President's Corner
The President's Corner is dedicated this month to reflections on the May 16-19 ASTD International Conference and Exposition (ICE)

June 15, 2010 Program
Evaluating Client Needs with Kevin Shrum

July 8, 2010 Breakfast
Network and share ideas

August 19, 2010 Program
Using Today's Technology with Gina Schreck

Partner Events
Upcoming ASTD-NRC partner events and other events of interest.

Welcome to the June 2010 Newsletter!

The 2010 ASTD International Conference and Exhibition May 16-19 in Chicago was fantastic. Patsi Maroney, NRC Board Member at Large, shares her experiences and observations in the President’s Corner. We’ll have the program guide at the June lunch if anyone is interested in seeing the program agenda for this 8,000 person event.

Register now for our June 15th program with Kevin Shrum. The program is titled “I have the answer for you…IF you have the right question”. This will be a great follow up to Don Kirkpatricks’s presentation. Kevin is Professor of Organizational Leadership at Regis University and is on our NRC Board.

We have an informal networking breakfast planned for July 8 at the Egg & I in Fort Collins.

The next two Cheyenne programs have been planned for August 12 and October 7 so put them on your calendar. See below for details.

New members include Catherine Varra-Nelson, Janna West Kowalski, Jayme Parker and Stan Skrabut. Welcome! We look forward to getting to know you.

Renewing members this month include Keith Trimmel who actually renewed in January but we missed him. Thank you for renewing! We appreciate your continuing support.

UPDATE: CPLP Study Group Formed!
With Paul Smith’s help and persistence, we have formed our first study group for ASTD’s new accreditation which is the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP). The group is organizing right now so there is still time to sign up. The more the better!
This is the FIRST accreditation offered for workplace learning and performance professionals. Soon you will begin to see “CPLP Preferred” on job notices and having the CPLP certification will enhance both your professional stature and your marketability.
The CPLP accreditation is a two-step process. First, you must study for and then pass a test to demonstrate your proficiency in nine areas of expertise. Examples of areas are designing learning and managing the learning function. Then you must complete and submit a work product demonstrating practical mastery. Both are administered by ASTD Certification Institute. Since the accreditation is intended to be meaningful and signify real mastery in our field, the process is rigorous. This means you must prepare for the test – very few can pass it without preparation.

Thus the desire to start a study group which would be beneficial not just for those who want to take the test but for anyone who wants to work with their peers to improve their knowledge and increase their proficiency. So, we encourage you to consider CPLP preparation whether you intend to sit for the test or not.

The chapter has the ASTD Learning System which is a 10 volume, 1200 page product written to convey the knowledge in the nine areas of expertise necessary to pass the test. The ASTD Learning System will be available to the Study Group.

If you are interested in joining the group, please contact Paul Smith at paul.smith.ftcollins@comcast.net. You must be a chapter member to join the group.

Many trainers, educators, OD practitioners, performance improvement specialists, and organizational consultants experience a common occurrence – a client or customer comes to the practitioner with the problem diagnosed and a corrective action already in mind, and that corrective action may be based on the client’s knowledge of the trainer’s catalog of training events or the consultant’s menu of services. 

While it may seem to be good customer service to simply meet the client’s request, it may not always be in the client’s best interest! 

This presentation will use a case study examination to discover why performance interventions can fail to live up to expectations, and will offer ideas on how to use the Kirkpatrick “Levels of Evaluation” model in reverse to perform a more accurate diagnosis and create a more effective intervention plan.  The concepts can help a consultant improve client satisfaction, and can help an in-house trainer to escape from the “just a trainer” box and move into the realm of internal performance improvement consultant and problem-solver.

Click here for Kevin's bio.
Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2010 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
The Moot House on South College, Fort Collins, CO
$15 NRC Members and Partners/ $25 Nonmember
Register Here

Eat, learn and share.
Share what you're working on and learn what others are doing.
Do you have tips and ideas that can help others? Get ideas from others!
Round table discussion groups as well.
A great way to start your day.
Date: Thursday, July 8, 2010 7:30-9:00 am
Egg & I on College Avenue in Fort Collins
$10 NRC Members and Partners/ $15 Nonmember
Register Here

We must change the way we teach! Students sitting numb, with the “expert” up front, is no longer relevant, and it's no longer working! Learn ways to use today's tech tools to engage the learners BEFORE they ever walked into the classroom. Get learners actively participating and learning through simple game-like strategies and have them wanting to learn MORE. Extend your learner’s experience by offering fun tech-nuggets that allow them to continue sharing and learning far beyond a day of training.

