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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><img width=625 height=90 id="Picture_x0020_7" src="cid:image001.png@01D5A434.6CF07410"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>As this holiday season approaches, we would like to wish you a wonderful time with family and friends. We are grateful that you are interested and involved in children’s education and consider that Destination Imagination could be a part of that effort.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'><img width=529 height=50 id="Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D5A434.6CF07410" alt="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20/images/5313a540-5f05-46c6-a9b1-68c92ded7a4b.jpg"></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Florida DI is facing a challenge. Destination Imagination, Inc. has changed their requirements for Affiliates, and as a result we are required to purchase insurance. As we are still a very small Affiliate, it would be prohibitively expensive to our teams if we tried to raise our affiliate fees to cover this cost. To this end, we are searching for funding sources, including company grants and sponsorships to keep the program alive in Florida. Our current Board of Directors does not have expertise or connections in this area. If you have information on sources that we could approach it would be appreciated. If you have expertise on fundraising, we would love to have you on our team.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>You can also help. If you shop on Amazon, we are part of the Amazon Smile program. When you select Florida DI to be your charity, a small donation is credited to us for each purchase you make. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>We are also participating in Giving Tuesday and have a donation button set up on our facebook page.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Thank you for your consideration of these matters.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'><img width=529 height=50 id="Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D5A434.6CF07410" alt="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20/images/5313a540-5f05-46c6-a9b1-68c92ded7a4b.jpg"></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'>Time is flying by, but there is still time to purchase a team membership and get </span><span class=MsoHyperlink><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><a href="https://www.destinationimagination.org/challenge-program/start-a-team/">started</a></span></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'>. The sooner you start, the more benefit your team will get from the program.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'> If you are just now getting started, don't worry. You should probably encourage your team to work on selecting a challenge and then create a Goals Calendar. This will help your team stay focused and use solid project management principles to stay on target for the season. Have them mark on a calendar when they think they should be finished with major parts of their solution- script, costumes, props, technical devices, etc. Pull that calendar out at every meeting and talk about how long they have to get things done. Ask if anybody wants to work on certain aspects on their own and bring them back in at a future meeting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'>Remember that kids have their own way of looking at the world, and getting them to focus can be a challenge, especially younger teams who have not had to work with others on a long term project. This can be very frustrating for you an adult, especially if they might get stuck in the “storming” stage of team development, or lose sight of their goals. Refer to the Roadmap, DII blogs and Team Manager trainings for some ideas of how to help your team past some of these roadblocks, and realize that your team may have to readjust their goals (or you may have to readjust your thinking of what they “should” accomplish) and that it is okay. Our Florida tournament is conducted as a celebration of what your teams have accomplished, and we work very hard to make sure our appraisers understand that. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'><img border=0 width=529 height=50 id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D5A434.6CF07410" alt="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20/images/5313a540-5f05-46c6-a9b1-68c92ded7a4b.jpg"></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:125%'><b><span style='font-size:19.5pt;line-height:125%;font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:#202020'>Online Team Manager Training Available<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'>In addition to the Adobe training offered by Destination Imagination headquarters, our California Affiliate of Destination Imagination has posted several wonderful online videos of their team manager training session. These are great refresher courses, or excellent for new team managers. You can find the videos </span><u><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:#2BAADF'><a href="https://gadi.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20&id=a355d227c5&e=cdf241c009" target="_blank"><span style='color:#2BAADF'>here</span></a></span></u><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'>. We would like your feedback on these videos, so please drop us a note at </span><u><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:#0563C1'><a href="mailto:difl.info@yahoo.com">difl.info@yahoo.com</a></span></u><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'> if you use any of these<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Are you looking for more help to be a successful team manager? If so, check out <u><span style='color:#2BAADF'><a href="https://gadi.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20&id=ba8dab6785&e=cdf241c009" target="_blank"><span style='color:#2BAADF'>Destination Imagination’s blog post</span></a></span></u>. The blog is full of helpful tips on how to be the ultimate facilitator for your team.<br><b><u><span style='color:#2BAADF'><a href="https://gadi.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20&id=5cff41daa4&e=cdf241c009" target="_blank"><span style='color:#2BAADF'>California Destination Imagination</span></a></span></u></b> has shared some webinars that they have created for each of the Challenges. These are really worth your time to dive deeper into the Challenge that your Team is doing.<br><br></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'><img border=0 width=529 height=50 id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D5A434.6CF07410" alt="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20/images/5313a540-5f05-46c6-a9b1-68c92ded7a4b.jpg"></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:19.5pt;line-height:106%;font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Team Tournament Registrations<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Please register your team challenge selection with Destination Imagination. Knowing what challenges you are working on, helps Destination Imagination and us at Florida DI with our tournament planning. Remember that you need to register with both DII and Florida DI. Our Florida tournament registration is now open, so that you can start to enter your team’s information for us as well. You may change any information on your registrations for us until registration closes on February 29.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif;color:black'><img border=0 width=529 height=50 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D5A434.6CF07410" alt="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/983ea8d89da8441460e8a9b20/images/5313a540-5f05-46c6-a9b1-68c92ded7a4b.jpg"></span><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:19.5pt;line-height:106%;font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Important Dates<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Florida Tournament Registration closes February 29, 2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Florida DI tournament in Maitland Saturday, March 28, 2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'>Global Finals tournament in Kansas City, Missouri May 20 through 23, 2020<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Erica Bowler<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Affiliate Director<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'>Florida Destination Imagination<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><a href="http://www.floridadi.org">www.floridadi.org</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><a href="mailto:DIFL.info@yahoo.com">DIFL.info@yahoo.com</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><img border=0 width=318 height=45 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.png@01D5A434.6CF07410"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Maiandra GD",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>