The Alumni Coordinating Committee is sponsoring two alumni membership increase incentives for the SkillsUSA Alumni & Friends Association at the state level for advisors. An advisor will have his or her name entered into a drawing for a $500 VISA Gift Card, one entry for every five alumni memberships submitted. To participate, advisors need to have graduating seniors or program completers join the Alumni & Friends Association online. Then, the advisor needs to e-mail Niki Clausen his/her name, school and a list of students who joined. Please contact Niki Clausen with questions about this program.
Alumni Membership Increase Incentives Program
March 1st, 2011Highlights
February 15th, 2011Membership as of Friday was 269,044 and that’s exceeding the previous year same day total by 15,960. We have just about two weeks until the membership deadline, and we’re cautiously optimistic.
We added a new corporate partner. Blaklader-North America has come on board as an unrestricted sponsor for the SkillsUSA Championships.
The 2011 Lowe’s SkillsUSA Grants have been announced. Schools and colleges received Community Service Grants in 12 states and Campus Improvement Grants in 16 states. The list can be found at: www.skillsusa.org/educators/lowesgrants.shtml#Lowes 2011.
Two representatives from Project Lead the Way (PLTW) came to the SkillsUSA National Leadership Center to visit recently. Rosanne White and Sandy Honour of TSA (Technology Student Association) joined us. The discussion was around a new online portfolio program developed by PLTW to encourage student innovation for pre-engineering students. It’s supported by a grant from the Kern Family Foundation and is tied in with the Small Business Administration. They also pledged continued financial support for Engineering Alliance Web updates this year.
We’re working on the strategy for the April Youth Development Foundation Committee meeting visits in Washington, D.C. We know the committee will have great things to say about career and technical education and SkillsUSA.
Highlights
February 1st, 2011- Membership as of January 31 stood at 243,342. That’s 9,927 over our membership on this date last year.
- As a follow-up to our challenge to make our national headquarters campus energy neutral by 2020, we met by teleconference with DPZ Architects and Town Planners and with Second Eden Studio, a green consultant/design firm. Since that meeting, we have received a quote from Second Eden Studio to conduct an energy audit of our building/campus. The audit will help us determine the needs and budget for this initiative over the next nine years.
- Recently, I was in Chicago, meeting with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) and their affiliate staff members who manage “ProStart” and “ServSafe” certificate programs. I met with NRAEF program managers and the interim executive director. We agreed to crosswalk our technical standards with their national standards and to align them as fully as possible. NRAEF also agreed to appoint a representative to serve on our national technical committee for culinary arts.
- While the Ohio group was here, Momentum, one of the U.S. Army’s agencies, and representatives of the Army met us to discuss our partnership and how to engage in more students at the local and state levels. They joined staff and the Ohio group for lunch and heard very passionate presentations by our students.
- And, we’re still carrying the word on state association boards. Staff traveled to Massachusetts to assist its board with strategic planning, and I went to Arizona to conduct board training and strategic planning. As a result of our work together, the Arizona board and I developed a new strategic plan for the state association. The national office staff produced and published the plan, and it was e-mailed to all Arizona board members within one week of our meeting.
Highlights
January 15th, 2011- Membership as of January 13th stands at more than 202,944 or more than 13,268 over our membership on this date last year.
- Speaking of membership, the Membership Mega Prize program is gaining sponsorships including the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau, N.E.W. Customer Service, Klein Tools, Kobalt Tools and IRWIN tools. For information on the drive to increase our membership through incentives, please go to www.skillsusa.org/join/megaprize.shtml.
- The report on the State Farm grant is complete, and staff did an extensive job recently reviewing Lowe’s applications for campus improvement and community service grants. To view it online, go to www.skillsusa.org/educators/statefarm.shtml.
- This year’s national staff charitable donation was to benefit the 27-year old son of a cosmetology teacher at C.S. Monroe Technology Center in Leesburg. The young man has a family, lost his job and his health benefits and is being treated for cancer. The national staff was extremely generous and the donation was genuinely appreciated. A lot of students at the school are also working to raise money for the same cause.
- Bruce Potter’s official last day with the national staff was Tuesday, December 28 and he has moved on to begin his new job as high school state association director for New York state. We wish him all the best.
- National staff worked through strategic planning this week. It was our 11th Week of Excitement. We took some different approaches this year, beginning with Vision 2020 and the big picture, and then wrote some macro objectives to which we wrote department strategies, tactics and business plans. It was very exciting. We’ll be making our first report on new objectives to the state association director association officers at the end
Highlights
December 12th, 2010- Membership as of December 14, stands at more than 168,436 or nearly 15,820 over our membership this date last year. And, it’s been announced that Rhode Island is the first state association this year to exceed its overall 2009 membership total.
- SkillsUSA’s Vision 2020 goal statements are now visible to members, sponsors, state associations and the public. The short statement of SkillsUSA’s future vision has its own Web landing page, and there’s a one-page PDF that goes into a little more detail. Just click on: www.skillsusa.org/about/vision2020.shtml.