In this action packed session you will discover ways to use today’s popular tech tools like Augmented Reality, Flip video cameras, Blogs, YouTube, even virtual worlds like Second Life to create game-like learning in ANY program. These ideas are easy to implement and most cost NOTHING to add into your next learning event. Click here for Gina's expanded bio.
Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
The Moot House on South College, Fort Collins, CO
$15 Members and Partners/ $25 Nonmember
Register Here

Other News & Events

Northern Colorado Human
Resources Assn. (NCHRA)
Thursday – June 17, 2010
5:30pm - 7:00pm
11:15am-1:00pm
Healthcare Reform Update
Free Event, but please RSVP
Click here for details.

Colorado Career Development Assoc.
(CCDA)
There are no upcoming events at this time.
Visit the website.
 

ASTD Rocky Mountain Chapter
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
8:00 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.
All Day Training with Lou Russell
(Continental Breakfast and Lunch included)
Investment: $159 Members and $199 Non-Members. For more details, click here.

Loveland Chamber of Commerce
June 18, 2010
 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM
'No Guts, No Gain' Sales Success Seminar w/Sandler Training 
For details, click here.
Visit the website for more events.

Reflections on the May 16-19 ASTD International Conference and Exposition (ICE)

The economy is so tough right now, so I know I’m lucky that my employer allowed me to attend the ASTD ICE conference in Chicago this year. Normally, I only try to go to a ‘big’ event like this once every 2 years, so that made it a bit easier to sell. This makes the 3rd time I’ve attended ICE, and I usually come back feeling like I got more than my money’s worth.

This year was no exception. I’ve never been in Chicago before, and I always enjoy going to a new city. I came a day early and attended 2 of the half-day pre-conference sessions, which were good. I was able to share ideas & practices with people from China, Sweden, Australia, Canada, & Japan as well as people from all over the US. During the various sessions, I ended up talking to people from Mexico, South America, Korea, & Ireland, too. I work for Larimer County’s Human Resources Department as their one-person training and organizational development function, so the only chance I get to interact with such a globally diverse group of people is at the ICE Conference. I love it! Even riding the bus back and forth from the conference center to the hotel was a good experience. On Sunday afternoon, the bus driver asked if we wanted to go back to our hotels using a slightly longer route that was more scenic. We all said yes, and he told us tidbits about the different buildings we passed. He also said there was no way he’d try to do that on a weekday since traffic was usually really bad. What a nice treat that was!

Since I’m one of the ASTD-NRC at-large board members, I was also able to attend the Chapter Leader functions and mingle with local ASTD board members from all over. That’s another great way to get ideas. I took lots of notes on things to consider exploring for our chapter.

Of course, the general sessions are big productions. The first one started with “The Blues Brothers” doing some song and dance routines for us. Tony Bingham always gives a good pep talk, and Dan Pink’s presentation was quite good. Social media was this year’s big topic, but I know my organization is not quite ready to go there just yet, so I focused on topics that I’ll be able to move on more quickly. That’s another nice thing about such a big conference; there’s such a huge variety of topics covered that everyone has a chance to focus on what is most helpful for them. I gathered lots of good info on training transfer, ROI/return on expectations, coaching techniques for groups, leadership academies in the non-profit sector, and informal learning. All good stuff that I’ll be able to put to use!

I had two favorite sessions this year. The first was “The Tiny Training Function”. Since I’m a one-person training department, it was really great to talk with others who are in same boat: trying to “do it all” while trying to maintain sanity/realistic expectations on everyone’s part (especially ourselves!). In fact, the woman who led the session works for a county government in Washington State and has almost the exact same job I have, so it was awesome to hear what’s been working for her. My second favorite was “Brain Aerobics”. The presenter was a brain researcher from New Zealand, and he was amazing. I’m totally fascinated with all the new brain-based research about how we can use different techniques to impact learning, so his information was not just enjoyable but extremely helpful, too.

Did you know that our very own ASTD-NRC Board President Dave Vance was a speaker at ICE this year? I was originally planning to go see his presentation, but his session was at the same time as Brain Aerobics, and I figured I can see Dave anytime, so…sorry I didn’t make it, Dave! I’m sure you were awesome because you always are.

All in all, it was a well-spent week! Now it’s time to settle back into reality and start incorporating what I can into my now-expanded little world.

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