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At Saratoga, YDF was Off to the Races

September 15th, 2010

Delmar Cengage Learning was an outstanding host for the August 25-26 Youth Development Foundation meeting in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. YDF member Kristen Davis and the Delmar Cengage team provided excellent meeting facilities, great meals and an incredible social event for YDF members and staff at the Saratoga Racetrack. It was an added bonus to have state association directors Kathie Collins (N.Y.) and Peter Carey (N.J.) participate in the YDF meeting.

The YDF discussed the upcoming CEO Champion of the Year Dinner, the SkillsUSA WorldTeam, alumni recruitment and development, teacher and state director membership incentives, needs of the SkillsUSA Championships and a renewed building campaign for the SkillsUSA National Leadership Center. One important decision reached was to hold the Fall 2011 YDF meeting at the National Association of Manufacturer’s headquarters in Washington and visit Capitol Hill to talk about the importance of SkillsUSA and career and technical education.

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North Carolina Meeting

September 15th, 2010

On August 30 and 31, we moved to some of the best corporate cultivation meetings SkillsUSA has ever held. YDF member and Lowe’s Companies representative, Kelly Persons arranged a “lunch and learn” meeting in Winston-Salem on August 30 where several area companies heard SkillsUSA presentations from national student officers Kendra Lisec (N.C.) and Janie Martinez (Texas). North Carolina state association directors Glenn Barefoot and Peyton Holland participated in both days’ meetings to seek support from the companies for SkillsUSA North Carolina.

On August 31, Kendra and Janie presented to 15 of Lowe’s vendor partners at the Lowe’s corporate campus in Mooresville. SkillsUSA and the students were introduced by Lowe’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Larry Stone. Lowe’s senior executives Robert Wagner (SkillsUSA board member) Bob Gfeller, Nick Cantor and David Vaughn all provided powerful testimony on why Lowe’s is involved with SkillsUSA. Our next step is to develop partnerships with these companies.

While in Mooresville, we also discussed the FY11 Lowe’s grant distribution, the 2011 NLSC and several new opportunities within our partnership. A big thank you to YDF member Kelly Persons for arranging both of these meetings and to the Lowe’s executives for being amazingly supportive of our mission and our students!

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Meetings at the U.S. Department of Education

September 15th, 2010

On September 2,  I drove into Washington D.C. for a 9 a.m. meeting with Glenn Cummings, deputy assistant secretary at the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE). For the first half of the one-hour meeting, we were joined by Larry Teverbaugh and Andrea Foster-Mack of K2Share to talk about CareerSafe, its current value and use in public career and technical education programs, and then we raised some ideas as to how to expand its use to help students earn their 10-hour OSHA card. The second 30 minutes was on funding of CTSOs and support in the states. While at the department, we also met with Margaret Romer, deputy director, Division of Academic and Technical Education (and one of our speakers from the department during the Washington Leadership Training Institute this month). We also met with our old friend Larry Case of National FFA, and FFA specialist Steve Brown to discuss some current FFA initiatives to recruit Ag instructors and how we might do something similar across the CTE community. I’m sure teacher recruitment will be a topic during our upcoming meeting with the student organization executive directors.

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Highlights

September 15th, 2010
  • I’m pleased to report that colleges have been ordering Skill Connect Assessments to use as pre-tests this fall. That’s a promising trend. And, as school begins this year, we have 44 assessments to offer, whereas last year at this time, we had only eight. Our latest assessments include engineering technology and customer service, and they are getting a lot of attention.
  • The FY10 strategic goal for alumni membership has been well exceeded and we’re pleased to announce that our alumni membership now stands at over 17,000. Several states are working to set up state alumni associations. Having a full-time alumni coordinator is paying off! Thanks again to Air Products and Lowe’s for their support to make this milestone possible.
  • And, here’s a surprising figure: staff reported during our staff meeting on August 24 that if the 2011-12 SkillsUSA Championships Contest Projects were printed, they would run to 1,900 pages. My how we’ve grown.
  • FY10 ended on August 31, and we’re finalizing August financials and preparing for the end-of-year audit. Staff just completed inventory and auditors were here last week reviewing product numbers and sales figures.

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NASCAR Mega Prize

September 15th, 2010

Thanks to our friends at IRWIN, we celebrated our SkillsUSA 100% advisors at the IRWIN Bristol Night Race in Bristol, Tenn. during the August 21 weekend. An all-expense-paid trip for Rachel Montgomery, a local SkillsUSA advisor from Idaho, was the first SkillsUSA “Mega Prize” awarded from a drawing held at NLSC in June. It was a spectacular way to recognize one of our best advisors and her husband (who just happened to be huge NASCAR fans – and Rachel’s favorite driver won all three races at Bristol that weekend). Thanks to IRWIN and YDF member Cheryl Mehrmann and board member Nick Morrisroe for their generous contribution of this Mega Prize. We’ll be exploring more ways to recognize our teachers and state directors with incentives like this one.

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ACTE’s Video PSA Contest

September 15th, 2010

Foster Future Filmmakers: Encourage your CTE students to submit to ACTE’s video PSA contest. Videos should be 29 seconds in length, promote CTE and include the 2011 CTE Month logo. Get all the rules and details on the submission process, including how to upload PSAs to ACTE’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/actecareertech and where to mail a hard copy and required forms, at www.acteonline.org/psacontest.aspx.

PSAs must be uploaded to ACTE’s Facebook page by October 27, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. EST A broadcast-quality hard copy on DVD and required forms must be mailed to ACTE with a postmark date of October 27, 2010.

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Free Online Teacher Tools

September 15th, 2010

As you begin the new school year, please don’t forget to let your advisors know about the 12 online advisor training modules (Advisor Essentials Training Library). These modules are designed to be easy-to-use, easy-to-access and to connect advisors to existing resources. All advisors are welcome to use the training modules anytime, anywhere to learn how to develop a strong SkillsUSA chapter. For more information and to view the modules, go to www.skillsusa.org/educators/change2.shtml

Also free and online are two additional resources – Chapter Activity Planner and Personal Leadership Inventory.

The Chapter Activity Planner (CAP) is a tool that makes planning and conducting chapter activities fun and effective. The planner makes it easy to brainstorm ideas, set goals, create an action plan, track assigned tasks and evaluate progress. At the end of an activity, the tool produces an electronic report to save for future reference. The CAP will help students master six steps from organizing to reporting an activity. There is also an online learning module for advisors and a lesson plan to introduce members to the planning process and help them begin using the tool. To access this resource and learn more visit: www.skillsusa.org/educators/cap.shtml.

The Personal Leadership Inventory (PLI) is a series of online self-assessments for students to grow their skills as individuals, team members, citizens and employees. There’s also a module for instructors on how to put the PLI into action in the classroom and a lesson plan to introduce members to the personal growth process and the PLI. Go to www.skillsusa.org/educators/pli.shtml.

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2010 ACTE Trade and Industrial Education Division Awards

September 15th, 2010

Trade and industrial educators and administrators are invited to submit nominations for the ACTE National Trade and Industrial Education Division Awards. Individuals or groups may nominate qualified people. You may also nominate yourself. Please inform the person you are nominating.

Nominees will be contacted by the Trade and Industrial Education Division Awards Committee chairperson regarding the additional information required and the format to be followed. Materials to be submitted will include letters of recommendation, a statement of personal philosophy, photos and supporting evidence such as newspaper clippings, certificates, etc.

Awards will be presented at the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Convention.

The deadline for nominations is September 30, 2010.

For more information and to submit your nomination, visit www.skillsusa.org/educators/acte.shtml

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