- On Friday, August 13, during the state association directors’ conference, Laurie Gostley-Hackett, manager of philanthropy and community relations at Air Products, presented a check for $100,000 on behalf of Air Products to SkillsUSA. I updated the group on our plans to honor John McGlade, chairman, president, and CEO of Air Products during the inaugural CEO Champion of the Year Award dinner. Air Products will be the dinner host at the Waldorf-Astoria on October 18. I also told them we have plans to stream the event live on the Internet so every state association can be involved. Laurie’s passion for SkillsUSA was obvious. I’m pleased to say that both Toyota and Snap-on have also pledged support for the dinner. A list of high-level dinner attendees will be compiled to help generate excitement and we hope we will encourage CEOs and executives of other current SkillsUSA partners to attend. Formal invitations will be sent via e-mail by September. Questions and requests for more information can be directed to Chris Powell at cpowell@skillsusa.org or 703-737-0621.
- We’ve finished faxing the lists of Championships medalists to Congress and to the governors. We’ve received a lot of requests for home addresses already and expect more will be coming. And, we’re well underway for the Washington Leadership Training Institute this month.
- Staff had a great chapter management workshop in Annapolis with a group of advisors new to SkillsUSA in Maryland. State Association Director Chuck Wallace set everything up.
- I recently returned from Bristol, Tenn., where I attended the IRWIN Bristol Night Race with Board Member Nick Morrisroe and I had a great time.
- And, last week I attended the Youth Development Foundation meeting hosted by Delmar, Cengage Learning in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Highlights
September 1st, 2010Highlights
August 15th, 2010- On July 30, staff directors held an off-site retreat just across the river in Maryland to prepare for activities beginning this fall with particular emphasis on membership and marketing. We began with a Vision 2020 discussion and moved through funding priorities, the CEO Champion of the Year initiative and SkillsUSA WorldTeam. We’ve got a good management team with lots of ideas.
- The State Association Director Annual Professional Development and Training Conference was just held in Herndon, Va. on August 10-15. New state association directors arrived on Tuesday, August 10, and began their training that evening. Experienced directors arrived on August 11. They had a packed schedule with lots of best practice sessions on association management. We had seven new directors attending, and 41 directors and assistant directors in all, and 34 state associations were represented.
- We recently held a meeting at the center with E-Group to compare notes on the SkillsUSA Store at conference and to prepare for this coming fall. There have also been lots of meetings preparing for the Washington Leadership Training Institute.
Highlights
August 1st, 2010- I’m pleased to report that SkillsUSA’s board of directors is now at full strength. Robert Wagner of Lowe’s and Joe Pietrantonio of Air Products complete the industry chairs and Kathryn Manns will now fill the chair for the American Association of Community Colleges. This is going to be quite a board meeting in August.
- We held a post-conference debriefing meeting on July 13 and reviewed departments’ plus-delta reports. We created a top 10 challenges list of items to be overcome by next year’s conference, but – in the main – staff seems to believe that the conference went very well.
- On July 20, SkillsUSA staff, by invitation, attended a high-level meeting at the Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers. The subject was industry’s concern on how it can excite American youth about manufacturing careers. They said manufacturing needs to rebrand itself. Participants also discussed the need for an umbrella organization to promote manufacturing careers to young people and to focus the message. The next phase of the discussion will be on message coordination. More meetings are planned.
- The Virginia state officer team was here at the National Leadership Center on July 17 along with state director Dave Rathbone. On the 14th, we had a meeting with Microsoft consultants to talk about much needed upgrades to our software and the server.
- And, on the 28th, I met with union executives at AFL-CIO headquarters to discuss support for the SkillsUSA WorldTeam.
Highlights
July 15th, 2010- The week before conference I attended a National Journal Policy Summit on the changing demographics of a new generation at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The underwriter was the Society for Human Resource Management and attendance was by invitation only. The focus was on how the current generation entering the work force will be the most diverse in our history, and the question was how the change in demographics will affect higher education and the labor force. We were told our remarks were on the record, and I was the only person there talking about CTE as part of the solution. I received two follow-up calls from attendees asking for more information, and that was even before I got to conference.
- At the end of June, we received news that three SkillsUSA projects had received Awards of Excellence in the annual APEX program. APEX awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the success of the entries in achieving overall communications effectiveness and excellence. SkillsUSA’s communications are in the same league as those of many national associations, major corporations and communications firms. (Other winners include Time Inc., Ford Motor Co., FedEx Express, Walt Disney Co. and Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.). Our staff won recognition in these categories: Electronic and Video Publications/Education and Training: Advisor’s Success Kit (ASK) – Tools for SkillsUSA Chapter Management, by Ann Schreiber; — Electronic and Video Publications/Social Media: SkillsUSA’s Facebook Page, by Craig Moore; and, Magazines and Journals/Print: SkillsUSA Champions, by Tom Hall and staff. (Our magazine has won an Award of Excellence for seven consecutive years.)
