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ASTD NEBRASKA - November Newsletter

November2013

What's In This Issue?

November Programming

Event

Road Trip!

Employee Learning

Week

It Happened Today!

Fear, Courage, and

ASTD

Chapter Scholarships

READ: Changes to the

CPLP

Social Media

Thank You To Our

Sponsor!

New and Renewing

Members

Calendar of Events

Dear Contact, The month of November is a great reminder to stop and think about theabundances we have in our lives. I wish for all of us a safe and bountifulThanksgiving with family and friends.

This month's newsletter tells of thegreat experiences a few of our boardmembers had just a short week agoas they traveled to the ASTD AnnualLeaders Conference (ALC). Thosemembers will have exciting ideas tohelp our chapter grow in the year tocome. This week the ASTD NebraskaBoard of Directors will join together and plan for 2014. I think it isimportant for all our members to know that our chapter is led by thosewho are passionate about making ASTD Nebraska a national role model. But more importantly, those same leaders are also passionate aboutmaking sure the activities, resources, and programming are of great valueto all its members. This retreat allows the board to strategically plan ourfuture.

I would like to remind all of our members andreaders of this newsletter that EmployeeLearning Week (ELW) is fast approaching. During the week of December 2, organizationsacross the country will be planning activitiesand events to show the dedication they haveinvested in employee learning. Although mostcompanies that we know have a commitmentto year-round learning, this week is set asideto highlight the important connection betweenlearning and achieving organizational results.

ASTD Nebraska will keep you updated withthe events that our chapter is sponsoring. Mark your calendars to attend two events atThe Millard Branch Library on December 3 andDecember 5 from 12:00-1:00 pm. The topicsare about ASTD Nebraska's Top 10 Lists! Youwon't want to miss out...keep your eyes open

for emails and don't forget to check our website for details!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Learning!

Sincerely, Jill IdelmanDirector of Communications

ASTD Nebraska November Programming Event

November 14, 2013 Submitted by: Jill Idelman

"Virtual Presentations" is the topic of ASTDNebraska's November programming event. We welcome our featured speaker, ChristinaDavis. Join us on Thursday, November 14 at8:00 a.m. as Davis will dispel some "myths"and share how to road map a plan that willincrease the effectiveness of our virtualpresentations.

The program portion of this session willprovide learners with best practices to assistwith effective planning and execution of communicating in a virtuallearning world. A workshop will follow at 9:00 a.m. on a more practicalapproach to work on skills which build on the program's concepts. Inaddition, the discussion will approach ideas on handling difficult"personalities" and will providing techniques to mitigate those awkwardsituations. Davis will also help identify communication styles in others andgive tips to adjust presentation styles to meet the needs of the potentiallydisruptive participants, all while maintaining confidence and credibility.

Christina Davis serves as Vice President ofDardis Communications, Inc, an executivetraining and development companyheadquartered in both Des Moines, Iowa, andChicago, Illinois. She is an accomplishedbusiness management professional who joinedthe Dardis Communications team after asuccessful career in the financial servicesindustry. Enjoy an opportunity to network and havebreakfast with others who also wish to gain abetter understanding of virtual communication

traits. Check-in begins at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 14 along withnetworking and breakfast.The hour-long program will start promptly at8:00 a.m. A 2-hour workshop will begin at 9:00 a.m. Early programregistration will be available through Thursday, November 7 for $20.Regular program registration is $25 from November 8 - November 13.Non-members and those who wish to register the day of the program willbe charged $35. Workshop registration is $40 for members and $50 fornon-members. Please cancel by 5:00 p.m. CST two days prior to theevent to avoid no-show billing. The event will take place on the UNO Campus at the Scott ConferenceCenter, 6450 Pine St, Omaha NE 68106

REGISTER HERE TODAY!

Government Shut-Down or Not...D.C., HERE WE COME!!!

Submitted by: Christine Hitchcock

The weather isgrowing cooler and theleaves are beginning toturn. The Huskers arein full swing andseveral ASTD Nebraskaleaders headed toWashington, D.C.!

Each fall the AnnualLeaders Conference

(ALC) is held by ASTD in Washington D.C....or more specifically, Arlington,VA. This conference is designed to provide chapter leaders with the toolsneeded to run a successful chapter throughout the year. Some of theadded bonuses of the conference include: tremendous networkingopportunities with more than 300 chapter leaders from across thecountry, many chances to share best practices, and several occasions toshowcase the good things we are doing in the ASTD Nebraska Chapter(bragging).

