News from Tim Lawrence

May 1, 2008

OSHA Event and News Coverage
On Monday, April 21, SkillsUSA students demonstrated safe working practices in three exhibit areas on Rockefeller Plaza in New York City as we helped kick off OSHA's Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign. Also featured were appearances by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin Foulke, two of SkillsUSA's national officers and ten students and their advisors from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

The students performed demonstrations in first aid/CPR, landscaping and commercial food and food service. We had three students from Connecticut doing the first aid/CPR demos, three students from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York doing the food demos, and four students from a landscaping program in New Jersey handling that demo. Lowe's really jumped in to help, not only with the design, equipping and staffing of the landscaping project; they also helped equip the whole event. The CIA was great too - they hauled in equipment from Hyde Park for the demos. Big thanks go to the Connecticut state director Heidi Balch, Emmett O'Brien THS and Ely Whitney THS in Connecticut, and New Jersey state director Pete Carey, Somerset County Vocational Technical School in New Jersey, the CIA in New York, and the students and instructors who pulled this all together in a very short time. And, another big thanks to Lowe's.

SkillsUSA national officers Jack Frederick (Kansas) and Shelby Adsero (Washington) and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao appeared on the "Today Show" at about 9:30 a.m., with Al Roker. You can view the clip on our Web site here.

Check out the SkillsUSA Web site for photos and details as well as the Department of Labor's Web site archive at http://www.dol.gov/dol/highlights/if_20080421.htm

The event received additional news coverage from News 4 (WNBC) New York at 6:00 p.m. To view the broadcast go to http://media.vmsnews.com/MR.pl?id=042208-874594-E001386733.

Work Force Ready System Promotion Continues
Staff is continuing the long process of ramping up awareness for the Work Force Ready System (WFRS). We've prepared presentations for use during state conferences with students and instructors. I did presentations during the West Virginia and Texas conferences. A staff member said he felt he was delivering the first word on the WFRS to the Tennessee instructors and another staffer covered the waterfront during the New York high school association conference.

Staff represented me during a presentation to the Maryland CTE directors during their meeting in Baltimore. Thanks to state CTE director Kathy Oliver and state association director Chuck Wallace, SkillsUSA was invited to do a presentation on how career and technical student organizations are helping states and schools meet Perkins IV requirements. Approximately 60 people attended and the WFRS got plenty of interest because it directly relates to Perkins requirements for industry-driven certificates and state and local accountability.

Highlights

Our Green Team on staff is pulling together. They held their first official meeting when they joined a worldwide teleconference including Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz and other top level executives talking about corporate responsibility and community greening. During the call, Jeff said, "SkillsUSA has forced us to raise our game at the grassroots level." That was nice to hear. And, on April 18, Jeff Campbell of Irwin/Rubbermaid said he'd provide Rubbermaid recycling containers for our entire office. Looks as though Red is going Green.
I received regrets to our invitation to the national conference from Assistant Secretary of Education Troy Justesen. He told me it's something he really wanted to do so he's disappointed. On the bright side, Pat Stanley, deputy assistant secretary for community colleges will be attending conference and as the student organization with the largest postsecondary membership, I know there will be plenty for her to see and learn. I'm glad she can be with us.
Another staff member just returned from an extensive Goodwill Tour in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Heidi Balch traveled with Chris at least part of the way.
SkillsUSA West Virginia and SkillsUSA Texas both had great attendance at their state conferences. I enjoyed being with the multitudes and our great directors. Board President Cameron Ferguson was the featured speaker during the Illinois state conference. He reported conference attendance was up and the state officers were exceptional.
We have three major initiatives underway with the National Association of Manufacturers, and they're good for career and technical education and SkillsUSA. I'll provide more information at a later date.
The first new carpet since 1979 is finally done here in the national headquarters, and everything is looking much fresher.
I just returned from South Carolina to see their state conference and see Peyton Sellers racing his SkillsUSA car for the first time in the Camping World East Series. From there, I traveled to New York for the OSHA kick-off and then went on to St. Louis for a Job Corps Advisory Committee meeting.

Contest Updates
We have posted many SkillsUSA Championships contest updates on our Web page. To view them, please visit the Contest Updates page and make sure the information gets to your national competitors where appropriate.

Highest Membership in the History of SkillsUSA
The final tally for the 2007-08 school year is 302,767! That's 4,352 more than the highest record set in1979-80 of 298,415.

