Tag Archives: budgeting

Professional Development in a Technological Age

Has your training budget been red-lined? Most companies, schools and non-profits are looking at their training and travel budgets and wonder what happened.

E-Learning and software available today makes it possible to deliver on-site employee training programs more cost-effective than face2face training. Company of Experts.net has the expertise to deliver, great software and outstanding content to engage employees at a time that works for employees and for organizations.

Whether you have cut back or cut out your professional development programs – you may be left wondering how do I effectively manage now?   Lack of quality professional development training can be a serious and expensive problem. One direct and immediate impact may be the high cost of turnover and the cost of recruiting and retraining new employees now replaces the fund used to train and maintain your current talent.

With curriculum designed for adult learners delivered on-line in real-time or at the employees and the organizations schedule with outstanding facilitators, the learning is timely, effective and cost-efficient.  In this new era we are all required to do more and to be more independent, communicate with people in other parts of the globe and be part of the “team”. Our programs include time management, communication, customer service, motivating employees, appreciating culture.

Can soft skills really save money?  How much time do you spend with the same employees going over the same or similar issues. Perhaps these employees are great “technically” but are their interpersonal relationships slowing down productivity? Smart companies are taking advantage of the new professional development opportunities appealing to their employees desire to increase their knowledge, skills and ability to improve their working relationships.

Company of Experts has a solid set of workshops and webinars online and we can customize your professional development program for you.

New Department Chair – You’ve Got the Stuff!

A quick Google search and I found many hits for department chair. Most of these “hits” were job descriptions from a number of colleges and universities. Most start job descriptions include the statement. “The position of Chair is important and one of the most difficult in any college environment.” If you are a Department Chair this is no surprise.

Some chairs are elected and others appointed and the job comes with built in term limits. What is certain is that many are unprepared for the move from greatest educator in the classroom to the new role of go between.

Reading some of the job descriptions is like reading the script for a CBS show titled CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.  Only a forensic sleuth could wind their way through these job descriptions and know how it happened and who did it before big reveal.

The Chair position is one of great importance and sounds impressive to the lay person. To the Chair, it is a personal journey of participation and excitement as well as the opportunity to develop leadership skills. Neither faculty nor management, the department chairs that I have known usually share the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Our new Show DCI: Department Chair Institute

Solving the impossible

Scene of the Crime

Our gullible and innocent faculty member is either selected or elected to the position of Department Chair. The DC is an honor as the faculty member is recognized and respected by their peers and the college leadership.  This is a spring rite of passage for the new chair. They are welcomed into the new position. Their friends and family are so excited that they have been recognized for their hard work. It is a glorious time of excitement for the New Year. As graduation fades and the faculty begin their summer journey, the new chair realizes that summer for them is no longer a time of renewal, of travel, no opportunity to learn, to research or to write. This is the time for scheduling classes, hiring faculty, and there is usually a budget to begin to understand and maybe, just maybe program review or accreditation responsibilities.

The Investigation Begins

From an actual job description found on the web “The Dean ….will listen sympathetically to suggestions about such [training] opportunities. This is a major shift in the drama. The new chair isn’t automatically provided training to do their job? How, What and Who?

From the start, this DC will identify the evidence at the scene of the crime (no budget), hit the high tech lab (also known as business services) and apply the most scientific techniques used today by DC’s to crack this case also known as building a team.  This is definitely for someone who likes to learn on the job.

  • Communication
  • Motivation
  • Hiring Faculty
  • Managing Time

The Finale

I will admit that I have never been a chair but I have worked with Department Chairs for nearly 30 years. My knowledge comes from these department chairs as well as those who have attended the Department Chair Institute. All good employees who wanted to do a service for the college.

Chuck McIntyre

Chuck McIntyreChuck McIntyre of northern California, has consulted and worked in higher education planning, research, evaluation, finance and management since 1971. Until 1999, he worked as Director of Research and Analysis in a state office of higher education and has consulted with colleges across the U.S., in the United Kingdom and Canada since the early 1999s. His recent engagements have been in the areas of strategic and facilities planning, emphasizing enrollment forecasting, planning, and management – using computer simulation models, recently-released 2000 Census data, and other sources and tools.

ENROLLMENT FORECASTING, SIMULATION, AND MANAGEMENT

Since the early 1990s, Chuck’s work has emphasized enrollment planning and management. In 1993, he developed an econometric model that is currently used in long-range enrollment forecasting for the capital planning at local districts in a state system. He conducted a study for the Maricopa Community Colleges in 1995 on the enrollment-impact of tuition and fees; results have been used by the district for long-range policymaking. Chuck then worked, in 1996, with Lincoln University on a computer model to simulate a variety of enrollment management initiatives in marketing, admissions, registration, and student retention, all designed to tie into budgeting models. Chuck also completed a 1997 study of Pima Community College’s past and future enrollment patterns for its use in planning.

In Spring 1997, he was published in Jossey-Bass’ New Directions for Institutional Research, and has spoken on enrollment management at national conferences like the American Association for Community Colleges (SCUP), Association for Institutional Research (AIR), Society for Needs assessmentCollege and University Planning (SCUP), and the Consortium for Community College Development (CCCD).