Week of Champions DVD
November 15th, 2010State association directors have been sent a copy of the Week of Champions DVD. The DVD is being distributed free to instructors who’ve registered at least 20 student members plus one or more professionals by November 15 (value: $14.95). In addition, those instructors who’ve submitted a roster by November 15th with 100-percent membership plus one or more professionals will be receiving a SkillsUSA Program of Work calendar (value: $5.95). Both items will be offered in the Spring 2011 SkillsUSA Educational Resources Catalog that mails in January. Likewise, SkillsUSA members receive a subscription to SkillsUSA Champions, the official magazine of our organization. To receive all four issues during the school year, student names must have been submitted online or received postmarked by November 15.
The Week of Champions DVD is designed to explain SkillsUSA’s National Leadership and Skills Conference to those who aren’t familiar with the event. It can also be used as a tool to recruit non-members, to inspire current members to attend and/or compete and to encourage business and industry support. The 10-minute video contains footage from recent conferences and chronicles the major events occurring throughout the week, such as SkillsUSA TECHSPO, the Opening Ceremony, the SkillsUSA Championships, community service, the Awards Ceremony and more. This DVD is not to be confused with our annual “NLSC Souvenir DVD.” The Souvenir DVD is geared mainly toward attendees of the most recent conference and clocks in at around 30 minutes. The Week of Champions DVD is much more concise yet features more detailed explanations of each event.
Highlights
November 1st, 2010- I spoke during the North American STEM Education Symposium held October 3 and 4 in Manchester, N.H. My presentation was on the Skill Connect Assessments and how they can be used to assess STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills. Approximately 150 STEM educators attended, and the presentation was well received. As a matter of fact, one member of the audience who identified herself as a school administrator stood up and addressed the audience saying: “These are the best assessments on the market. Check them out.”
- Next stop was Graphics EXPO at McCormick Place in Chicago from October 4 to 7 at the invitation of Eileen Cassidy and Ralph Nappi of NPES. Two SkillsUSA students were honored during the show. One was a Championships gold medalist for three straight years and the other student – who is from the same instructional program – was the NPES design contest winner. I met with executives from Heidelberg and Xerox while there. Xerox is very interested in the Skill Connect Assessments.
- I conducted board training in Indianapolis, Ind. on October 12 and met with Julie Yeater, former SkillsUSA board president. Indiana is attempting to recruit more board members from industry. So, board member Ted Norman of MSSE and I made some calls, and I’m pleased to say that Snap-on, Caterpillar, Air Products, State Farm and Lowe’s have all expressed interest in having their local representatives serve on state association boards across the country.
- During our last staff meeting, we received several pieces of good news. Six sites have been selected and mentors identified for the YouthBuild grant project. A meeting is scheduled with U.S. Department of Labor officials to discuss the project. The Alumni Coordinating Committee met here in Leesburg recently. Alumni membership is now over 17,300, and Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin alumni are working on their constitutions to establish their state associations. We’re writing a contract with The Center for Energy Workforce Development to develop a new assessment for the center using our employability skills assessment and engineering assessment and cross walking both to the Career Skills Education Program. The Center is working under a Gates Foundation grant. Staff reported on excellent meetings in Kansas City with the IBEW, Teamsters and the Kauffman Foundation, among others.
- And, membership is up 13,248 over last year at this time and 1,139 Skill Connect Assessments have been sold this year.
Free SkillsUSA Advisor Membership Incentives Reminder
November 1st, 2010Register at least 20 student members plus one or more professionals by November 15, 2010, and you will receive a free SkillsUSA DVD. (total value: $10.00).
Instructors who submit a roster with 100 percent membership plus one or more professionals will also receive a SkillsUSA Program of Work calendar (value: $5.95). Deadline: Your roster must be submitted online or postmarked by November 15, 2010, to receive these free items.
2010-11 Membership Kits
August 15th, 2010The 2010-11 SkillsUSA membership kits have been mailed to all chapters that affiliated with SkillsUSA last year. Extra kits will be mailed to all state offices soon. The kit includes enrollment instructions, programs, scholarship and recognition opportunities, membership cards, a recruitment poster, a SkillsUSA Creed poster, an affiliation sticker and fliers on the Work Force Ready System and new products. The kit also includes the 2011 SkillsUSA Championships overview flier. This year’s membership incentive is a SkillsUSA DVD for all chapters that register 20 or more students plus one professional, by the November 15 full services deadline.
Membership materials are posted online at www.skillsusa.org/join/ and states are welcome to post these materials or link to them on our site. If you need more membership kits, call 800-321-8422 or e-mail Roxanne Hodge at rhodge@skillsusa.org.
It’s Official: Another Record Membership Year
May 1st, 2010The final tally is in, and I’m proud to say SkillsUSA has had the privilege of serving 304,067 high school and postsecondary/college students and their instructors this year. That number is an increase of nearly 3,500 members over last year, the largest membership year on record for the organization. When we add in alumni membership, we have a grand total of 313,180 members for the 2009-2010 school year!
