Guest speaker Maryellen Butke addresses foundation members as RI Commissioner Gist looks on.

More than 50 board members of local educational foundations from across Rhode Island convened at the Roger Williams conference center in Portsmouth last night in their first-ever face-to-face meeting.

The event was organized and hosted by Kara Milner, chair of the Bristol-Warren Education Foundation, who arranged for two high-profile speakers for the inaugural event, RI Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist, and Maryellen Butke, director of RI Campaign for Achievement Now (RI-CAN).

"My affection for education foundations is really, really deep," said Gist, thanking the attendees for their constant work supporting schools. Gist spoke briefly about RIDE's stragegic plan and five priorities. Butke provided an overview of RI-CAN's work on policy and education advocacy.

The bulk of the evening was devoted to a free-form discussion among participants on education issues, and since I was attending as a member of an education foundation, I'm going to report on the conversation under Chatham House rules, which any long-time reader of my blog will know is my approach when dealing with not-fully-public meetings.

There were some policy questions that the group kicked around — both at the state and local level. There was also discussion of the appropriate role for local foundations in supporting things like professional development and curricula. A couple of major themes that surfaced were innovation, continuous improvement, and "raising all boats," and the role foundations could play in community support (and fundraising) for such efforts.

The group talked for an hour and a half, and could have gone on longer. Milner thanked everyone who attended, and Roger Williams University, which donated the space.

As next steps, the group plans to build an e-mail list to keep local foundations in the loop on activities, and potentially have additional in-person sessions on a periodic basis.

Full disclosure: Obviously, I was attending as a member of the Portsmouth Public Education Foundation board; and while I hope you'll support our local foundation (and like us on Facebook!) the opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Editorial note: In one of my favorite films, "The Man Who Fell to Earth," David Bowie's alien tries to reassure scientist Rip Torn who's working on his rocket project. "Don't be suspicious, Dr. Bryce." That's always good advice, especially for public officials who jump to conclusions. Sho jo mu hen sei gan do.