Thirty state associations exceeded the overall previous year's total.

Congratulations to the following associations for exceeding last year's overall membership total:

AR Randy Prather, State Association Director
AZ Scott Soldat, State Association Director
DC Iris Wilson, State Association Director
FL Carl Miller, State Association Director
GA Cassie Palmer, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division
GU Reilly Ridgell, State Association Director
HI Carol Shikada, State Association Director
IA Diane and Dan Chargo, State Association Directors
IL Don Bauc, State Association Director
IN Noah Lucas, State Association Director
KS Ann Wick, State Association Director
KY Steve Phillippi, State Association Director
LA Larry Rabalais, State Association Director
MA Karen Ward, State Association Director
MO Paul Light, State Association Director
NC Glenn Barefoot, State Association Director
NE Greg Stahr, State Association Director
NM Saundra Castillo, State Association Director
PA Jeri Widdowson, State Association Director
PR Bienvenido Mojica, State Association Director
SC Jackie Clarkson, State Association Director
SD Shelby Frame, State Association Director
TN, Carol Myers, State Association Director, High School Division
TN Carl Creasman, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division
TX Janet Conner, State Association Director, High School Division
TX James Wright, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division
WA Bruce McBurney, State Association Director, High School Division
WI Brent Kindred, State Association Director, High School Division
WI Dale Drees, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division
WV Anne Meadows, State Association Director

President's Volunteer Service Award
SkillsUSA is proud to announce its status as a certifying organization for the President's Volunteer Service Award Program. Established in 2003, the award is available on an annual basis to individuals, groups and families who have met or exceeded requirements for volunteer service and have demonstrated exemplary citizenship through volunteering. As a certifying organization, SkillsUSA will award and recognize its members for their volunteer and community service. Entries must be submitted no later than May 15, 2008. For more information go to this link.

Blood Drive
There will again be a blood drive this year as part of our National Leadership and Skills Conference. The drive will be sponsored by the Kansas City Community Blood Center and held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Bartle Hall, Room 2105 on Friday, June 27. A donor must weigh no less than 110 lbs and must be at least 17 years of age (or a donor can be 16 years of age with written parental permission). If you would like to make an appointment ahead of time, visit www.esavealifenow.org and click on the link to create a user profile. After you complete your profile, select "Find a Drive" and enter your sponsor code: skillsusa. Then you can select your appointment time. You will receive an email confirmation of your appointment and a reminder the day before the blood drive. If you have any questions, please contact Jane Short at 703-737-0612 or by e-mail to jshort@skillsusa.org. At last year's blood drive, 40 people participated and the center collected 34 units of blood. There were 36 first time donors. This is a good cause, and we hope to increase last year's total. Please pass the word about the blood drive.

Alumni & Friends
The SkillsUSA Alumni & Friends Association is offering two annual merit-based $500 scholarships to two qualifying students. The scholarships will recognize the qualities in SkillsUSA students the SkillsUSA Alumni & Friends Association supports, including leadership, commitment to community service, improving the image of career and technical education, and improving the image of his/her chosen occupation.

The scholarship winners will be announced during the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City in June. The scholarships are open to all current SkillsUSA members who will be attending a college/postsecondary training program in 2008-2009. A nomination form can be downloaded from SkillsUSA's Web site at this link. The deadline is May 15, 2008.

Officer 101/201 and Advisor Training
Don't forget to register for Officer 101/201 and Advisor Training by the June 1 deadline. The 101 training is designated for high school students who are officers of their state associations and for students who are interested in becoming state officers. The 201 training is designated for college/postsecondary students who are officers of their state associations and for high school officers who have already attended 101 training. Advisors can also benefit from training that addresses the challenges of advising student teachers.

The training will be held June 21-23 at the Kansas City Marriott, Country Club Plaza. Registration is available here. A brochure containing the objectives, agenda and registration form is enclosed for state association directors with the hard copy of this Update. If you would like additional brochures, or if you have questions about the training, please contact Deborah Kenn at dkenn@skillsusa.org.

Sample Press Release for State Competitions
A sample release will be added in a few days to SkillsUSA's advocacy site. It's a template to be used by state association directors, instructors, and others to get the word out to the media about the students who qualified to compete in the SkillsUSA Championships. The news release can be sent to local media through the advocacy site five outlets at a time. The site can be reached by going here.

