Fall 2015 CESC Meeting Notes - DRAFT
October 8-9, 2015
Bellingham Technical College – Bellingham, WA
Whatcom Community College-Bellingham, WA
Day 1: Thursday, October 8 Bellingham Technical College
[Pre-Session - New member information session was held by Past President Teresa McDermott with new
members as an orientation to CESC, counsels and commissions and their role with State Board]
Opening Remarks / Welcome from Host College
Participants were welcomed by site host Caryn Regimbal- Director of Advising and Career Services at BTC, Edie
Blakely- CESC President, and Linda Fossen-Vice President of Student Services at Bellingham Technical College
 Vice President Fossen remarked on the importance of career planning and building connections, citing
examples of relationships between employers and education proven beneficial for career responsiveness
and increased retention rates.
Executive Committee Reports
President – Edie Blakely discussed work done in an executive summer planning committee meeting to plan for
the upcoming year and create a draft of the work plan. Mention that WSSSC top goals align with career services
and guided pathways, which align with CESC work plan. Encouraged everyone to start thinking about elections
and what role to serve.
President Elect-Dani Trimble encouraged everyone to make an outreach effort as a council to other councils and
other colleges who are not represented in CESC, beginning with collaboration with WEC during joint meetings
tomorrow Oct 9.
Treasurer – Anthony Covington discussed a delay in transferring funds from TCC to RTC due to ctcLink. Currently
$2000 at TCC, $975 at RTC.
At-Large Representative-Natalie Wilkerson not present, Anthony mentioned on her behalf that there are
currently 35 colleges on the list, with 13 payments and 11 registrations currently received. Again reminder to
reach out to other colleges who are not represented and encourage them to participate in CESC.
Secretary – Dani Gray reviewed minutes from Spring 2015 meeting in Spokane. Discussion included
commendation of the applied learning panel and the appreciation of Nancy Dick’s presence. Members voted
and approved the minutes.
Past President- Teresa McDermott acknowledged outgoing executive committee members MaryBeth McCarthy
(Treasurer) and Kate Conant (Secretary), honoring each with a CESC plaque.
Council Liaison Updates
ACC Advising and Counseling Council-Caryn Regimbal
 Meeting at Clark in 2 weeks. Assessment and Smarter Balance assessments were discussed at last
meeting, along with retirement of Compass.
 Coordinating with the high schools to streamlines transitions.
MSSDC Multicultural Student Services Directors Council-Anthony Covington
 Hiring practices that better represent people of color and diversity.
 Faculty and Staff of Color conference coming up in November. Encourage your campus to attend.
ARC Admissions and Registration-no current liaison. Keep in mind when reaching out to potential new CESC
members.
CWCP College Women’s Programs Council-no current liaison
DSSC Disability Support Services Council-No current liaison.
 Universal design of documents being discussed.
FAC Financial Aid-Dani Gray for future updates
CUSP Council of Unions & Student Programs-Anthony Covington
 Leadership development presented to students as change agents on campus
WEC Workforce Education Council-Dani Trimble
 Economic demand work group-analysis of what economic data or software colleges are using
 Guided pathways training taking place this week
 Nancy Dick is very supportive of connecting WEC to student services
WSASEA Washington State Associate of Student Employment Administrators-Diana Baker
 What technology tools are used to better engage students
 What documents need to be included in students’ files, I9 training
 Fall town hall meeting coming up in a few weeks at Central
CESC Work Group Updates (Applied Learning, Technology, Student Employment, Career Services)
Applied Learning Workgroup (Michael Reese)
Workgroup sponsored an Applied Learning Regional workshop in June
 1 day best practices round table for SBCTC and 4 year colleges from around the state
 Discussion points shared: importance of assessment and data, marketing your programs, partnering
with employers, Seattle district 2 credit job shadow course for IBEST students.
Suggestion for larger discussion item for future CESC meeting: panel again, break out panning session, sharing of
best practices as potential topics
Career Services Workgroup (Tiffany Windmeyer)
Presented updates from the survey regarding Career Services departments and staffing structures.
 Group will be contacting the colleges who responded to the survey for more details.
Student Employment (Diana Baker)
Discussion of trends in student employment and critical issues.
