Volunteer of the Month

Janine has been a member of ASTD Orange County since 2008. As the 2011 Vice President of Marketing, she established a corporate sponsorship program that allowed companies who sponsor ASTD-OC events to advertise on astdoc.org and in chapter announcements. In addition, she took over leadership of the Organizational Development Special Interest Group (OD SIG). Janine continues to lead this dynamic and popular SIG by hosting consistent meetings and recruiting a variety of excellent speakers. Janine is founder and CEO of her own consulting firm, J9 Solutions, and offers her clients the benefit of more than 20 years of experience in operations, human resources, training, and organization development. Thank you, Janine, for your dedication to the chapter!

Margaret has been a member of ASTD Orange County for almost 10 years. As an instructor in our chapter’s Powerful Presentation Skills course, she shares her wealth of experience and knowledge teaching Presentation Planning and Preparation. Most recently, she helped organize and launch the Trainers’ Special Interest Group (SIG), which debuted in January of this year. At the new SIG’s first meeting, she facilitated a fun, interactive session on the uses of storytelling in training. Margaret is Director of Training and Development at Hanley Wood in Costa Mesa. Thank you, Margaret, for your continued support of chapter programs!

Since joining the chapter in 2012, Richard Daugherty has assisted with a wide range of chapter activities. He helped our Membership team with its phone outreach initiative, and helped the Programs team by leading the Structured Networking Activities at our Monthly Learning Events. Richard has been an active member of Toastmasters for over 13 years, and specializes in mentoring others. He comes to the Learning and Development after 25 years in software engineering, website development, sales, and project management. Currently, he is transitioning to a career that involves training and coaching others in public speaking. He brings to ASTD-OC strong enthusiasm and a demonstrated desire to help others grow. We are grateful for his contributions!

Jolynn Atkins, our Volunteer of the Month for November, started the year as the VP of Marketing and served until the summer, when her job at Escoe Bliss as VP of Strategic Operations & Consulting Services demanded her time. Jolynn continues to serve us in the communications area and helps get our monthly marketing messages – print and social media – out.

Jolynn has been the force behind a number of innovative marketing implementations: she implemented new table displays, to eliminate clutter on the tables and provide the info on upcoming events; she developed marketing kits for each event leader, so that all the necessary marketing materials are at each event; she coordinated the design and production of the banner; and she created a brand to our marketing materials.

Jolynn has been a strong advocate for the chapter and we thank her for her commitment and energy! Her next production is due next month and we know she’ll bring her enthusiasm, commitment to excellence, and dedication to others to her role as mom. Congratulations, Jolynn!

ASTD-OC veteran and Monthly Learning Event Manager, Claudia Thair played several key roles this year. She is the architect behind January’s membership survey, which captured members' thoughts, expectations, and learning interests for 2012. Her outgoing personality and strong networking skills helped Programs secure three Monthly Learning Event speakers, plus panelists such as Kate Perez, from Apria Health Care, and Yesmean Rihbany, from Western Digital, for our September Monthly Learning event sponsored by the Enterprise Learning Conference & Expo. Her energy and wealth of knowledge continue to generate new ideas on how Programs can increase operational efficiency and provide greater value to our members. Claudia is an Organizational Leadership and Development Consultant and Executive Coach at Top Talent Builders.