September 2009 Meeting

What a wonderful time we had at the first meeting for the Piney Woods Counseling Association! The meeting was held at the outstanding facilities of Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches on September 15, 2009. The President-Elect, Phil Edwards, coordinated the day and arranged for the exceptional speaker on “Ethics Counselors Can Use.” Our presenter was Dr. Gay McAlister who not only brought us information we can use, she made it interesting. She is a former member of PWCA. Thank you, Dr McAlister. It was a super day.

Our president for PWCA, Janet Adams, conducted the meeting and reminded us that we have not had an increase in dues and will have to consider raising them. She called for volunteers to work on a committee to investigate and provide recommendations for raising the dues. The meeting places, like Stephen F. Austin have been very generous in allowing us to meet in their facilities free of charge. PWCA provided the lunch at this first meeting.

With the tight budgets of the universities and colleges, we will be providing meals for each of the meetings. Of course, this means that we will have to consider an increase in our dues. We have an exceptional opportunity for each member every year to meet colleagues, hear three outstanding speakers, have three scrumptious lunches, and receive CEU credits at each meeting for a budget price. Our dues are low enough that to increase them a bit won’t hurt our individual pocket books and will allow PWCA to manage more of the cost of future meetings.

There is still plenty of time to register for the next two meetings of PWCA and pay your dues at the current year cost. For those of you who have not yet paid your dues, you can sign up on-line or contact Angele Fanning, our membership chairman. All details are on the PWCA website, which is designed and maintained by Melinda Coker.


Be looking for your next newsletter in the mail before our next meeting of December 8 at Kilgore College. Our outstanding newsletters are designed and sent to you by Joel Jackson. Our third meeting of the year will be at University of Texas at Tyler on March 23rd.

We hope to see you all at the TCA conference, 3D in BIG D “Dreams—Direction—Dedication,” November 11 – 14, 2009 in Dallas, Texas.

Leaurme Black
Filling in as Parliamentarian for Cathy Sullivan

March 2009 Meeting

We had a great meeting in the new student center at the University of Texas at Tyler on March 25, 2009. Instead of the usual blog, I've made a video for you to watch with photos provided by Karon Harrison and information provided by Leaurme Black. It's short... about 1 1/2 minutes. (If there is no video with a "play" button, that means you need to download the newest version of the free Adobe Flash player.)

December 2008 Meeting

Our second meeting of the year was held on December 2nd at the Longview Regional Medical Conference Center in Longview. We were greeted by our Membership Chair, Angele Fanning, and her committee. Angele makes sure dues have been paid, addresses updated, and records turned into TCA after each meeting. We currently have 170 members!

The meeting place was provided for us free of charge, which we greatly appreciate. It was a wonderful place to meet and our President-Elect, Janet Adams, worked very hard to make sure we were comfortable. She added so many nice touches, such as flavorings for the coffee and homemade brownies (made for us by her daughter, Amy). We applaud her hard work.

The first item on the agenda was the business meeting, conducted by our President, Cathy Sullivan. If you are reading this, you already know that we have added this blog so we have an additional record of our meetings that members can access at any time. We are also trying to make sure that the treasurer’s report is made available after each meeting from a link on the meeting page of the website.

This is the time of the year that we make nominations for the 2009-2010 officers and committee chairpersons. If you are interested in serving as a leader of Piney Woods, or if you want to nominate someone, just send in your nomination form, or e-mail any of the officers. We are also asking for nominations for our organization's counselor-of-the-year to be awarded at the March meeting. Nomination forms are on the website.

We had a state-wide award winner from our chapter again this year. Vickie Spearman was named the 2006 winner of the TSCA School Counselor of the Year. So, be sure and turn in any other nominations for state awards. We love the recognition!

The Advocacy Days for meeting with legislators center around the Spring TCA/TEA conferences and are: Feb 17, Mar. 25, and May 5. We can use all the advocates we can get!


If you missed the meeting, you missed the opportunity to have your name drawn for the door prizes which were gorgeous red poinsettias, provided by Lynn Bearden, Hospitality Chairperson.

Our speaker, Todd Burns, MS, NCC, LPC, seemed like a special treat. His morning presentation was “ADHD Students and Strategies to Help Them.” He gave us many valuable tips and techniques that we can use and suggest to our teachers. It was a very practical and informative morning. The afternoon presentation was “Keeping Your Candle Lit, So That You Can Light Your World.” He talked about “compassion fatigue” and gave us some tips on how to rejuvenate. I think we enjoyed the humor tip the best, “Nuts, Nuts, Not Nuts!” You had to be there. :) Between the two presentations, we had a delicious lunch arranged by Janet Adams, President-Elect, and catered by Jalapeno Tree.

The entire day was truly spectacular!

Until next time,
Leaurme Black, Past-president

Photos courtesy of Karon Harrison, Reporter/Historian