That's it for now. Thanks for all you do as champions of SkillsUSA!

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News from Tim Lawrence May 1, 2008 OSHA Event and News Coverage On Monday, April 21, SkillsUSA students demonstrated safe working practices in three exhibit areas on Rockefeller Plaza in New York City as we helped kick off OSHA's Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign. Also featured were appearances by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin Foulke, two of SkillsUSA's national officers and ten students and their advisors from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The students performed demonstrations in first aid/CPR, landscaping and commercial food and food service. We had three students from Connecticut doing the first aid/CPR demos, three students from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York doing the food demos, and four students from a landscaping program in New Jersey handling that demo. Lowe's really jumped in to help, not only with the design, equipping and staffing of the landscaping project; they also helped equip the whole event. The CIA was great too - they hauled in equipment from Hyde Park for the demos. Big thanks go to the Connecticut state director Heidi Balch, Emmett O'Brien THS and Ely Whitney THS in Connecticut, and New Jersey state director Pete Carey, Somerset County Vocational Technical School in New Jersey, the CIA in New York, and the students and instructors who pulled this all together in a very short time. And, another big thanks to Lowe's. SkillsUSA national officers Jack Frederick (Kansas) and Shelby Adsero (Washington) and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao appeared on the "Today Show" at about 9:30 a.m., with Al Roker. You can view the clip on our Web site here. Check out the SkillsUSA Web site for photos and details as well as the Department of Labor's Web site archive at http://www.dol.gov/dol/highlights/if_20080421.htm The event received additional news coverage from News 4 (WNBC) New York at 6:00 p.m. To view the broadcast go to http://media.vmsnews.com/MR.pl?id=042208-874594-E001386733. Work Force Ready System Promotion Continues Staff is continuing the long process of ramping up awareness for the Work Force Ready System (WFRS). We've prepared presentations for use during state conferences with students and instructors. I did presentations during the West Virginia and Texas conferences. A staff member said he felt he was delivering the first word on the WFRS to the Tennessee instructors and another staffer covered the waterfront during the New York high school association conference. Staff represented me during a presentation to the Maryland CTE directors during their meeting in Baltimore. Thanks to state CTE director Kathy Oliver and state association director Chuck Wallace, SkillsUSA was invited to do a presentation on how career and technical student organizations are helping states and schools meet Perkins IV requirements. Approximately 60 people attended and the WFRS got plenty of interest because it directly relates to Perkins requirements for industry-driven certificates and state and local accountability. Highlights Our Green Team on staff is pulling together. They held their first official meeting when they joined a worldwide teleconference including Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz and other top level executives talking about corporate responsibility and community greening. During the call, Jeff said, "SkillsUSA has forced us to raise our game at the grassroots level." That was nice to hear. And, on April 18, Jeff Campbell of Irwin/Rubbermaid said he'd provide Rubbermaid recycling containers for our entire office. Looks as though Red is going Green. I received regrets to our invitation to the national conference from Assistant Secretary of Education Troy Justesen. He told me it's something he really wanted to do so he's disappointed. On the bright side, Pat Stanley, deputy assistant secretary for community colleges will be attending conference and as the student organization with the largest postsecondary membership, I know there will be plenty for her to see and learn. I'm glad she can be with us. Another staff member just returned from an extensive Goodwill Tour in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Heidi Balch traveled with Chris at least part of the way. SkillsUSA West Virginia and SkillsUSA Texas both had great attendance at their state conferences. I enjoyed being with the multitudes and our great directors. Board President Cameron Ferguson was the featured speaker during the Illinois state conference. He reported conference attendance was up and the state officers were exceptional. We have three major initiatives underway with the National Association of Manufacturers, and they're good for career and technical education and SkillsUSA. I'll provide more information at a later date. The first new carpet since 1979 is finally done here in the national headquarters, and everything is looking much fresher. I just returned from South Carolina to see their state conference and see Peyton Sellers racing his SkillsUSA car for the first time in the Camping World East Series. From there, I traveled to New York for the OSHA kick-off and then went on to St. Louis for a Job Corps Advisory Committee meeting. Contest Updates We have posted many SkillsUSA Championships contest updates on our Web page. To view them, please visit the Contest Updates page and make sure the information gets to your national competitors where appropriate. Highest Membership in the History of SkillsUSA The final tally for the 2007-08 school year is 302,767! That's 4,352 more than the highest record set in1979-80 