We had an excellent Youth Development Foundation meeting in Torrance, California at Toyota, March 24-25. A dozen companies were represented. Much of the discussion centered on maintaining or building corporate support given the state of the economy. Foundation members are cautiously optimistic about future support. Peyton Sellers also attended, and there was discussion of further NASCAR related promotions with Jig-A-Loo.

Dave Camden said that despite the economic challenges, he “wanted to do this meeting the Toyota way,” and he did. Toyota Senior Vice President Robert C. Daly addressed the group as did Group Vice President, Toyota Customer Services Jane Beseda. Almost just as good, Toyota announced it was increasing its contribution to SkillsUSA by $10,000 this year. That’s good news no matter what the state of the economy. Thanks go to Dave and Toyota for being exceptional hosts. The next YDF meeting will be held in Calgary during the WorldSkills Competition.

I want to express SkillsUSA’s appreciation to the YDF members who stepped up to sign a letter to the Obama Administration and to Congress requesting increased funding for career and technical education. The Association for Career and Technical Education, the National Association of Directors for Career and Technical Education consortium and the National Association of Community Colleges requested the support. All three were very happy to add the support of business leaders to the letter. To see the final version of the letter go to: http://www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Issues_and_Advocacy/files/FY10_President_Signon.doc.

Tags: ACTE, Government Relations, YDF

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