Highlights
June 15th, 2010- Just a few National Leadership and Skills Conference numbers: the most recent VIP guest list includes nearly 250 people and it seems more keep coming all the time; we have 9,759 registered teachers and students, an increase over last year and we’re up to 5,661 contestants. The truck is packed and leaves today on its way to conference.
- State Association Directors are encouraged to attend a special WorldSkills session on Thursday during NLSC. The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. in Bartle Hall, Room 2208. Simon Bartley, Chief Executive of the UK Skills and WorldSkills London will be giving an overview of plans for the 2011 WSC in London and Jon Gonzalez will discuss funding initiatives. Staff will provide information on the new team selection process and provide an update on WorldTeam members selected so far. The meeting should last approximately 30-34 minutes.
- Staff has arranged two new events for business partners to meet during conference. One is a town hall-style meeting for current and prospective business and industry partners on how to derive the most benefit from a partnership with SkillsUSA. A panel of representatives from SkillsUSA’s leading business partners will conduct the discussion on Thursday, June 24, at 2 p.m., in Bartle Hall Room 2209. Second, We have also added a new SkillsUSA University session to help current and prospective partners learn best practices to get the most out of their partnership with SkillsUSA. Lynn Scheitrum of Air Products has agreed to moderate. This will be a good session for companies that are attending national conference for the first time, likewise for any prospective partners that state directors or others may plan to host during conference.
- Peyton Sellers ran his Sellers Racing Chevrolet fully-wrapped with the SkillsUSA logo on the hood, rear deck and sides, on May 29 during the qualifying trials in the Tech-Net Auto Service 300 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He even wore a SkillsUSA logo fire suit. Here’s more information www.skillsusa.org/supporters/peytonsellers.shtml.
- And, Kelly Horton has officially started work here and joined us as our new director of Membership, Marketing and Sales.
Highlights
May 1st, 2010- On April 16, I went to Hershey, Pennsylvania where I had a great time at the 44th annual SkillsUSA Pennsylvania State Conference. State Association Director Jeri Widdowson told me this was the largest conference held in the state since she became director. There were 1,400 registrants, but with volunteers she’s estimating there were 2,000 people in attendance. They had great competitions and some wonderful teachers. I shook hands with every medalist, and I also had a chance to visit with another champion, board of directors member, Gerald Tylka.
- There’s a lot of movement in career and technical education (CTE) to capture a common vision of the role played by CTE in education and preparation for employment. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of discussion that education, as a whole, should start to take on more aspects of CTE. That means students should be “college ready” (not requiring remediation at the postsecondary level) and “career ready” among many other things. The National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) has released a vision paper for the field, and I believe it is worthy of a great deal of discussion. The link to read it is http://careertech.org/show/new_vision.
- The week of April 12th, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) released a two-page definition of “Career Ready.” They say career readiness involves three major skill areas: academic skills (and the ability to apply those skills to concrete situations), employability skills and technical, job-specific skills. It’s an excellent addition to the discussion and certainly makes the case for CTE’s role in education overall, and by inference, the value of the student organizations. To give it a review, just click on http://acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Publications_and_Online_Media/files/Career_Readiness_Paper.pdf.
Highlights
March 15th, 2010- The rescheduled Advisor’s Success Kit (ASK) Webinar was held on February 25. We had good participation, and the presentation is archived for others to view.
- On February 26, staff met to prepare for the upcoming National Leadership and Skills Conference. Among the numbers reported: the Championships will have 96 contests adding 170 additional contestants and putting the projected total of contestants at 5,500 (twice the number of contestants at the recent Winter Olympics); will be in 33 hotels this year, up five from last year; and, TECHSPO is up $20,000 in booth sales over last year at this time.
- And, staff did a great job of running a webinar on inclusion and diversity for the national officers before they start heading out to spring conferences. The national officers not only liked it, they appreciated it.
Highlights
March 1st, 2010- Membership is still coming in at a good rate. As of last Friday, February 25, we were at 285,304 and processing vigorously. This number puts us at 1,093 members ahead of last year’s same day total. All of the snow here in the area recently has caused us to close the office for three days and created a paper jam. Staff has been working to catch up with the backlog.
