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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.
Tags: CEO Champion of the Year, Government Relations, SkillsUSA Championships, WorldTeam, YDF
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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.
Tags: Alumni, Highlights, NLSC, Partner News, Skill Connect Assessments, SkillsUSA Championships, Work Force Ready System
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September 1st, 2010
- 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.
Tags: Government Relations, Highlights, Partner News, SkillsUSA Championships, WLTI, Youth Development Foundation
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June 24th, 2010
Today is the big day for SkillsUSA Champions from across the nation. The 2010 SkillsUSA Championships is today! With 96 contests and more than 5,600 competitors, the championships encompasses Bartle Hall, its Conference Center, Municipal Auditorium, American Royal Center and downtown Marriott, Crowne Plaza and Phillips hotels.
Make sure to take the time to stop by and see the contests in Municipal Auditorium and make the trip down to the American Royal Center (next to Kemper Arena) to check out the TeamWorks, Welding Fabrication and Welding Art Sculpture contests. The SkillsUSA Championships is supported by more than 1,000 companies and associations.
A new “green” event this year is the State Farm Innovation in Sustainability Showcase. Chapters will be displaying their projects from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in Bartle Hall Lobby 2100.
But it’s not only contests today. SkillsUSA TECHSPO continues both at the outside street exhibits and in the lobbies throughout Bartle Hall. There’s still time to register for the Champions 5K Run. You have until 4 p.m. today at the Alumni booth (No. 232). There will be another Meet the Candidates session, business meeting and the SkillsUSA Delegates will cast their primary ballot for our new national officers.
Tonight, make sure you head out to Worlds of Fun theme park. It’s a great way to blow off steam after an exciting day of competition.
Tags: Champions 5K Race, Delegates, National Officers, NLSC, SkillsUSA Championships, State Farm Grants, TECHSPO
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June 1st, 2010
- We held our second-to-last National Leadership and Skills Conference staff meeting on May 11. Registration is up over last year in many of the states. We have 16 new exhibitors and the outdoor booth space for TECHSPO is sold out. SkillsUSA University boasts 74 sessions, and the alumni association is counting on 41 volunteers and 21 alumni attending conference for training. All in all, it appears this is shaping up to be a great national conference.
- The meeting with the NCCER Board of Trustees mentioned in a prior post went very well. I was pleased to meet with many of the nation’s largest contractors. NCCER will be chairing our Carpentry contest.
- On May 13 and 14, we had representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture here. They were conducting an assessment of the USDA grant SkillsUSA received from the Rural Development Office to provide PDP Online to select rural communities. The program is complete and the USDA representatives said they liked what we’d done.
- The Skill Connect Assessments continue to generate interest in industry and elsewhere. They were the subject of a conference call with Job Corps representatives yesterday. Also, during the week of May 10th, we had a visit with NIMS (National Institute of Metalworking Skills) which has an interest in co-branding, and the chairman of Adayana visited on May 13 to express his interest in using the assessments abroad.
- We’re getting ready for a large number of VIP visits to national conference by both public- and private sector guests. We’ve been preparing itineraries to make sure our guests see and hear everything possible during their times with us.
Tags: NLSC, Partner News, PDP Online, Skill Connect Assessments, SkillsUSA Championships, SkillsUSA University, TECHSPO, U.S. Department of Agriculture
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May 15th, 2010
We have posted many SkillsUSA Championships contest updates on our Web page. To view them, please visit www.skillsusa.org/compete/updates.shtml and make sure the information gets to the national competitors. There aren’t updates in every contest; just in some. If new information is presented about a contest, the information can be critical to a student’s competition.
We ask the technical committees to complete contest updates by June 1 so the students can prepare. If they do add or change anything after June 1, we mail the information directly to the competitors.
Tags: Contest Updates, Contests, SkillsUSA Championships
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May 15th, 2010
This year, again, we will be offering only digital copies of winners’ photos (no prints). These photos of groups of contest winners are taken back stage at the Awards Ceremony. There will be no charge for the photo(s). A photo order form will be distributed to winners back stage and can also be downloaded from www.skillsusa.org/downloads/PDF/NLSC/photoform.pdf. For more information, contact Jane Short at jshort@skillsusa.org or by phone at 703-737-0612.
Tags: Contests, NLSC, SkillsUSA Championships
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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.
Tags: ASK, Highlights, Inclusion and Diversity, NLSC, SkillsUSA Championships, TECHSPO, Web Conference
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February 1st, 2010
I met with the State Association Director Officers January 20-23. They reviewed and gave their recommendations on the strategic plan. They also worked through a number of issues to benefit state associations and discussed issues relating to the upcoming SkillsUSA Championships and the National Leadership and Skills Conference. They began planning for the August 2010 state association director conference to include more local sharing by directors and a regional emphasis. Best practice topics were discussed for inclusion in the agenda and the list will be submitted in the near future to all of the state directors to rank by priority. They also received staff updates via Web conference on things such as the Lowe’s grant, alumni, the audit and state association insurance and the Kellogg Foundation grant. A tentative agenda for the August training conference was developed. Curtis Barnett, chair of the State Association Director Officers and Utah state association director, kept the meetings moving.
Tags: NLSC, SkillsUSA Championships, State Directors
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January 15th, 2010
- Tom Hall, director of the publications department at SkillsUSA reported that on January 7 two SkillsUSA projects recently won awards. Our most recent annual report won an award in the annual Printing Industries of Virginia competition. With many other associations based in Virginia or having their annual reports printed here, this is quite an accomplishment for us. Congratulations go to Tom Kercheval, the B&I staff and everyone else who had a hand in our annual report. Also, in the Association TRENDS 2009 All-Media Contest, SkillsUSA’s 2009-10 Membership Kit won a gold award in the Membership Promotion Kit category. The 2009 competition included more than 425 entries in 26 categories of association communications. As the best in its category, our kit will be displayed in a “Winners’ Gallery” in D.C. next month, as well as on the TRENDS Web site. Congratulations go to Karen Perrino and all staff who worked on this project.
- As reported before, Dave Worden joined the staff last Monday as the program director of the national SkillsUSA Championships. Dave brings years of experience with SkillsUSA – dating all the way back to 1978 – and tremendous experience in industry and as chairman of the Power Equipment Technology contest. We look forward to having his expertise and sense of humor on the national staff.
- Staff traveled with a representative from the U.S. Department of Labor last week for a tour of CAT North outside Baltimore, Maryland. CAT is one of our favorite model SkillsUSA programs. The tour was part of DOL’s consideration of a grant for SkillsUSA activities and chapters in YouthBuild programs nationwide. We had a good discussion with representatives from YouthBuild and DOL on Monday of this week.
- On Monday morning, January 11, we had meetings with the Engineering Alliance. Representatives from Project Lead the Way and the Technology Student Association (TSA) joined us. The official launch of the Engineering Alliance is today, January 15. The Web site address is www.engineeringalliance.org
- John Foster, president and chief executive officer of NOCTI stopped by for a visit on January 5 to discuss a number of things including work NOCTI is doing on pathways and NOCTI support for the national SkillsUSA Championships. It was great to visit with John to discuss future cooperative efforts.
- And, I visited last Friday with Board Member Emily DeRocco. We’ve wanted to get together to discuss the National Association of Manufacturers certification system and the possible fit of the Skill Connect assessments. We had a great discussion on this topic and the work of the Manufacturing Institute.
Tags: Board of Directors, Department of Labor, Engineering Alliance, Government Relations, Highlights, National Association of Manufacturers, NOCTI, Partner News, Project Lead the Way, SkillsUSA Championships, Staff News
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