The Drawing Board
“Back to the drawing board” as they say… Watch as we develop our ideas for CIM Kids programs. Feel free to email us your feedback.
Parents of gifted kids could use some support from other adults scrambling to meet the needs if their gifted kids. I believe Kenosis had something in mind already.
Gifted Children’s Program RG Events: (RG = Regional Gathering, or annual weekend conference that we host that people from other states journey to attend in January.)
Q: What does “Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt.” mean?
A: In Latin, it says, “When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults.”
Gifted Children’s Program Long Term Projects
As I stated earlier, the Indiana Association for the Gifted will be in town (Indy) December 2-4. 600 teachers, parents, and administrators who work with gifted kids will be there. I can’t think of an easier and more cost effective way to advertise. Mensa members will man the booth to answer questions and promote our events.
I’ve heard that most television stations have a reporter specifically for education related news. If we can get one of our events aired across the state, that would be some great exposure. We should look into a newspaper report as well.
This would have to be for the older teens and parents. We would need to discuss a policy on doing this and what we would want from it. People could use this to discuss events, share their own pictures, and keep track of what is going on. Since many people are on Facebook every day, this would be a great way to stay in touch.
Twitter is popular these days and would be an easy way to send out invitations and reminders of events. I don’t think there is an age restriction on Twitter, and with Twitter on everything from PDAs to cell phones, it’s a great way to be at the forefront of peoples minds.
http://www.davebonner.com/mensa/pub/letter.pdf
Promotional Postcards
A 4×6 photo would make a perfect promotional postcard. They are printed in glossy color and are less than 10 cents each to print. We can mail them out or have them at our IAG booth. I’ve drafted a few designs for consideration at:
http://www.davebonner.com/mensa/pub/kids_postcards.html
You!!!
If you think our program might be of interest to a bright young person you know in Central Indiana, please have their parents contact me so I can add them to our list. We don’t have much of an advertising budget, so word of mouth will make this program happen! Send them a copy of my “Letter from the GCC”. You can either link to it or download it.
Mensa offers scholarships to promising young people in need. We need to be sure this is promoted
Central Indiana Mensa is looking into partnering with local professionals who specialize in counseling the gifted.
Gifted Services Directory
Complete and current list of schools that offer gifted curriculum, gifted summer/weekend programs, and other services we see fit to print.
Gifted Library
Links to sites like Hoagies Gifted, NAGC, and the Ball State / Purdue gifted library.
General Questions
Many parents of gifted kids don’t know who to ask for help when they find out their kid is gifted. The GCC (me) has a college degree in gifted education, so I will try my best to answer questions.
This is just a starting point. We’ll be flexible and see where the tides of interest take us. The goal is to serve the kids, not to have a great program for us to marvel at. If the kids are happy, things will grow. If we lose sight of our goal, then we’re wasting our time.
——————————
David Bonner
Gifted Children’s Coordinator
Central Indiana Mensa