• 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.