 Increase in usage of social media with students and employers
Suggestion for larger agenda item at future meeting: presentation/demonstration on CSO by CSO rep
Technology Group (Brian Davidson and Edie Blakely)
Canvas shell hosted by SBCTC, everyone can access through own campus Canvas accounts if interested
 Thanks to Brian and Edward for creating
 Tour of the Canvas site-resources, what needs does the group have?
WSSSC Liaison – Robert Cox, Vice President, Centralia College
 Meeting next week as a Commission.
 Discussion about WEC and CESC collaboration and support from WSSSC to encourage collaboration
Moment of silence for Umpqua Community College
Followed by discussion of campus safety training-sharing of training events on different colleges
 Training can take away the fear in the actual event
Campus Tour/Break
Employer Outreach and Economic Development Panel Discussion
Connecting Students to Employers and Building Partnerships with our Programs
 Tony Kuphaldy-Bellingham Technical College Faculty
 Sandra Kent-Career Pathway Navigator with Employment Security Department
 Allison Fernandez-Skagit Valley Workforce Program Manager
Bellingham Technical College (Tony) – Key points:
 Engaging employers is all about building relationships to identify each other’s needs. Just as important to
maintain relationships as it is to build them.
 Advisory committees are a good venue to learn the needs and trends of the industry so curriculum can
adjust if needed.
 Great way to build a new relationship with an employer is to take tours of the facility, facilitate job shadows
and internships, and invite industry to advisory committees.
 Student graduates from the college programs are great links to the industry (alumni groups have potential
to bring a lot of benefit to building relationships with employers but also sharing helpful knowledge to
current and prospective students).
 Ideas to build investment from a prospective student: invite prospective students to spend a day with the
program, host career nights and exploration nights, faculty panel to answer any questions on the 1st day of
the program. “Make sure the party is as good as the invitation”
 Good soft skills are important when sending students to employment site for internships, job shadows etcespecially problem solving skills and the ability to learn.
Employment Security Department (Sandra) – Key Points:
 Fostering relationships with area Chamber of Commers and ESD, work together to integrate service delivery
to meet workforce needs
 Attending professional group meetings for specific industries is another way to build relationships and meet
industry leaders
 Discussed the Shared Work Program-where a person is ½ time employed ½ time unemployment, which
allows a person to retain a job and the employer to retain the employee until the economy recovers and the
position can be funded full time again.
 Encourage the use of data share agreements
Skagit Valley Workforce Program (Allison) – Key Points:
 Contracts with the area Chamber to manage employer relations- Chamber supplies job shadow
opportunities, informational interviews, and internships and also manages data collection and tracking of
employment outcomes.
 Working with the Chamber directly provides a different incentive to the employer than working with the
college directly, due to the already established relationships with the Chamber, and Chamber relations with
other Chambers
 Students without good soft skills can damage relationships with an employer-10 good students can attend
and 1 student can burn the work site relationship.
 Co-located staff can be a good way to connect community members to the college-embed college staff in
the WorkSource locations
SBCTC Student Services Report – Edward Esparza, Policy Associate, Student Services
 Guided Pathways Initiative-aligned academic plans with career paths. $7 million grand for 8 years from
College Spark. Kick off workshops are in January
 New Legislative Director Arlen Harris
 Importance of having complete rosters, bylaws in place, work place in place, and minutes available
 Legislative updates
 MESA updates
ctcLink Update
Dani Gray (SFCC) and MaryBeth McCarthy (TCC) shared their perspectives as sites that are First Link colleges of
the ctcLink implementation.
 Issues with data conversion and set up configuration that drastically impact business practices
 Innovation on the college campus to better serve students during transition: One Stop student services,
Administration and Faculty present during 1st week to help students find class location, flexibility with
programs to serve students
 Continuous efforts to resolve issues across the multiple pillars
Adjournment of Day 1
Day 2: Friday, October 9th Whatcom Community College
Joint meeting with WEC
 WEC Liaison Updates
 WEC Committee Reports
WIOA Panel Discussion
 Mark Mattke-Spokane Area Workforce Development Council and Community Colleges of Spokane
 Alexandre Chateaubriand-Policy Advisor, Office of the Governor
 Paul Garcia-Snohomish Workforce Development Council
SAWDC and CCS (Mark)– Key points:
 Every employer has different needs and those needs change all the time for that employer-adjust your
services and practices to respond to those changing needs. Example: Aerospace employer hires and lays
off on an ongoing basis to due to contract gain/loss. College provides training, WorkSource provides
NSCR training and training on the behavioral interview for the HR hiring manager to ensure better hires,
then retain the employee when laid off.
