Welcome to the Secondary School Hospitality Educators of Ontario (SSHEO). The organization is known as the Secondary School Hospitality Educators of Ontario and it’s acronym is SSHEO. The organization represents the provincial viewpoint on all matters relating to Hospitality/Tourism educators (Technological Education) in Ontario’s publicly funded schools, colleges and universities offering programming relating to our sector. We are partners with Ontario Council for Technological Educators. Formation of SSHEO was instigated by Malcolm Hendren (president elect) who solicited educators to collectively join together to be heard at the Ministry level, and to support and develop our subject teaching area of Commercial Foods. The first meeting was on June 26, 1989, at George Brown College, a year after the initial discussions were held at the Canadian Federation of Chef & Cooks Conference in Edmonton, educational meeting in forming provincial groups, to be represented on a national level. At the initial provincial meeting, Jane Matthews obtained a mailing list and it was used to contact Food Service Teachers to form a subject association on November 23, 1989 at Humber College. Seventeen teachers attend that initial meeting, addressing the issue of giving the subject association a name, forming an executive, establishing a constitution, and forming sub-committees: Image of food programmes, creative programming, co-operative education, Articulation, Professional development, and marketing and industry outreach. It had begun, but the executive was soon to learn the amount of time and commitment needed to develop a subject association from it’s first seeds. The next key date in development was on February 24, 1990, when the Ontario Teachers’ Federation Curriculum Forum, granted membership in the OTF Curriculum Forum to SSHEO. This meant that we were now a recognized subject association in the eyes of the Ministry of Education, and that two representatives of SSHEO could attend the conferences hosted by OTF. The next key period (1994-1995 era) is when the Minister of the day recognized our subject matter and created the seven –board based area in Technological education: Hospitality Services. Over the time, the association has been very busy nationally as well as keeping everyone involved with Hospitality news on up to date Ministry initiatives. Our national developments saw members becoming involved with the National executive of the Canadian Chef Educators, as they have now developed into. This development came form the original Western Chef Educators group, formed in 1990 era. Our continuing involvement included liaison with Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, involved as the development of College of Teachers took effect, and assisted with the development of teacher qualifications. Our biggest challenge came as the technological group came to face the redevelopment of the curriculum in the late 90’s. The development had evolved over several years, dating back to the bill of introducing the Reform of Education in Ontario in 1992. The curriculum development process reignited most of our colleagues to be renewed in their commitment of bringing our subject association back to the form it once enjoyed. Many educators had participate in the review of draft documents, they were involved with the actual document writing, they were involved with the ‘profile’ development; it was a very busy time for all of us…. The Provincial Executive, through our web page now offers you support and welcomes you to join in our many exciting initiatives. It is by becoming involved that we can begin to measure the value of the Associations and its true potential, from a provincial and national perspective. Each member is encouraged to participate at both the local, provincial and national level by assuming his or her role in support of our occupations we represent. We encourage you to join with us across this province, in an organization of professionals that represents’ your individual needs and the professional occupational capacity that we proudly work within, for the benefit of our students. As part of the teaching profession, we value the passion that strengthens our profession, the pride that sharpens our performance and the persistence that ensures our standards of quality. Together, we realize the need for excellence and strive to achieve it every day. We are committed to support our members and we look forward to your participation within the Association. Communication is the key to any successful subject association. We welcome your comments and look forward to sharing ideas and course profiles. As your part of your executive, we extend our appreciation to you in becoming a member of the Secondary School Hospitality Educators of Ontario, Canadian Chef Educators Association and the Ontario Council for Technological Education and, if we can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us: We look forward to your interest in our Association.