In Fall 1998, Chuck spoke at the European AIR in Spain about use of computer models to forecast enrollments and plan budgets. Also in 1998, he conducted an enrollment simulation and planning (ESP) study at Lansing Community College and, in 1999, he conducted ESP studies at Portland, Mt. Hood and Lane Community Colleges in Oregon and for the State Office of Michigan Community Colleges.

In Fall 1999, AACC published Chuck’s book on Enrollment Simulation and Planning. Since then, Chuck has worked on ESP projects at colleges in Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, California, Washington, and Texas.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Recent engagements by Chuck with Palm Desert and San Mateo (California) and Austin (Texas) Community Colleges have involved a form of strategic planning – learning-centered strategic planning – that emphasizes efforts by these institutions to concentrate in a variety of ways on student learning. Chuck spoke about this technique at a SCUP regional conference in 2002.

Chuck’s work in college planning and evaluation spans nearly three decades, beginning in 1974 with an Exxon Education Foundation grant for research on the book Planning Colleges for the Community, published by Jossey-Bass. In 1978, he directed work, supported by a Vocational Education Act grant, on assessments of community educational needs; and in 1981, he was awarded a four-year Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant to develop new ways to tie college planning and evaluation to accreditation.

Since then, Chuck helped develop several long-range plans for a state Board of Governors, has written a number of articles and monographs on college planning, and has directed numerous workshops and symposia on the topic using techniques such as Charrette, Delphi, Nominal Group Technique, and Total Quality Improvement. He has spoken frequently on planning at national and regional conferences like AACC, SCUP, AIR, Pacific Northwest Association for Institutional Research and Planning, Western and Southwestern Regional SCUP, Southeastern Association for Community College Research, California Community College Board of Governors, California AIR, Community College League of California, California Community College Trustees, and California Research and Planning Group, and at many local colleges.

As Director of Research and Analysis, he was responsible for numerous state-level planning and evaluation projects, including environmental scanning and futures research projects, one of which was honored in 1996 with a Research White Paper grant from AACC and the Sloan Foundation, and published in Core Issues in Community Colleges (AACC, 1997).

FACILITIES PLANNING

During 2000, 2001 and 2002, Chuck conducted projects in long-range facilities planning for Mt. San Antonio (CA), Mt. Hood (OR), and Austin (TX) in preparation for capital financing bond elections. These projects involved computer modeling of facility needs, formulation of new space and utilization standards, and new kinds of classroom configurations. He currently is involved in a similar project for College of the Desert (CA) and has an article on the topic forthcoming in the Spring 2003 issue of the Journal of Applied Research in the Community College.

Earlier, in 1990-91, Chuck designed and implemented a computer model to project 15-year facility needs for a state system of community colleges; the resulting Board of Governors’ Long-Range Capital Outlay Plan was used to plan and allocate capital outlays for nearly ten years.

POLICY RESEARCH

Over two decades, Chuck conducted and directed numerous policy research projects for a state office about community college transfer, tuition, fees and financial aid, student services and other topics. His article on transfer performance was published in Research in Higher Education in 1989. Other work includes policy research on such topics as the impact of fees on enrollment (1993), growth funding formulas (1996), and welfare reform (1997), among others. Also in 1997, Chuck completed four technical papers for the 2005 Task Force, a long-range planning effort about future college needs and funding, sponsored by a state Board of Governors and Chancellor. Chuck served on the Research Commission of the AACC between 1997 and 2000.

COMPUTER MODELING

For the past decade, Chuck also has engaged in many computer modeling projects, designing, developing and implementing planning and decision-support tools for colleges and universities. In 1989, he developed a computer model to forecast college faculty replacement, which was used in human resource planning and presented that year at SCUP. Between 1990 and 1995, Chuck directed a consortium of three dozen community colleges in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Canada in developing computer-aided planning (CAP) models. This work-involving model design, development, quarterly workshops with participants, and testing–was to produce robust and systematic computer simulation models to help colleges plan and make policy decisions.

During the CAP project, Chuck held a 1993 planning symposium for staff from community colleges throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Among colleges participating in the CAP project were Bilston in Birmingham (England), Lethbridge in Alberta (Canada), Kapiolani (Honolulu), and three-dozen other colleges from the mainland U.S.

OTHER EXPERIENCE AND ACADEMIC TRAINING

Earlier in his career, as Director of Analytical Studies with a state office of higher education, Chuck directed the design of the office’s first computer-based management information system and was responsible for the design and implementation of two financing systems by which the state office allocated funds to local districts. Chuck also has worked on projects assessing the economic impact of colleges, and in 2001 he helped AACC evaluate a new cost-benefit model for this purpose.

Chuck’s academic training is in economics: PhD from University of California, MA from California State University; and in anthropology: BA from University of Colorado. He has taught undergraduate microeconomics and graduate higher education finance at the California State University. Prior to working in higher education, Chuck played professional baseball for the Milwaukee Braves organization.

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Specialties:

  • Academic Master Planning
  • Budgeting
  • Decision Making
  • Distance Learning
  • Enrollment Analysis and forecasting
  • Enrollment management
  • Environmental Scanning
  • Emotional Intelligence across the curriculum
  • Evaluation
  • Institutional Research
  • Learning Paradigm
  • Management Information Systems (MIS)
  • Self-esteem building
  • Planning
  • Policy Research
  • Program Review
  • Self Studies and accreditation
  • Strategic Planning
  • Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and Assessments
  • Trustee/CEO relationships
  • Visioning and Futuring