I am always so pleased at the respect and

sometimes even envy the Nebraska Chapter isafforded by other chapter leaders from acrossthe country. Processes, programs, policies, andoperations we take for granted are coveted byother chapters. I am excited for our leaderswho attended ALC for the first time. It's areally amazing moment when you hearsomething like this for the first time: "You arefrom Nebraska???!!! Wow! Tell me about howyour chapter [fill in the blank]! I've heard you do a great job and ourchapter needs some help."

This year, we had six of our board members attend ALC October 25-26:Chris Hitchcock, President; Shelly Whittaker, President-Elect; Pati Carr, VPof Communications and Marketing; Ralph Wojcinski, VP of Membership; Jennifer Labrie, Director of Marketing; and Jon Titus, Director ofEngagement. Two of us even presented a session on Strategic andSuccession Planning! Other sessions we were able to attend ran thegambit from engaging volunteers to running a successful non-profitorganization to leveraging social learning in your chapter.

This was my fifth yearattending, and I'm so excited! Each year I come back withmy brain bursting at theseams with ideas for ourchapter. Other chapterleaders will also be able totell you how much motivationand energy you come homewith after leaving ALC! Manyof the improvements you seein our chapter each year atleast got started with an idea

gained from a session, another chapter leader, or a simple second look atour current processes as a result of a discussion at ALC.

By now your chapter leaders have returned home from this conference. Iwould encourage you to reach out to one of the leaders to pick theirbrains on what they've learned. If you go for coffee to discuss, plan onordering a second cup...they will have TONS to tell you.

ASTD Employee Learning Week

Submitted by: Olivia Jackson

Starting December 2 through December 6, employers and employeesacross the USA will participate in the ASTD sponsored event, EmployeeLearning Week (ELW). This week is dedicated to highlighting theimportance of learning and achieving organizational results. Companiesand organizations will host events to show their employees how on-the-job learning is encouraged.

A few suggestions to kickstart ELW would be to start an employeelearning awards program, become a mentor to a colleague in or outsidethe office, or creatively remind employees about special programs such astuition reimbursement. Events can take place in the office or offsite.

All events planned will have the opportunity to be featured as "Championsof Learning." Last year hundreds of companies joined the ranks of Champions of Learning. All nominations for 2013 must be sent toeld@astd.org to receive recognition.

Get involved with your organization and take advantage of all the activitiesthat will take place during this week.

If you are part of your organization's leadership team or learning anddevelopment, don't miss out on this opportunity to show the learninginvestment your company makes for its employees!

It Happened Today! Submitted by: Stefanie Shanahan I have been attending the ASTD Nebraska monthly programs for a fewyears now. Some of them I am highly interested in, they are just-in-timepieces of information for me, and I can go back and immediately applywhat I learned. I've always felt those are the most valuable sessions forme to attend. Some programs I attend I'm not even exactly sure what thetitle of the program means, and I struggle to put my head around theconcept, let alone return to work and apply it. In those situations I findmyself asking, "Why did I take the time out of my very busy day to attendthis session?" Friday, September 27 was a day I realized why!

While working on a project that came up and is not a part of my every daywork, I realized the value of Appreciative Inquiry. During our project weconducted stakeholder interviews. We met with the people who matterand identified their pain points in a process we are looking to change. Ifelt our approach was great! We were getting the feedback from thepeople who mattered. They were providing their thoughts candidly. Wehad great input and across many channels. I was proud of the approachwe had taken and felt it would contribute to the success of our project.

The day of my epiphany we beganlooking at solutions, how we wouldchange the existing process toaddress the pain points that wereprovided to us. That is where it allfell apart...or all came together,depending on your point of view. At first attempt it felt very much like

we had a rapid fire Band-Aid approach. By that I mean we looked at thislist of pain points and began patching them and checking them off. It wasafter conducting this activity for a bit of time and feeling like we weren'treally addressing the problem that I realized...wait for it..."Wouldn't ithave been nice to collect what these people wanted this to look like thanwhat they didn't like? It would make this whole process so much easier."

I sat on this for a moment wondering, "Where have I heard this before?"And it hit me...Carol Horner...Appreciative Inquiry...ASTD Nebraska. Ofcourse, why didn't I listen? Well, I did apparently. I just didn't have a wayto apply it immediately, and I can now see the true value in time andimpact on a project of using this approach.

