerings will be expanding all year as we are developing a series on Cultural Humility. Another highlight is that ASCA will be coming to the spring conference on April 5 to educate our members on the new fourth edition of the ASCA National Model that came out this past July.

The MSCA Board is also changing how to reach members as we strive to be more inclusive to our professional members and graduate students. To grow our membership, the board will be doing membership promotions throughout the year and reaching out to graduate students with more resources. For change to happen, we need all licensed and future school counselors in Minnesota to be part of our membership and be actively involved.

We hope to make some changes this year legislatively and in our school districts. The MSCA Board is looking for school counselors to share their stories and to ask your students, families and other stakeholders to share about the impact you are making in your schools. We hope to share these during National School Counseling Week and MSCA Day on the Hill. The board is also working to develop stronger relationships with other stakeholders, including Education Minnesota, MACAC and other organizations in the state.

As you are looking at your school counseling programs and colleagues, please consider nominating a colleague for an award. The MSCA Board would like to increase award nominations and help with the award process so that we can recognize more of our great members!

Finally, with change comes some challenges. I love the quote, “If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.” As I am writing this, I know that some of these changes may be well received and others may be questioned. We hope as a board that we can adapt and change to always be meeting our MSCA members’ needs. Thank you for being part of MSCA and being part of these changes. Have a great fall!

Contact Marguerite Ohrtman, MSCA president, at president@mnschoolcounselors.org.