Hi Trinity,
I really appreciate your ideas. I have been battling with this for some time and guess the end result is that my interests (one of which is gifted research/ed) are not necessarily shared by many here.
The science festival is city-wide for grades 4-6 (and K-3 gifted), so about 2500 kids attend. It's quite an undertaking, but is really wonderful. Still, I've been asking the gifted association whether this is the best use of our time. Perhaps we should recruit for the city-wide festival and have the assoc. focus our time/efforts on activities for gifted kids specifically. I dunno.
My ennui will probably be extinguished in a few weeks when the festival is done and I get summertime to recoop/re-energize.
Recently a statewide gifted organization started up but seems to be mostly a resource to teachers (noticing continuiing ed courses and gifted certification offerings, conferences, etc.). I'm still pleased to see a state-wide organization and maybe it'll evolve to have support for parents and gifted kids.
We are located so far from other towns (couple hrs driving) that teaming with other communities would be difficult (though not impossible). I agree that appealing to families with younger children is the way to grow and we've started by printing brochures about the association for teachers to hand out at all IEPs. Maybe that'll help. I think it's really that we have a strong gifted program, and parents aren't worried about it. But I still devour articles and info, even though my kids are being challenged & enriched.
Anyway, thank you for your suggestions!
Cym
