Fellowship for the Improvement of Educational Leadership
A Brief History

During the latter stages of the 2003 I/D/E/A conferences, word spread that the organization was folding and that the annual conferences as well as peripheral activities that the organization had become famous for were no longer in the future. To those who had religiously participated, including fellows who had attended for twenty to twenty five years, this vacuum was seen as a major difficulty. Thus even before the end of the I/D/E/A/ conference, minds were working toward the formation of the replacement group.

During the winter of 2004, the Fellowship for the Improvement of Educational Leadership was founded in a dusty conference room in Sycamore, Illinois. At that time it was envisioned that the needs satisfied by the annual conference were too important to go by the wayside. Thus a coterie of a dozen former IDEA fellows went about the task of organizing a new group and planning a new conference.

I recall that evening because I was selected to lead the new group, a responsibility that was cast upon humble but intense shoulders. A revolving leadership committee was formed, one that split up vital tasks among a group that specified this to be a labor of love and not of reward. Thus today, as we gear up toward our fourth conference, not one member of the organizing group, one that has already evolved to include new members, has taken a penny in the form of payment for services.

So our new group continues to thrive based on the ideals that:

• All FIEL members are workers who toil toward the good of the group;
• That an intellectually challenging week be planned for all those who choose to participate;
• That on a yearly basis, an appropriate college campus would be found to house its members, in less expensive dormitories;
• That the costs remain inexpensive and affordable;
• That the participants take a special interest in new administrators who might have an experience that would be cherished;
• That the expertise of the participants be utilized during the week of learning.

These principles remain sacred to us as we prepare for July, 2008. Feel free to read on if you are interested in the education of the young people in our country.

Art DiBenedetto,
Conference Director