Chapter Connections

I'm fond of sharing how I came to join ASTD-Orange County. That it was a chance encounter, on a commuter train, with an existing member who took the opportunity of a train stop to network. What I don't share very often is what happened next. First, I did some research, the cursory type of research that a neophyte in the career would -- I checked the website, found out how much a membership cost. Then, I asked my boss if the company would dip into their professional development budget to pay for the membership. My boss turned down my request.

From his point of view, ASTD-Orange County might be a fine group and all, but he wanted me to be sure that it wouldn't be a waste of money -- that I wouldn't be throwing more money after membership dues to reap any benefits. Two years passed before I joined the chapter. I'd gained a new boss, who had a different point of view on how the Chapter could support my development. Rather than pay for membership, she allocated departmental professional development funds to subsidize my enrollment in Total Trainer. From there, it made sense for me to be a part of a community in which I could learn and grow in ways that my new boss, supportive as she was, did not have the time or resources to do.

I share this now to add content to my questions.

1. How has your membership with ASTD-Orange County helped you in your professional development? In your career?
2. Are you now including ASTD-OC in your professional development plan? How? If you manage a team of trainers, how are you incorporating ASTD-OC into their professional development plans?

I started small, managing the Chapter newsletter. But through the years my experiences with the chapter taught me more than T&D best practices -- they taught me organizational savvy, and gave me the confidence to do what I do now for a living.

Let us know how ASTD-Orange County works for you. Or, should your point of view match that of my first boss, let us know how ASTD-Orange County doesn't work for you.

We're pleased to announce the appointment of a new leader to the Career Management Special Interest Group: Christine Kelly, Ph.D.. Christine is currently a career consultant who has been working with graduate students at UCI for the past three years. She received her Ph.D. in Communication from Purdue University in 1991. Since then she has held full and part time positions at both large and small Universities and Colleges. Christine taught public speaking and interviewing skills for 20 years, and enjoys helping others hone their presentation skills and learn to communicate more effectively. Christine shares:

"The Career Management interest group is a good match for my skills and my career goals. I have good organizational and planning skills which I have used in my current job to develop a wide range of programs for my clients. I'm also developing a plan to grow my current position into something more, which requires long term strategizing. I hope that my experiences and process will be helpful to others in the group as they plan their career paths. Finally, I want to get others involved in this group because I work best in a collaborative environment and I think I will learn a lot from the other participants."

Christine seeks to expand the scope of the Career Management Special Interest Group beyond the traditional discussion of resumes and interview skills. While there will always be a forum for those topics, other topics under consideration for future meetings are:

• Opportunities within the Training and Development Career
  We're not just trainers, we're instructional designers, human performance improvement consultant, eLearning experts, and more. We'll discuss the various specialities within the T&D field, and what one would need to do to gain experience and a foothold in the field.
• Strengths Finder
  What do you do best? How can you do this every day?
• Training Interviews
  While much focus is given to the resume and interview, we'd like to provide some best practices, and an opportunity for our members to practice giving those training presentations that have become an integral part of the second interview.
• Managing Your Career Up
  What can you do to transition to the next position up the career ladder?
• Building a Career Portfolio
  Your resume tells Best practices for creating an online portfolio that represents your work.

As you can see, we're looking at topics that not only address the start of one's T&D career, but also those things that continue to make one's career a rewarding one.

Wearing tennis shoes, khaki pants and a dark blue polo shirt with the letters VOLUNTEER across the back, I stood in the grand foyer of the convention center holding a sign with a big question mark on it. I certainly didn’t feel like I was making a fashion statement, but had high hopes for a day of interacting with training and development professionals from all over the world.

For the first ten minutes I thought I would die of boredom. But once people realized I might have answers to their questions on this first day of the ASTD International Conference & Exposition (ICE), I had a steady stream of customers. Of course, I didn’t have all the answers, but when I couldn’t answer someone’s question, I rallied all the resources I knew about and went in search of the answer. I think it comforted each person I helped to know someone was there supporting them in their quest – whatever it might be.

By the afternoon, I felt like an expert on just about anything related to ICE and the convention center --and I was having a blast! I literally spoke to people from about 15 different countries. I was not only a friendly face in a crowd, but I actually could help them get where they were going!

At the end of the day I turned in my ? sign and received a free one-day pass for ICE. Not bad for a day of serving my fellow training and development professionals!

To volunteer at the next ASTD ICE, May 22-25, 2011, and earn a free day for every day you volunteer, go to http://www.cfc-astd.org/Default.aspx?pageId=877754. As the saying goes, you’ll be able to have your cake and eat it, too!

-- Denise Lamonte