P.E.A.C.E. and the NAEYC Peace Educators Interest Forum held a joint annual meeting at the NAEYC Conference in Washington, DC, on Friday, November 18, 2022, at 6 p.m. EDT.
The kick-off
The meeting began with Hannah Thompson and John Surr, our co-hosts, addressing first the Interest Forum’s concerns. Its membership currently is 306. NAEYC has provided helpful diversity and equity training to some of our facilitators. Members of the Interest Forum are encouraged to get in touch with 1peaceeducators@gmail.com to express their interest in becoming a Co-Facilitator for the Interest Forum.
The heart of the meeting
The remainder of our meeting concerned P.E.A.C.E., Inc. We were joined on zoom by its members from across the country. All of those physically present at our meeting had signed up to join P.E.A.C.E. when they entered.
We began that meeting with a description of this year’s P.E.A.C.E. Projects, selected and funded by the organization due to a generous annual grant.
Awards Given
Our Annual Peace Awards were presented next. The first award was to Indigenous Visioning for their active efforts to improve the care and education of young native American children.
The second award was to Josh Golin & Fairplay for Kids, for its work in protecting children from the abuses of screen technology companies and defending the values of strong personal relationships.
And the third award was to Hannah Thompson, for her very helpful work for P.E.A.C.E. as its Membership Chair and Executive Committee member. We will feature Josh’s ward in this month’s edition.
We described the new Sunny Wallick Memorial Fund awards of NAEYC Premium membership for qualified P.E.A.C.E. members, and we encouraged participants to get involved with a new children’s literature book club about peace.
Business Done
We reviewed P.E.A.C.E.’s annual financial report, and approved it, with thanks to Treasurer Fran Roznowski. We encouraged participation in our annual retreat next June 16 – 19 in Auburn, California, as well as peace-related proposals for NAEYC’s 2023 Professional Learning Institute and its National Conference.
We elected the P.E.A.C.E. Council, its governing body for the coming year, and a special award was given to John Surr, on his retirement from the P.E.A.C.E. Executive Committee, following many years of service. Our next P.E.A.C.E. membership meeting will be on March 8, 2023. Finally, we celebrated P.E.A.C.E.’s presence on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