So if you've looked at some program titles and wondered how this willever apply to you, or left a program feeling like I cannot see the value ofthis at all, I encourage you to keep going and invite your colleagues toattend these monthly sessions. You'll know exactly where to go to getmore information when the time does hit you (like it did me) to be moresuccessful and well rounded in your role.

Fear, Courage, and ASTDSubmitted by: Ralph Wojcinski This month, I attended one of the best events in my career in training,education, and learning. I had the opportunity to join the ALC (ASTDAnnual Leaders Conference), in Crystal City, Virginia--just across thePotomac River from Washington, D.C. This annual conference provides

sessions to sharesome of the bestpractices of effectiveASTD chapters,along with keynotepresentations. Thepresenters were well

prepared, and every attendee I met came away with a wealth of ideas tohelp them and their chapter volunteers and board members improve theirmethods of serving their members' needs. One keynote speaker had Courage at Work displayed on the screen--aquote from Sara Blakely, founder of shapewear SPANX. In summary,Blakely stated that she was afraidto invest the $5,000 she had, tostart her company. Replace theword "afraid" with "courage" and itlooks like this: It took courage tostart her company with only$5,000 to invest. She was afraid tobe a guest on Oprah's show. Replace it again, and it took courage to geton stage. Amazing how replacing one word with the other changes the meaning ofthe statement. I have heard some great quotes in my life that areunforgettable; none made me stop and think as deeply about theirmeanings as this quote did. What a simple switcheroo--substitute the

word "afraid" with "courage"! Try the other variations--fear," "fright,""courageous," and more. I contemplated all of the times I could remember when I experiencedfear--the stagefright during those high school stage productions andconcerts; the first time I had to give a two-minute impromptu speechwhile learning how to teach; and those job interviews! I never associatedthe fear with the courage it took to get through those experiences.

Courage is shown when you make anydecision. You never know what thefallout will be and how other people'slives will be impacted.

I encourage everyone in our chapter tothink about offering your time as aboard member of ASTD Nebraska. Allyou have to do is apply and see what

happens. You might be selected to share your knowledge and have aninfluence on other members of our chapter.

Don't be afraid to make that decision. Show your courage to try.

Just contact anyone on our Board of Directors to find out what boardpositions are available, and how you can contribute to the successes ofthe board and to yourself. You might also one day have the opportunity toattend ALC and observe some great thinkers in action!

Chapter Scholarships Available

Submitted by: Jon Titus

The scholarship fund set up for ASTD Nebraska is a wonderful benefit ofyour membership--one that has directly impacted my professional growth.Since the awards are still relatively new to our chapter, I want toencourage you to find out more about them.

The ASTD Nebraska 2010 Board created TheJulie Durmaskin Professional EducationScholarship in honor of a fellow champion oflearning and professional development. Thepurpose of the scholarship is to encourage theprofessional development of our members. Contributions to the scholarship fund can bemade by clicking on "Donate" in the lower right-hand portion of our website's home page,www.astdnebraska.org

I applied for a scholarship to help with the costof the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) exam.The chapter already provides a great free resource to prepare you tobecome a CPLP, by the way: a lengthy prep course that has an exam passrate of 100% for three years running! Registration for this designationwas $800, however, so a bit of financial assistance made the decision totake on this difficult task so much easier. Upon passing both the exam andthe work product submission, I was awarded the funds.

Applying for the scholarship is easy. It isn't limited to taking on the CPLP, either. You can apply for funding to go toward attending an ASTDNational conference or convention, or you may request the funds to helppay for an ASTD education program. More examples appear on thescholarship page of our website, and that's also where you will go toapply: www.astdnebraska.org/ScholarshipApplication.

I'm so thankful that this resource was available to help me develop my learning and performance career this year. I know if you take advantageof the Julie Durmaskin Professional Education Scholarship to give you thatextra little push to pursue your development goals, you'll feel the sameway!

CPLP Changes at National andLocal Levels

Submitted by: Erik Dragsten

There are several upcomingchanges to the CertifiedProfessional in Learning andPerformance (CPLP)credential, both at thenational level and for theNebraska Chapter. For peopleunfamiliar with the CPLP, it isthe predominant credential forthe training and developmentprofession. Just as the

accounting profession has the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and thereal estate profession has the CRS (Certified Residential Specialist), theworkplace learning and performance (WLP) profession is able todistinguish their expert practitioners and knowledge leaders with the

CPLP.

Candidates pursuing the CPLP must pass a 150-item knowledge examcovering the areas of expertise defined by the ASTD competency modeland receive a passing score on an original work product. The workproduct is a sample of a candidate's work from one of five areas: deliverytraining, designing learning, measuring and evaluating, improving humanperformance, or managing the learning function.

