The officers of the SkillsUSA State Director Association met on January 25-27 in Red Rock, Nev., to review the first draft of the national FY13-14 strategic plan, advise national staff on issues in the states and to create an agenda for the state directors’ annual professional development and training conference. The annual conference will be held this year on August 14-18 in Rapid City, S.D. The officers selected Grand Rapids, Mich., as the site for their 2015 meeting.

The officers are great communicators. They’ll be holding a webinar on February 21 to update all of the state association directors on their meeting. My thanks go to Ohio state association director, Mike Cowles, the state association officers and to national staff members.

Each August, we gather with our state association directors for our annual State Association Director Professional Development and Training Conference. It’s a great time of training, networking and sharing of best practices among state associations and a time that reminds us that we are about to embark on a new school year with a new crop of students to inspire. The conference started on Monday evening, August 15, with training for nine new state association directors who received two days of training on the basics of managing a quality state SkillsUSA organization. On Tuesday, our experienced state directors arrived and we were very pleased that Dr. Dale Winkler, the new state director of career and technical education for Kentucky, spoke at the opening banquet. Dr. Winkler expressed his support for SkillsUSA as an integral component of CTE instruction and his commitment to our national conference when it moves to Louisville in 2015. Over 50 state directors and support staff were there and they had the opportunity to tour the city, visit the Kentucky Expo Center and meet city officials and representatives from conference hotels and local attractions. The directors were impressed with Louisville and all it has to offer for our national conference.

The conference also featured the presentation of the 2011 SkillsUSA “Best of Brand” Awards. Congratulations to the following state associations for their excellent work and for winning the various categories: SkillsUSA Arizona and director Carrie O’Grady-Wolf for Best of Brand Online; SkillsUSA Georgia and director Gayle Silvey for Best of Brand Multi-Media; SkillsUSA Massachusetts and director Karen Ward for Best of Brand Print; and SkillsUSA Wisconsin and director Brent Kindred for Best of Brand Conferences and Events.

Training sessions included best practice workshops in social networking, conference and contest management, membership development, finance and insurance, alumni growth, program of work strategies and Vision 2020. State directors also held regional meetings, brought recommendations from standing and special committee meetings, and they held their annual business meeting on Saturday morning. On Saturday evening, during a special reception at Churchill Downs, Board President Russ Hoffbauer and State Director Chairman and Board Member Mike Cowles, conducted a listening session for state directors with the purpose of providing input and questions for the national board.

Finally, I am thrilled to congratulate three state association directors for achieving the SkillsUSA State Director Certification. The certification is based on American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) standards and demonstrated expertise in membership development, communications, image and media, conference management, industry partnerships, operations management and personnel management. Congratulations to Gayle Silvey of Georgia and Millie Perez of Puerto Rico for attaining their certification and to Mike Cowles of Ohio for attaining re-certification.

The expression may be “what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas” but we plan to do some exporting. The SkillsUSA state association directors’ executive committee met January 26 – 28 to discuss a wide range of issues and to plan the state association directors’ August meeting in Louisville. Mike Cowles, state association director for Ohio, officially took over as chair of the committee during this meeting. Mike will be joining the board of directors during its March meeting.

A consistent theme throughout was the need for open communications, both inside state education agencies and within the SkillsUSA association. Mike and the other directors spoke of how state agencies are changing, and the student organizations’ need to change right along with them to meet education goals. That means showing how the student organizations work with career clusters, career pathways and how they align with the common core education standards developed by the National Governors Association and now adopted by 42 states.

To increase communications within SkillsUSA, the committee proposed a series of webinars for state directors beginning with a webinar on February 17 so the committee can discuss with the other directors nationwide, the outcomes of this meeting. They would also like to have webinar meetings on topics such as the strategic plan and training sessions on how to use SkillsUSA tools and programs, such as the membership mega prizes. By scheduling regular webinars during the year, we won’t be trying to put so much information into our two annual face-to-face meetings.

The committee approved the draft of the FY12 strategic plan – they’re eager to get some of the things sooner – and they also discussed major initiatives, financial reports, state liability insurance and the SkillsUSA Store.

I stayed in Nevada on Saturday, the 29th, to conduct board training for the Nevada association. It was a pleasure to work with Mike Pointer, our new association director, and his board. He had 100 percent attendance.

Symone Gyles, an Animal Sciences student at Edison Academy and this year’s Virginia state president, put the work of our state association directors into perspective with her opening remarks during the dinner that began the State Director Association Annual Professional Development and Training Conference on August 11 in Herndon, Va. She spoke eloquently about the difference SkillsUSA has made in her life. Then her parents rose to say the same thing and Symone’s instructor was there too. SkillsUSA is known for changing lives. That’s made possible by many people, especially by our state association directors.

Also recognized during the dinner: Karen Ward, state association director for Massachusetts and Ann Wick, state association director for Kansas were both honored for their recertification as Certified State Directors. And, Best of Brand awards were presented to Massachusetts (who won two), Georgia, Ohio and Arizona.

Kim Green, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education consortium (NASDCTEc) was our keynote speaker during the dinner. Kim and NASDCTEc believe that several factors in the domestic and global economy – in addition to trends in education – will come to favor unprecedented growth and support of career and technical education. Making that case – and covered in an earlier Executive Update – NASDCTEc has released a document called “Reflect, Transform, Lead: A New Vision for Career Technical Education.” See the document at http://careertech.org/show/new_vision. Kim discussed the paper’s recommendations and ways in which SkillsUSA could use the vision in its own work. There are some elements that are somewhat controversial, but that’s often the case in any vision.

The conference was held from August 10-15. There were 36 state associations represented in all with 45 directors and assistant directors attending. Eight of the directors are new and attended the new director training sessions on August 10 and 11. The August 12 and 13 meetings featured 19 best practice sessions including conducting state legislative days, strategies to grow state conferences, and social media/online monitoring for non-profits taught by an outside expert from Vocus. The state directors’ business meeting and regional meetings took up most of Saturday, August 14.