Seriously Behind

It's been two weeks since my last post, but I really have accomplished a lot. I have been having some neck and back problems that make me not want to be on the computer in the evening, and that's when I usually update this blog.

In the last two week I have compiled the results of the awards redesign survey and sent a summary and initial recommendations to the awards redesign team. I am waiting for their feedback before proceeding on. I also finished my research on the NASWA Web site looking for significant events from the last 10 years in the workforce development arena. I made an initial pass at updating the History of Workforce Development module of the WPDP. I still have a ways to go. I also looked up the duties of the IAWP Legislative Steering Committee and made some proposed changes that came out of the board meeting in St. Louis. I have sent the revisions off to the officers and board liaison to review.

So you can see, I have been busy, just not busy blogging.

Researching

I have spent many hours this last week researching workforce system legislation and programs over the past 10 years. I am updating Module 4 of the retooled WPDP History of Workforce Development studyguide. Sadly the last entry was the passage of WIA from 1998, so it's about time for an update. I started with reviewing the NASWA Bulletins from the last 10 years to see what's happened the last 10 years. That's been very time consuming because each bulletin is several pages long and reports on all proposed legislation and since I only want to include those programs that actually came about, it's a lot of reading and clicking. In the course of reviewing the material I had almost forgot about many things such as Y2K, the 2000 census, the recession in 2001 and the low employment (under 5%) in the mid 2000's. It was like a walk down memory lane. The common denominator...the workforce system was always there to help people. I hope to reflect that in this latest update to the WPDP.

Survey Says!

Sent out the survey today to 40+ people asking for input on the awards. I hope this format (Survey Monkey) is user friendly and give us a bunch of input to start redesigning the IAWP awards. I am optimistic that people will respond and we can get started with the membership awards by mid month. I looked before I left work today and only three people had responded...less than what I had hoped for...but maybe tomorrow we will have 50! If you happen to be reading this blog, click on the survey here and give me your input.

Survey Monkey

Anyone ever use Survey Monkey? I have used it to take surveys other people have developed, but never put a survey of mine on it. A week ago I developed a survey for IAWP awards. The Awards Redesign Team wants to gather input from members about awards before making any recommendations for change. I had a paper survey and decided to try my hand with Survey Monkey. It's a free online product that allows you to put a survey online and send a link to people to complete the survey. The free version allows up to 10 questions and 100 responses. I think it will be a much better way to get responses because people don't have to print a document and fax it or scan and attach it. I have it out to the Team to review before sending it to members. Once it's finalized (hopefully tomorrow) I will send it out to several members and also post in on this Blog.

Meet me in St. Louis

I returned from the IAWP board meeting in St. Louis on Sunday. My compliments to President Rich Vincent and the entire board for a terrific meeting. It's one of the best I have ever attended for keeping on track, discussing the issues, and planning for the future. I felt a real spirit of friendship with everyone on the board. We covered a lot of issues but the one near and dear to me is the online WPDP testing that I have worked on and blogged about over the past couple of months. The board approved my recommendation to divide each of the current study guides into 4 modules and place the exams online using "Hosted Test." Now the work begins of accomplishing the work. There were many other issues discussed and approved and I will blog about them later in the week.

Reading, Reading, and Reading

I am trying to prep for the IAWP board meeting that starts on Friday. I printed off the rather large board packet, double-sided to save a few trees and to make it lighter to carry. If you know me even a little, you know I like to be prepared and am totally off-kilter if I am not. I have made it through the last two board meeting minutes as well as the committee and subcommittee reports. I was starting on the district director reports when I decided to take a blog-break. I am looking forward to seeing my fellow board members and friends and spending a little time getting to know them better. I will keep you posted on the outcome of the meeting.

Google Docs

I was playing around with Google Documents trying to educate myself a little on the technology available these days. I believe technology is to be embraced, even if sometimes the learning curve seems long and involved. I think IAWP can especially benefit from using the latest technology. With these extremely busy times, it can make projects go much smoother and take less time to accomplish tasks. Google Documents is an application where someone can initiate a document or import a document from their computer and share it in real time with others via the Web. I can see this as a good idea for committee assignments, WPDP updating and development, awards collaboration and lots of other things. As I discover more about it, I will blog about it and hopefully get some of you to explore and share other technology.