 WIOA call out creative ways to connect job seekers with employers (internships, apprenticeships, etc)
Better communication with all players so all parties can meet the needs of each other-business willing to
share what their needs are and Worksource/College systems listening and learning those needs
 Learn who your competitors are in the private sector and band together to provide a more affordable
and higher quality version of that service.
 The pool of available workers is much slimmer, what can we do as a system to help employers with this
labor shortage and help them be more effective in their recruitments: educate the employers about
what is coming demographically with retirement, multi-generational needs, etc. Bigger corporations are
educated and aware, the 95% of employers not being contacted by the system are not educated and
prepared.
 There has been an up-tick in wages, as the labor force gets smaller employers will have to offer more
money for the talent they need. Better defined job descriptions and identification of the skills really
needed to the job will ensure recruitment and retention of employees.
 How will we measure WIOA outcomes- use a system approach to show systemic impact. Is the same 5%
the same ones that are better connected with advisory committees, etc
 Sees a need to share a CRM system so we can all see what partners are working with other partners to
better leverage resources
 Better marketing is needed as a strategy to elevate the perception of WorkSource away from only
serving the hardest to serve.
 Better trained Centers of Excellence and WDC staff allows better connections to take place-all staff
know what the available resources are. Different lures for different fish.
Governor’s Office (Alexadre) – Key Points:
 WIOA is an opportunity to bring together an often fragmented system to make sure no employer can’t
fill their positions
 5% of employers in the state report engaging with the Workforce system. The same 55 Worksource
system knock on the same 5% of doors while the others are not being contacted at all. There will be
movement towards one point of contact for the state
 Employers are very open to more on the job training opportunities. Up to 20% of WIOA funds ca be used
for OJT, up to the local areas to decide exact amounts.
 If you invest in your employees, the will bring benefit to your business. Sees a need for better benefits to
match what is being offered by large corporations-Microsoft offers 1 year of leave, Netflix and Zillow
offer competitive benefits.
 How do we define and increase employer engagement? Metrics need to reflect the amount of varied
services we offer
Snohomish WDC (Paul) – Key Points:
 Business Services Team adjusted their service hours to be more receptive to the needs of employers
who are working 24/7-office is now open in the evenings and on Saturdays
 How to we increase that 5% of employers engaged? Word of mouth-employers who had a good
experience will share that with friends/peers in other businesses. Also in Snohomish there is 1 point of
contact for all employers-1 shared email address for better communication.
 There are 8.5 million part time workers who want to work full time, how do we contact them and recruit
them? That will help address the shortage in the labor pool.
 Sees a need to better train supervisors to ensure retention of employees-70% of people leave their jobs
due to relationships with their immediate supervisor
 Important to plan to participate when invited to the table to share to represent and provide input.
Break
CESC Debrief on joint meeting with WEC
CESC members shared experiences attending the joint morning session with WEC. Feedback:
 It was great to network with WEC members and other members of our own campus
 Great to discuss WIOA from both instruction and student services perspectives
 Discussion of how to gain better relationships with area WDC at our campus locations
Work Plans and Work Groups
 Review of the current draft work plan
o The executive committee will review WEC plan to identify crosswalk items
 Revisions will be made in Canvas and sent out by October 23
 Work Groups: Discussion of aligning the work groups with the work plan. Each group will have an Exec
liaison
o Applied Learning: Co-ops, internships, practicums, service learning
 Dani Gray liaison
o Career Services
 Anthony Covington liaison
o Student Employment
 Change the name to Employment-voted and approve by the group
 Teresa McDermott liaison
o Technology
 Edie Blakely liaison
Next Meetings
 Winter 2016: January 21 at Renton Technical College with ITV option
o Potential demonstration of CSO software
 Spring 2016: April 14-15 at Big Bend Community College
o Potential presentation by Working Families Success Network colleges
College Updates
Wrap-up / Adjourn