Beginning with the March 15 - April 5, 2014 testing window, the content ofthe knowledge exam will reflect the new competency model. At least 15%of the test content will be different from older versions of the test. Formore information about the new competency model, please read theJanuary 2013 T+D article located at www.astd.org/model. To preparefor the new version of the knowledge exam, candidates will need to usethe new test preparation materials. These materials can be found atwww.astd.org/Home/Education/Programs/CPLP-Preparation.Existing versions of the ASTD Learning System are no longer a valid wayto prepare for the new knowledge exam.

On the local front, ASTD Nebraska is excited toannounce that Michelle Anthony will be takingover as the Director of Certification in 2014.Michelle is a Training Specialist at CentrisFederal Credit Union and recently earned herCPLP. Beginning in 2014, chapter membersinterested in pursing the CPLP should contactMichelle for more information. Be on thelookout for more information about Michelle on

the Meet the Board section of the chapter website.

Pin It, Friend It, Mark It! Submitted By: Beth Sanborn I have to admit I am a collector. I go crazy "pinning" everything in Pintrest,"friending" everyone I know on Facebook, and I can't stop "bookmarking"great resources on my computer. Just recently a friend referenced somethingthey read on the ASTD National site. Hmm, Ihave had the ASTD Nebraska sitebookmarked and I use it quite frequently, butnot the ASTD National website. I had to goand check it out for myself. I was quitesurprised to find it was full of greatresources for our chapter, my job, and evenfor projects I have on the side. I liked thelayout and the design because it is easy tonavigate and look at. Resources I found helpful included the Career Development Community

area. They had articles, podcasts, and books for me to look into toimprove my SME (subject matter expert) relationships, leadership tips,and more. I also found all the educational links, programs, andpublications to be just what I was looking for. I just can't figure outCaptivate 7! Using the ideas under Communities, publications, and CPLPtraining services, I might have to bump a couple of my other bookmarksso I can move the ASTD National website (www.astd.org) up to the top ofmy list. Happy researching.

Thank you to our November Sponsor!

New and Renewing Members

Jill Banaszak, Mutual of OmahaStephen Brennan, Peak Performance ConsultantsLiz Brumels, FirstCompD.J. DeyErmand, InfogroupJack Dillon, InfogroupVanessa Erwin, Omaha Public Power DistrictDenise Eucker, Omaha Public Power DistrictAvil Jackson, The Academic AdvantageBrenda Jennings, Motivate 2 Communicate, LLCJamie Kelly, Omaha Public Power DistrictDana Kuhl, C&A IndustriesChristopher "Alex" Latty-Bata, Bellevue UniversityLeann McGrane, MarkelJenny Murnane, The GNG GroupDealan Neff, Mutual of OmahaDevon NieblingTerry Nigh, Children's Hospital & Medical CenterRebecca Schneider, PRCKaren Wegner, MCCJennifer Wichern, Infogroup

Calendar of Events

ASTD-Lincoln: The Science and Art of a Mentoring Program Day: Tuesday, November 12, 2013Time: 11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Lunch/Keynote/WorkshopLocation: Country Inn & Suites, 5353 N 27th Street, Lincoln, NE

ASTD Nebraska November Programming Event and Workshop:Virtual Presentations Day: THURSDAY, November 14, 2013Time: 7:30 - 11:00 a.m.Location: Scott Conference Center, 6450 Pine Street, Omaha, NE 68106 ASTD Nebraska Employee Learning Week ProgramBiggest L & D ChallengesDay: Tuesday, December 3, 2013Time: 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.Location: Millard Branch Library, 13214 Westwood Lane, Omaha, NE

ASTD Nebraska Book Club Day: Wednesday, December 4, 2013Time: 4:30 - 6:00 p.m.Location: Millard Branch Library, 13214 Westwood Lane, Omaha, NE

ASTD Nebraska Employee Learning Week ProgramBiggest Professional Development OpportunitiesDay: Thursday, December 5, 2013Time: 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.Location: Millard Branch Library, 13214 Westwood Lane, Omaha, NE ASTD-Lincoln: The Art of AcknowledgementDay: Thursday, December 12, 2013Time: 11:15 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.Location: Hillcrest Country Club, 9401 O Street, Lincoln, NE

ASTD Nebraska

P.O. Box 85793

Lincoln, Nebraska 68501

(402) 850-6710

contactus@astdnebraska.org

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