PRE-QuEST MINI-INSTITUTES are a popular optional component of the QuEST experience. They provide more time for in-depth information, discussion and interaction than do regular QuEST workshops. Participants will return home with the knowledge, skills and strategies to help them advance local and state federation efforts to strengthen their schools.

PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED for these workshops because space is limited to the first 40 registrants per mini-institute. Sessions begin on Wednesday, July 11, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and resume on Thursday, July 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The following mini-institutes are offered:

Does Your School Really Expect Kids To Succeed?
How do you communicate high expectations to your students? Tools and research are available to assist you in looking at how your actions and other behaviors affect student motivation. Enjoy a highly interactive mini-institute that will examine research on the social context of the classroom and illustrate various ways that effective teachers and schools can influence academic success through interactions with students.
Target Audience: Classroom Teachers

Generational Differences and Organizing
As baby boomers retire from union leadership, who will take their places? Who will lead, encourage, advocate and nurture union members? Unions must inspire more from their current members, attract new members and serve all members effectively—but how? This workshop addresses the difference among various generations—veterans, baby boomers, generation X and millennials—their core values, beliefs, motivators and what they bring to the workplace. It’s time to focus on succession planning—"raising" the next generation of union leaders. Participants will be involved in interactive discussions and workgroups to identify what works to attract new union members, what motivates and inspires current members, and how unions must prepare to lead the new workforce.
Target Audience: Union Leaders and Members

The Building Representative's Role in School Reform: Improving Where Our Members Work
This mini-institute will provide the knowledge and skills needed for building reps to serve as effective school leaders, union builders, communicators and problem solvers in the demanding environment of today's schools. Building reps especially will benefit, but the seminar also is designed for those who coordinate the union's steward program—officers, executive board members or chief stewards. With unions' involvement in school reform, building representatives have assumed new roles and responsibilities. In addition to their traditional duties, building reps are providing professional support to staff and are key players in reform efforts, often serving on school improvement teams and labor-management committees. Knowledge of school accountability measures, education policy, and restructuring programs and reforms will be the focus along with building cooperative relationships among the staff and administration that foster collaboration and commitment.
Target Audience: Building Representatives and Union Leaders

Organizing Around Professional Issues/Engaging New Members
(Prerequisite: Open only to teams of two or more that can
influence local union priorities and program direction.)
Research conducted by the AFT has found that many local unions need to do a much better job of articulating a proactive professional issues agenda, and engaging new and younger members, if we expect to convert potential members to members, members to activists and activists to leaders. In this mini-institute, we will examine this research and the implications for local unions. Each local team will develop a plan for a professional issues advocacy organizing campaign and a framework for the union becoming a "first and best friend" to new members by providing professional support to them through sustained personal contact.
Target Audience: Union Leaders

Strategic Communications: Inside and Out
At a time when it seems our teachers and public schools are under constant attack, when membership is changing with growing numbers of young members and retirees, when every day we're challenged by some new type of technology, and when resources for communications are always limited—being strategic is not an option: It is a requirement. Learn how to develop an effective message that connects with your members, your prospective members, the press and the general public. Discover how you can be proactive and get out your message without a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign. More important, develop ways to use your communication efforts to engage members and build membership involvement. Leave this workshop with tips for developing a comprehensive communications plan centered around extensive AFT member research and highlighting readily available communications tools.
Target Audience: Union Leaders

Strong Teams Build Strong Schools
(Prerequisite: Registered as a district team and team member; see registration form.)
Whether your team is starting a partnership to improve schools or working to strengthen an existing partnership, this mini-institute provides opportunities for you and your team to learn to work together. Hear from experts and practitioners about how to form partnerships that produce results and how to sustain those partnerships. Union locals and district administrators will share their experiences in working together to develop strategies for school improvement, expand professional development opportunities for staff and reach out to parent and community partners. Learn about the resources available from the AFT to help union locals and districts assist schools in designing and implementing changes. Throughout QuEST your team will: create a workplan; attend daily debriefing sessions that focus on issues affecting your district; share experiences with other teams; and access AFT staff on issues confronting your school(s).
Target Audience: Union Leaders and District Administration attending as a Team

Training Effective Leadership Teams for Student Achievement
(Prerequisite: Attended Effective Leadership for Student Achievement I.)
With more schools being identified as "in need of improvement," this session will extend and deepen the training skills required to design and facilitate Effective Leadership for Student Achievement Institutes. When district, school and union leaders work in teams to improve schools, essential leadership skills must be evident as they confront the day-to-day realities of school redesign and the sanctions presented by NCLB. Develop your team's capacity to work as partners with coaches. Learn techniques to effectively plan and implement student achievement and school improvement strategies. Come ready to engage in professional development activities that promote team building, communications strategies and data analysis for school improvement. Leave with plans to design and implement local or regional customized institutes.
Target Audience: Members of school improvement teams who have participated in Effective Leadership for Student Achievement I