Dear NEALS,

Well, our 2016-2019 Strategic Plan has certainly put your Board of Directors through their paces! Paces that were fueled by a generous $10,000 grant from Elizabeth S. and Peter Tower Foundation. NEALS wishes to express its gratitude to the Tower Foundation for funding the initial implementation of the NEALS 2016 - 2019 Strategic Plan.  With a new, improved communications system, website, and governance, NEALS truly is the premier professional development resource empowering learning specialists in supporting all learners!

Building on last year’s efforts, the Board has worked this year:
- To provide more regular, reliable, and appealing professional development updates using Mail Chimp,
- To revise the website
- To make it an interactive, password protected system that gives members a go to place for professional collaboration,
- To enhance members’ privacy and security, and
- To increase the benefits of membership.

We have also wrestled with some technological bugs, such as ensuring that you receive 365 days of membership and a reminder to reenroll and update your profile each year. In addition, we have made it financially easier for retirees to remain members, honoring their continuing commitment and value as mentors. And we’ve created a new forum for our discussion group, fully archived and searchable, accessed through the website, and open to current members only.

So please Join us online! 

If you have enjoyed the original Google Group as much as we have, please go onto the new discussion group via:
Nealsonline.org/membership
- sign in using your password, (if you didn’t save it, sign up for a new one),
- click on Discussion
- and join in our pre-conference discussion on math accommodations or start another.

Our password protected, members-only website, remains free of advertising, and you can rely on it for private and personalized professional development and networking. We can barely envision the impact of these innovations upon each member’s work with students and faculty.

With the rest of the Board, I look forward to seeing you at the 2018 NEALS conference on April 23rd at Worcester Academy.  Please register soon by signing into the website and going to: Conferences. Great thanks to our host, Tricia MacKay Monheim, and the rest of the Board for their work in preparing for our day together.

Sincerely yours,
Susan

Susan Cole Ross

President, The Northeast Association
of Learning Specialists