Special Interest Groups, anyone?

What area of training and development is most important or interesting to you? WOCASTD can only focus on a limited number of topics each year, and we may not have the opportunity to include your particular interest -- training design, assessment, coaching, e-learning, leadership, ROI, etc.

The chapter board is thinking about helping to connect members so that they can meet to discuss particular topics in depth, perhaps over breakfast or lunch a few times a year. Someone(s) could assume responsibility for finding a venue and sending out an e-mail invitation. Those who are interested could show up to network, pick each others' brains -- whatever!

What do you think of the idea? Let us know, and we can start planning for the concept for next year. What topic areas would most interest you?

Other good thoughts -- don't be shy. We want to know how to add value to your membership!

Shake, Rattle and Roll! -- June 12 Special Meeting

The WOCASTD leadership wants to know where you want to go! Come join us as we SHAKE up the chapter, RATTLE traditional ASTD formats, and ROLL out big changes for the upcoming year. We need your input.

There will be door prizes and incredible giveaways, including National and local memberships. Come prepared to network, have fun, and shape the future of our chapter.

Location, Time, and Fees
The meeting will take place at the Dayton Marriott Hotel, 1414 South Patterson Blvd., Dayton, Ohio on Thursday, June 12th from 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. The cost which includes heavy hors d’oeuvres and a drink (after that, a cash bar) is $15 for both members and non-members. (The event is partially sponsored by the chapter.)

To register for the meeting click here: http://www.wocastd.org/registration
To see who else is coming click here: http://www.wocastd.org/registration/whoiscoming.php

For questions concerning the event,contact Cindy Schisler at (937) 775-1134 or cindy.schisler@wright.edu.

Please make your reservation by the Tuesday before the meeting to help us better plan our event.

Think Mini!

Do you have a great training program that is just too long for your busy managers or external customers to attend? Then "Think Mini!" Join Cris Wildermuth, President of The Effectiveness Group, as she describes how mini workshops can be as effective and content rich as longer programs, and solve the time-crunch dilemma as well.

*************************************
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008
Time:
- 5:30 pm Networking
- 6:00 pm Dinner
- 6:30 pm Program
Location: The Kettering Center for Performance Excellence, 140 E. Monument Ave., Dayton

Non-members: $20.00
Members: $15.00
Students: $10.00
Presentation Only:
- Members and students: Free
- Non-members: $ 5.00

Parking is behind the Wright State Kettering Center Building.

We hope to see you there!

To register for the meeting, click here: http://wocastd.org/registration/

To see who else is coming, click here: http://wocastd.org/registration/whoiscoming.php

April Breakfast Meeting: Managing Talent in Your Organization, Panera Bread, April 17, 7:30 - 9:00

Breakfast Meeting: Thursday, April 17th

Managing Talent in Your Organization

Networking and learning opportunity! Informal and interactive facilitated group conversation for discovering how talent management impacts your role as a learning professional.
· Discussion - How you are managing your top performers?
· Learn strategies for retaining your top performers!
***********************************************
Location: Panera Bread Company, 1203 Brown Street (near University of Dayton campus)
Time: 7:30 to 8:00: Network and buy your own breakfast
8:00 to 9:00: Program
There is no charge for this program! Members, students, guests - all are welcome! Please make your reservation by the Tuesday before the meeting to help us better plan our event.
***********************************************
To register for the meeting click here: http://www.wocastd.org/registration
To see who else is coming click here: http://www.wocastd.org/registration/whoiscoming.php
We look forward to seeing you, and invite your suggestions and comments.

Synchronous Learning -- What Can You Share???

With all the new learning techniques and tools on the market, we rely on the "early adaptors" among us to lead the way and to provide the rest of us with useful information and guidance as we either "stick a toe in" or "take the plunge" in new areas.

One topic that is of interest to several of our members is that of synchronous learning. If you have any knowledge or experience with synchronous learning, please give us the benefit of your wisdom regarding:

• Tools: Which features have you found most useful? What were the factors you considered in your purchasing decision?

  
  

• Certification: Have you pursued a certification in design? delivery? What moved you in that direction?

  
  

• Training: Have you established a "train the trainer" program to get internal trainers up-to-speed on using synchronous learning?

