Professional Development Task Force Notes
January 11, 2012
Members Present: Ahn Fielding, Connie Carlson, Geisce Ly, Teresa Daigneault, Anita Janis
Absent: Maggie Lynch
Discussion:
1. What are the work groups we will help serve and what exists already?
a. Classified – the first 15 can take classes such as Excel (Jose Ramierez will offer these).
b. Managers/supervisors – it was suggested that Datatel training for both classified and
managers would be beneficial. Managers would appreciate additional training on budgeting
and budget monitoring and management for example.
c. Administration
d. Cabinet
e. Faculty – have received the flex application from Connie. Spring applications due
Wednesday, January 19. If any funds remain after faculty review this batch of applications
and funds awarded, Connie may send out a request for additional applications. The flex
application requests activity presentations.
This year $25,000 was budgeted in the General Fund, and roughly $8,000 of that has been
spent. It is believed that some departments have development money in their department
budgets. Full-time (tenure) faculty have an award cap of $1,000. Associate faculty are
capped at $500.
It was suggested that the Business Office might be able to identify which groups have and
use professional development funds. That would assist in establishing a baseline. We know
the Financial Aid Department has funds, but they are limited to the FA staff’s use.
Connie is organizing the Spring Semester Associate Faculty professional development event
which will be held at the downtown site on January 22. Various presenters (Justine Shaw,
Kerry Mayer, Trish Blair among them) will cover a number of topics including assessment,
syllabi and student learning outcomes and a presentation by the Disabled Student Services
Program (DSPS).
2.
Scheduling of training and activities
a. It was noted that trying to provide training during convocation would not be helpful. There
is too much going on already.
b. We need to be mindful not to schedule on top of/over other calendar items.
InsideRedwoods.edu was intended to minimize such conflicts. It was suggested that we use
the master calendar that already exists in Public Folders, and that creating something else
would be confusing.
c. It was suggested that we include Geoff Cain in future discussions. His work with faculty is
important. Geoff would be able to assist with offering some activities on-line.
d. Institutional Tech (IT) could record activities and they could be made available to employees
later use.
3. Existing and on-going opportunities
a. On November 28th the Faculty Senate Update indentified faculty development as an ongoing need.
b. Keenan & Associates, our insurance provider, can provide on-line training for in-house
safety topics. Employees could be required to take the training and work at completing it at
their own pace. Involvement would be across the board. Keenan has this training available
now. Participants can sign up, complete modules and earn certificates when they
successfully complete each module. The Keenan contact is Karen Waterhouse, who can be
reached through kwaterhouse@keenan.com
Who should follow up with Keenan/Karen? Should this be referred to the District’s
Emergency Preparedness (and Safety?) Committee to raise that committee’s awareness of
the availability of such training since much of it is safety-related?
4. Current professional development application process for members in each work group
a. Faculty have access to limited flex funds.
b. Sabbatical funding goes beyond the scope of this committee.
5. Needs Assessment
a. Identify needs – Connie has the flex forms that faculty have turned in and can look at them
for broad indicators of needs as well as specifics.
b. Survey Monkey can be used to enable employees to identify what they want and need.
Teresa Daigneault will check with Zach Deloach in Institutional Research (IR) to obtain
questions.
c. Remaining questions: who will develop the survey, conduct it, compile the results and
analyze them? What is the timeline to conduct the surveys? None was identified as yet.
6.
Other
a. Geisce Ly has additional information about the Leadership 2011 program.
b. Anita Janis will contact Colorado Mountain College to see if we can get information about
their in-house cohort leadership and promotion professional development leadership
program.
c. Ahn Fielding would not recommend Cascadia.