of 298,415. Thirty state associations exceeded the overall previous year's total. Congratulations to the following associations for exceeding last year's overall membership total: AR Randy Prather, State Association Director AZ Scott Soldat, State Association Director DC Iris Wilson, State Association Director FL Carl Miller, State Association Director GA Cassie Palmer, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division GU Reilly Ridgell, State Association Director HI Carol Shikada, State Association Director IA Diane and Dan Chargo, State Association Directors IL Don Bauc, State Association Director IN Noah Lucas, State Association Director KS Ann Wick, State Association Director KY Steve Phillippi, State Association Director LA Larry Rabalais, State Association Director MA Karen Ward, State Association Director MO Paul Light, State Association Director NC Glenn Barefoot, State Association Director NE Greg Stahr, State Association Director NM Saundra Castillo, State Association Director PA Jeri Widdowson, State Association Director PR Bienvenido Mojica, State Association Director SC Jackie Clarkson, State Association Director SD Shelby Frame, State Association Director TN, Carol Myers, State Association Director, High School Division TN Carl Creasman, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division TX Janet Conner, State Association Director, High School Division TX James Wright, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division WA Bruce McBurney, State Association Director, High School Division WI Brent Kindred, State Association Director, High School Division WI Dale Drees, State Association Director, College/Postsecondary Division WV Anne Meadows, State Association Director President's Volunteer Service Award SkillsUSA is proud to announce its status as a certifying organization for the President's Volunteer Service Award Program. Established in 2003, the award is available on an annual basis to individuals, groups and families who have met or exceeded requirements for volunteer service and have demonstrated exemplary citizenship through volunteering. As a certifying organization, SkillsUSA will award and recognize its members for their volunteer and community service. Entries must be submitted no later than May 15, 2008. For more information go to this link. Blood Drive There will again be a blood drive this year as part of our National Leadership and Skills Conference. The drive will be sponsored by the Kansas City Community Blood Center and held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Bartle Hall, Room 2105 on Friday, June 27. A donor must weigh no less than 110 lbs and must be at least 17 years of age (or a donor can be 16 years of age with written parental permission). If you would like to make an appointment ahead of time, visit www.esavealifenow.org and click on the link to create a user profile. After you complete your profile, select "Find a Drive" and enter your sponsor code: skillsusa. Then you can select your appointment time. You will receive an email confirmation of your appointment and a reminder the day before the blood drive. If you have any questions, please contact Jane Short at 703-737-0612 or by e-mail to jshort@skillsusa.org. At last year's blood drive, 40 people participated and the center collected 34 units of blood. There were 36 first time donors. This is a good cause, and we hope to increase last year's total. Please pass the word about the blood drive. Alumni & Friends The SkillsUSA Alumni & Friends Association is offering two annual merit-based $500 scholarships to two qualifying students. The scholarships will recognize the qualities in SkillsUSA students the SkillsUSA Alumni & Friends Association supports, including leadership, commitment to community service, improving the image of career and technical education, and improving the image of his/her chosen occupation. The scholarship winners will be announced during the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City in June. The scholarships are open to all current SkillsUSA members who will be attending a college/postsecondary training program in 2008-2009. A nomination form can be downloaded from SkillsUSA's Web site at this link. The deadline is May 15, 2008. Officer 101/201 and Advisor Training Don't forget to register for Officer 101/201 and Advisor Training by the June 1 deadline. The 101 training is designated for high school students who are officers of their state associations and for students who are interested in becoming state officers. The 201 training is designated for college/postsecondary students who are officers of their state associations and for high school officers who have already attended 101 training. Advisors can also benefit from training that addresses the challenges of advising student teachers. The training will be held June 21-23 at the Kansas City Marriott, Country Club Plaza. Registration is available here. A brochure containing the objectives, agenda and registration form is enclosed for state association directors with the hard copy of this Update. If you would like additional brochures, or if you have questions about the training, please contact Deborah Kenn at dkenn@skillsusa.org. Sample Press Release for State Competitions A sample release will be added in a few days to SkillsUSA's advocacy site. It's a template to be used by state association directors, instructors, and others to get the word out to the media about the students who qualified to compete in the SkillsUSA Championships. The news release can be sent to local media through the advocacy site five outlets at a time. The site can be reached by going here. That's it for now. Thanks for all you do as champions of SkillsUSA!