Don't be shy! Let us know what you think.

Teach Less, Learn More: Accelerating Learning

Don't miss our March 2008 meeting! Lou Russell will be on hand to offer her exciting program: TEACH LESS, LEARN MORE: ACCELERATING LEARNING.

Lou comes highly recommended, and this program will help all of us facilitate programs that maximize learning and encourage on-going application and future learning. If you want to help others to learn, teach more in less time, and give more effective presentations, sign up today!

• Date: Thursday, March 20, 2008
• Time: 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
• Place: Berry Room, Nutter Center, WSU
• Price: $69 / chapter members*
            $89 / non-members*
  
  *Includes a full, catered breakfast starting at 8:00.
  

About Lou Russell:

Lou Russell is the president and CEO of Russell Martin & Associates - see her website. She is the author of The Accelerated Learning Fieldbook among other publications. She is also a frequent contributor to Computer World, Cutter Executive Reports and Network World.

A popular and dynamic speaker, Lou has conducted energizing workshops at national and international conferences

Invite your colleagues to join you. We look forward to seeing you on March 20!

Networking: The Key is Relationships

As a follow-up to her excellent presentation on effective networking at the February meeting of WOCASTD (and as a public service for those of you who couldn’t be there!), Julie Bauke, Congruity Career Consulting, sent along these thoughts:

Networking is the Building of Mutually Beneficial Relationships for Personal, Professional and Business Success.

Sure, it’s a mouthful..... But doesn’t this definition make it seem less scary, and more doable?

Effective networking is ALL about building relationships. Networking is NOT:

• Handing out and collecting business cards
• “Working” a room
• A “drive-by” exercise that leaves your conversation partners feeling used.

Build quality, authentic relationships with people that you connect with, who can be of value to you as you work toward your goals -- AND to whom you can also provide value as they work toward theirs.

The good news is that you already have a network, but probably don’t spend much time thinking about it or managing it.

Take a close look at your goals. Don’t have any? Well, then start there!

Once you have established goals for your personal or professional life:

Evaluate your current network. Do you have the contacts that will provide the information, connections, support and resources you need to get where you are trying to go? If not, how can you fill in the gaps? What kinds of new contacts do you need?

Share your goals with people who are in your current network. You may be surprised how helpful people will be once they know what your aspirations are.

Look to give first. If you follow the golden rule of networking -- give first, take second -- you may be surprised by how eagerly people reciprocate.

If you develop goals, build authentic relationships that align with those goals, and look for opportunities to give first, you’ll be amazed at the REAL power of networking!

What do you think about Julie’s take on effective networking? It is certainly a much more intentional approach than I have used in the past. What are your thoughts?

The 10 "M"s of Engagement

Our chapter's own Cris Wildermuth and her husband, Mel, recently wrote an article which was included in the January ASTD magazine, T&D. You can find a copy of the article here.

Cris describes the article this way, "Lately researchers and human resource professionals have become increasingly interested in Employee Engagement. Engagement, which is defined by experts as a strong psychological connection between the person and her work, is the ultimate win-win phenomenon. Engaged employees are not only happier, more passion, more excited about their day-to-day activities -- they are also more productive, less likely to leave the organization, and more committed. This article describes engagement and connects it to 10 "M's" -- these are organizational, job, and individual factors that lead to engagement.

After reading the article, what do you as a training, HR, workplace performance or OD person think about your role in promoting employee engagement in your organization or the organizations with which you consult? Do you have additional ideas about what creates employee engagement? Please share your thoughts with us.

All About Our New Chapter Blog

Our Chapter now has a blog (short for "weB LOG")! This is an exciting new form of member communications that allows us to publish new information to you on a more continual, topic-by-topic basis than we could with our newsletter. More importantly, the blog allows you, our chapter members, to respond to the articles we post with your comments, questions, and suggestions.

Viewing the Blog: You can view our blog by coming to this web page. We suggest that you add this to your bookmarks or list of favorite sites. You can also find our blog by going to our website (wocastd.org) and clicking on the link or blog image on our homepage or by selecting the "Blog" link in the "Member Area" menu. When you arrive on our blog page, you will see the most recent article at the top of the page and as you scroll down you will previously posted articles.

