✉️Newsletter: What are our main takeaways from Annual General Meeting of AMI?
Dear Montessori colleagues and friends around the world,
In my last letter, I promised you that I will share my impressions from the AMI AGM (Annual Global Meeting) event that took place two weekends ago.
If you read my previous letter to the community or saw our crazy posts on FB, you saw that our whole team travelled there. Seventeen of the MIPs team went and we proudly carried the Erasmus logo with us, since the trip was paid for by the Erasmus grant. And it was an amazing trip for many reasons!
The AMI AGM event is a gathering of AMI members, trainers, Affiliate Organizations, AMI graduates and other interested people. This year, the event was opened to non-members as well. And I have to say that this “little” change made the event really special for me. I have attended ten AMI AGM’s and this year was definitely the best.
I am composing this letter from the recording of a reflective meeting we held in our team when we came back home. The words below are MIPs team words and reflections, mixed with my words and reflections. And, I really hope that our AMI Amsterdam Headquarters colleagues read this 👏. We are truly grateful for being able to participate in this very special event and it was their amazing work that made the event so wonderful.
Here I am sharing some of our reflections.🥰
“One of the things which made the biggest impression on me was how many people out there are doing amazing jobs, bringing Montessori to their communities. We heard about the amazing collaboration of the government with Montessori in Norway. We learned about the work of the Montessori Community of Tanzania, about social projects in Argentina, and about the Community Rooted Project in South Africa. Some of these people built Montessori projects out of literally nothing”
My note added to that: I strongly encourage you to check out these websites and read about these projects. It will be of great inspiration to you if you have a Montessori dream yourself and you are wondering where to start.
“We have met so many people with whom we will collaborate further. One of those future collaborations will be with Montessori Sports. We also had a really nice meeting with Julien Lamorte with whom we plan to convert our digital resources into French. We had a wonderful conversation with Madlena Ulrich and Yu Teng Chien, AMI 3-6 trainers, about the new diploma course format”
“I saw the global scale of Montessori education and organizations standing for it and the tremendous work they have done. And it was very inspiring and also humbling to see this huge scale. I felt MIP is part of this global movement striving for better conditions for all human beings, from children to elderly people. I realized that as a movement we are advocating for lives lived in dignity and self-respect, that is the biggest mission of the whole Montessori movement”
“There is so much charity in Montessori. I realized many people are doing many things. Some people start in a shed and they grow into an amazing Montessori education”
“In many countries, Montessori is supported by governments. Montessori is not considered separate. The government is inviting Montessori organizations to collaborate. This was so inspiring. It would be so nice if Montessori would be a normality”
“It was really amazing to visit the Maria Montessori study and hear about her life and work from her great-granddaughter, Carolina Montessori herself felt so connected to her (MM) again”
One of my biggest personal takeaways from this event is that we really are a truly amazing team. Nobody got lost at the airport while we walked together 🙂. Our trip was organized perfectly and at the same time, people in the team stuck with the plan, people were mindful of each other, watching out for each other, aware of each other throughout the whole time. People stepped for each other when work needed to be done.
“I felt we are really connected with each other. I felt that MIP is one living organism, with each team member playing their role, working together in a synchronized way, supporting each other and helping and each of us doing our own part. And because we are a living organism, the organism keeps regenerating itself if something happens. And it keeps its course. And if the majority of the team is going in some way, then the whole organism goes that way”
“We also grew closer with Andílek’s team (our school’s colleagues who also came along). We made more personal connections and it will help us to support them more with our work and to really see them connected with us”
“We do our work very well. If the Montessori global community is an elementary school class, we MIP people are the cool guys, fun to hang out with!🙂”
When I arrived home, I had a very strong realization that my main role in our work is to be with people, to spread inspiration and joy, to welcome and include people and to hug people, and my people, the MIP team, are enabling me to do that.
Here is a beautiful video from the event shared by AMI. You will feel the love and the vibe. Watch it.
There is always still so much work to do, but we are looking at it from the abundance mindset perspective. It is amazing how many ideas and projects are waiting to be done.
Join us on that journey 👍
Coming next: The story of the red shoes which I wanted to buy in The Netherlands, which I did not have time to buy, and I still brought them home 🙂.
Coming next also: A series of interviews I recorded with our colleagues from all over the world, to share with you whom we know, whom we work with and how amazing they are! Stay tuned on our IG and FB page and in our community FB group The MIP Hub.
With much love for all of you, feeling nostalgic and connected,
Yours, Mirka from MIP
PS: One more very important takeaway: The AMI Headquarters Team is a team of real human beings, they are amazing, and we all play in one team with them together!