- I surveyed the state association directors on extending the national membership deadline by one week to March 8 in light of bad weather and school closings all over the country. Every director who replied (and it was a majority) said it was fine by him or her as long as it didn’t affect state deadlines; so, we’re good to go.
- Gerald Tylka, the corporate member from Pennsylvania, has agreed to stand as a candidate from Region I to replace Holly Harriel on SkillsUSA’s Board of Directors. Background information has been sent to the board and they have been asked to approve the appointment until the June conference.
- Fred Smith – a nationally recognized expert – conducted two excellent inclusion and diversity workshops with the entire staff on February 17. He seemed as impressed by SkillsUSA and its staff as he impressed us. One of the points he really highlighted, once he know more about the work of SkillsUSA, was the importance of inclusion to corporations and how corporate underwriting often hinges on exactly the kinds of things SkillsUSA is doing in communities across the country. Thanks go to Jackie Parker of Newell Rubbermaid for making Fred Smith’s visit to us possible.
- During the past several weeks, we’ve been speaking with one association and two businesses about licensing opportunities for the Skill Connect Assessments, the Professional Development Program and/or the Career Skills Education Program. They all appear to be good partnership opportunities that have potential to drive revenue opportunities for the work of SkillsUSA.
- Finally, in light of both Vision 2020 and our current budget, I’m pleased to announce that we’ve received over $44,000 worth of software from Microsoft to update all kinds of things from our operating system to our server and much more. SkillsUSA’s cost? That was $1,800. Thanks go to staff for knowing who to ask and when to ask that resulted in saving SkillsUSA over $42,000 and moving us into the 21st century at the same time.
Highlights
February 15th, 2010- As the Kellogg project is winding down in March, we held a PMO planning meeting on Feb. 2. We’re seeing the results of the past three years come to fruition. We’re getting good responses to our marketing mailings and to the assessments from the field. More mailings are scheduled this month for the big launch in March. We are booked for our final Technical Advisory committee meeting at the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education, in March so the department can witness first-hand the results of our efforts with the Work Force Ready System and the vulnerable communities projects.
- We had two new state directors here at the National Leadership Center on Feb. 5 from Vermont and the Virgin Islands for training on state association management. We also had six people here from colleges across the country working with staff to guide our college/postsecondary initiatives
- State Farm zone managers have announced the 12 recipients of the $10,000 Innovation in Sustainability grants. The list is located on our Web site at www.skillsusa.org/educators/statefarm.shtml. A big thank -you to State Farm for its support.
- The Engineering Alliance should be launched soon. We’re doing the last run-through of the Web site, making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be and that all the buttons, bells and whistles work. We’re also polishing up the press release, Web postings and e-mail announcements. Before the general announcement goes to the field, we’ll send a special announcement to our own state association directors so they’re prepared.
Happy CTE Month and SkillsUSA Week last week. It’s a pleasure to know that together we are doing so much good for so many people.
Highlights
February 1st, 2010- SkillsUSA staff is collecting items for relief efforts in Haiti. In addition, our office will be a drop-site for local residents looking to assist in the Haiti relief efforts. Staff is collecting goods from the community on February 11 and goods will then be taken to Catholic Relief Services and The Greater Washington Haitian Relief Committee for distribution in Haiti. The effort was organized by a friend of a staff member who has worked closely with the Haitian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
- On January 25, SkillsUSA sent out the news release announcing CTE Month in February on behalf of the CTE community. This is the release prepared by the Association of Career and Technical Education, The National Association of State Directors for Career and Technical Education consortium and all of the student organizations to celebrate CTE Month and makes a unified case for CTE. We used the VOCUS system for distribution, and the release went not only to the news media but also to all of the major internet sites such as Google and Yahoo… so it should get really good exposure and pick up. Here’s just part of the message. “As America continues to tackle economic, education and workforce issues, recent research illustrates the critical need to earn a high school diploma and complete some form of postsecondary education or training. For instance, The Economic Benefits of Halving the Dropout Rate: A Boom to Businesses in the Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Areas, a report released this month by the Alliance for Excellent Education, examines the impact of cutting a single class’s dropout rate in half. The report states that more than 30,000 jobs could be created in one year based on increased spending and investments, with an estimated $5.3 billion boon to local economies by the time this one class of graduates reaches the midpoint of their careers.”
- Finally, Region I Board Member Holly Harriel submitted her resignation this week effective February 1, 2010. She’s leaving the Rhode Island Department of Education to fill a leadership role at Brown University. We wish her continued success and thank her for her service.