Submitting Your Comments: At the bottom of each article (including this one!) is a link to the "Comments" area. To post a comment, simply click on the "Comments" link and type in your thoughts. Please note that beneath the comment input area you will see three options for attributing your comment: 1) Sign-in using Blogger/Google, 2) Nickname, and 3) Anonymous. Unless you happen to have a Blogger/Google account, we recommend that you click the radio button next to "Nickname" and enter your full name. This will simply attach your name at the end of your comment. Naturally, if you prefer to remain anonymous you may click that option.

Keeping Track of New Blog Postings: There are two ways to keep up with new posts on our blog: 1) you can visit the blog periodically with your web browser to see what's new or 2) you can subscribe to the blog and get new postings "pushed" to your PC. We recommend the latter since it is easier and you only have to look at the blog when there is really something new to see. When you subscribe to the blog, your computer will periodically check online for updates to subscribed feeds, even when your browser (e.g., Internet Explorer) is not running.

To Subscribe to the Blog: At the bottom of this blog page you will see a link labeled "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Click on this link and follow the instructions. This will cause you to be added as a subscriber to our "feed." From that point on, whenever you open Internet Explorer (IE) and there is a new posting on our blog, the Feeds button on your IE toolbar will change color, letting you know that a new posting or comment is available. Click the Feeds button, and then click the feed you want to see, in this case "TD in Western Ohio." (You can unsubscribe from our blog at any time by clicking on Favorites >> Feeds and deleting the entry labeled "T&D In Western Ohio.")

Windows Vista Users: If you have a Vista PC, you can set up a "Feeds" gadget on your desktop that will automatically monitor feeds from our blog (and any others you may be interested in) and display new postings. The image below shows how the Feeds gadget looks with the current posting on our blog, "Ideas on e-Learning from January Meeting."

Example of the Feed Gadget on Windows Vista

We are trying to cultivate a dynamic, new communications environment for our chapter, so please let us know if you have any ideas that you would like to see posted on our blog. If you'd like you can write a short posting yourself and send it via email to Celine O'Neill, our VP for Marketing and Communications. If you don't want to write the posting yourself, but you have some ideas or questions that you would like to see discussed on the blog, send those to Celine, too.

Submitted by D. Verne Morland, managing partner, ROI Learning Services.

Ideas on e-Learning from January Meeting

Here are some of the ideas that emerged from our Café Conversation on e-Learning at Panera Bread last Thursday. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about these notes, please click the comment link below and share your thoughts on this blog.

Definitions:

• e-Learning has two principal forms: synchronous which uses electronic media to help learners learn at the same time and asynchronous which uses electronic media to enable learners to learn independently at their own pace.
  
  
• Blended learning is a new term for courses that are delivered using more than one delivery method. While not completely original, this term is helpful in that it encourages course designers to think about how they can "deconstruct" a course into smaller components, say knowledge transfer and role playing, and then use the best delivery method for each one.
  

Key success factors for effective e-Learning include:

• Interactivity
• A focus on the essential information
• Avoidance of distracting elements (both content and graphics - no fluff)
• Encourage users to proceed at their own pace
• e-Learning offers consistency in both content and delivery that classroom courses often lack.

During our discussion we identified the types of learning activities that would be good for e-Learning delivery and those that would not work as well. Here's what we came up with.

Good for e-Learning:

• Knowledge transfer
• Role playing (for virtual types of work activity)

Bad for e-Learning:

• Settings where not everyone has access to a PC (e.g. factory floors)
• Need for practice with real people or real equipment (although some advanced e-Learning courses with sophisticated multimedia can simulate both human and machine interactions)

One other important consideration is that the new generation of employees coming into the workplace today are very familiar with PCs and so they will expect that much of their training can be delivered by computer and the Internet.

Finally, we discussed the disappointing fact that most e-Learning initiatives in companies today seem to be driven by a desire to lower costs, reduce training time, or both. While these goals are fine as far as they go, it would be nice to hear some top manager say, "I really want my people to learn something!"

Your thoughts? (Please click the "Comments" link below to share your thoughts with others in our chapter. Thanks!)

Submitted by: D. Verne Morland, Managing Partner, ROI Learning Services