- The final membership count won’t be official until April, but as of March 24, we have already exceeded last year’s total paid membership by 4,800 members! That means SkillsUSA will have another record-breaking membership year. Congratulations and thanks to all of the state association directors for making this possible.
- National staff is definitely on the road visiting the states. I just mentioned my recent visits to Georgia and Wyoming. Other staff members have recently visited – or will soon visit – Vermont, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Missouri, Florida and North Dakota. Every visit is a joy.
- And, finally, I’d like to conclude with 12 highlights from the FY10 second quarter shared with the board last week:
- Membership at an all-time high of 311,079 (including alumni)
- Engineering Alliance launched February 22
- Alumni membership grew to over 8,600
- 27 Skill Connect Assessments with 19 on deck and the vulnerable community report complete
- Final Technical Advisory Committee meeting for Champions for Change held at OVAE and third-party report given
- Staff realignment to better focus staff efforts
- Lowe’s Campus Improvement and Community Service grants announced
- All levels of PDP Online are complete
- Newell-Rubbermaid support for ASK and ASK launch
- 12 State Farm Sustainability Showcase grants announced
- Teacher, state director and student Webinars held
- Inclusion and diversity training for staff and national officers
Highlights
April 1st, 2010Highlights
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.
ASK Kick-off Webinar
March 1st, 2010SkillsUSA held a national Web conference on Feb. 25, 2010 to kick off the new ASK CD-ROM and present several other programs.
If you missed it, you can see and hear the archived version here.
Note: please allow time to load.
Teacher Event in Leesburg-Reminder
March 1st, 2010SkillsUSA will be holding a live teacher event at the SkillsUSA National Leadership Center on March 10th at 3 p.m. (EST).
The event will be held to announce the release of the new ASK: Advisor’s Success Kit and the newly updated PDP Online. Attendees at the teacher meeting at the National Leadership Center will receive a free copy of the new ASK: Advisor’s Success Kit and other SkillsUSA materials (total value of $50 or more). Tim Lawrence will give a SkillsUSA organization update, and members of the SkillsUSA training team will also update teachers on various SkillsUSA resources.
All state directors and instructors are welcome to attend. Please RSVP to Niki Clausen at nclausen@skillsusa.org.
SkillsUSA Week Teacher and State Director Event in Leesburg
February 1st, 2010As part of SkillsUSA week, on February 10th at 3:00 p.m., SkillsUSA will be holding a live teacher event at the SkillsUSA National Leadership Center. On February 11th at 11:30 a.m., SkillsUSA will be holding a Web conference. Both the event and the Web conference will be held to announce the release of the new ASK: Advisor ‘s Success Kit and the newly updated PDP Online. Attendees at the teacher meeting at the National Leadership Center and those who register in advance for the Web conference will receive a free copy of the new ASK: Advisor’s Success kit and other SkillsUSA materials (total value of $50 or more). I will give a SkillsUSA organization update, and members of the SkillsUSA training team will also update teachers on various SkillsUSA resources.
All state directors and instructors are welcome to attend the teacher meeting and/or participate in the Web conference. To attend the teacher meeting, please RSVP to Niki Clausen at nclausen@skillsusa.org. To participate in the Web conference, go to the following link on February 11 at 11:30 a.m. EST: http://web.ganconference.com/?meeting=3663486. To dial in for audio, call 888-222-0475, Attendee Code: 6837807.
Advisor’s Success Kit (ASK): Tools for SkillsUSA Chapter Management
February 1st, 2010The newly revised Advisor’s Success Kit (ASK) Tools for SkillsUSA Chapter Management is now available. With live links to SkillsUSA’s many Web resources, links to a series of online e-learning tutorials, teacher-generated tips, interactive forms to facilitate chapter operations, and sample documents, chapter advisors will have they need to guide their students as they learn to run their SkillsUSA chapter. The development of ASK was sponsored, in part, by Newell Rubbermaid. For more information, go to www.skillsusa.org/shop/ask.shtml.
