Roping in the Seniors

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• Roping in the Seniors

Keeping Senior Practitioners Engaged
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In this session

• Identify the pros and cons of Cascadias approach
  to engaging seniors
• Explore ways to adapt this approach to your own
  environment
• Review sample materials and resources for
• assessing and meeting senior practitioners
  needs.

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About us . . . . .

• ASTD Cascadia Chapter
• Me
• You

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About us . . . . .

• ASTD Cascadia Chapter

• Chapter of Merriment!
• Oregon SW Washington
• Started in 1947
• 360 Members Active!
• Demographics

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About us . . . . .

• ASTD Cascadia Chapter

• Chapter of Merriment!
• Oregon SW Washington
• Started in 1947
• 360 Members Active!
• Demographics

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About us . . . . .

• ASTD Cascadia Chapter

• Chapter of Merriment!
• Oregon SW Washington
• Started in 1947
• 360 Members Active!
• Demographics

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About us . . . . .

• ASTD Cascadia Chapter
• Me
• You

• Chapter of Merriment!
• Oregon SW Washington
• Started in 1947
• 300 Members Active!
• Demographics

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The Need for a Senior Initiative

• 2001 Snapshot of our chapter
• 3-4 active SIGs
• Monthly programs Adventures in Learning
• Steady membership high board turnover
• Member statistics
• Survey input
• Focused vision on 3 strategic goals
• Learning
• Networking
• Serving
• Overall value for the chapter

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WHY are Seniors Not Engaged?
Focus Group Feedback

• Networking not always peer to peer
• No time (Less time More responsibility)
• Programs targeted at newbies (or that is their
  perception)
• The value of attending an ASTD function must be
  higher than staying at work getting job goals
  accomplished.

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So how can we GET and KEEP Senior Practitioners
from our community ENGAGED with our Chapter?
Your Turn
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Ideas generated from Focus Group

• Mentoring
• Vendor Shows
• Member Experience sharing of Vendors
• More Interaction among peers
• Informational Interviews as a service or
  orientation
• Certification for areas of expertise
• Tours of other training departments businesses
• Event for non-training executives to clarify
  training vision
• Trigger National ASTD to assist
• Structured Network tours of actual subject
  being implemented
• Draw on expertise of SIGS to provide electronic
  models
• JIT model to better serve training
  managers/directors
• Provide listing of key subject areas with a
  member who is experienced (and willing) for
  informational interviews, etc.

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Initial Cascadia Approach Taken

• Senior Initiative Team formed
• Leader members w/in target market
• Strong board support
• Implement a Pilot Senior Event
• Contact focus group for pilot volunteer
• Market to Senior Cascadia chapter National
  members
• Target audience size of 20-30 peers
• Structure ?Tour? Roundtable discussion around
  a particular hot topic? Networking
• Success Full house High interaction Positive
  Feedback Volunteer for next event

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The Pilot ? What Happened

• Program sold out in 2 weeks
• Excellent feedback
• Attracted many first time to a Cascadia event
  attendees
• Received offers for volunteers (unsolicited)
• Offers for volunteers to hold next event
• General thumbs up validation that we were on
  the right path

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Issues We Considered When Moving Forward

• Clear definition of target audience
• Need for targeted mailing list
• Elitism

• Type of Events
• Corp vs. Vendor
• Audience Size time - Pricing
• Is it a SIG?
• Narrowing the scope

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The Way Forward Marketing

• Define target audience

Internal External

• Targeted mailing list
• Top 100 team/board input
• e-mail only Customized format
• Protective of list (do not overuse)

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The Way Forward Professional
Development

• 5 Part Series Advance Series
• Integrating Training into the Business
• Leadership Development Beyond Skills Training
• Achieving Whole Systems Change Mike Mitchell
• Resiliency and the Learning Organization
• Putting Plans into Action Project Management
• Additional Detail. . .
• Series attendees can earn college credit
• Every Wednesday evening for 5 weeks 3 hours
• Facilitated by local experts / peers
• High degree of interaction
• Target class size of 20-30

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The Way Forward Events

• 2-3 Case Studies per year (Individual or Panel)
• Talent Management
• e-learning strategy
• Internal OD project (lessons learned)
• e-learning on a shoestring
• LMS (panel w/3 corporations sharing experience)
• Executive Coaching
• Focus on high interaction
• Focus on sharing experiences -- GOOD and BAD
• Annual Regional Conference Specific Senior
  Track
• Community service initiatives for seniors

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Success so far. . .

• Great feedback from attendees

The ASTD Advanced Training Series provided me
access to people, information, training and tools
that were timely and pertinent to the challenges
I face in aligning training and development with
the mission, values and business results of my
organization. As a single parent in a demanding
organizational role my evening time is
precious. The Advanced Training Series was worth
every minute of my time. The subjects - coaching
and counseling, consulting, OD interventions and
Learning Organizations-matched perfectly my own
stage of development as an internal
consultant. The top notch presentations
and the dialogue among participants met my needs
for professional growth and personal support
. Roberta Mansfield Regional Training Director,
Providence Health System
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Success so far. . .

• Great feedback from attendees

My ASTD colleagues challenge me to think outside
the box and take our employee development
programs to the next level. Julie
Bulrice Training Director Nike Global Footwear
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The Future

• Team is being revamped
• Continue to develop shopping list of topics
• 2nd roll out of Advanced Series planned
• Continue 2-4 case studies per year
• Involve Seniors in Mentoring other members?
• Action Learning teams --- peer to peer action on
  real problems / initiatives?
• Whos Who Directory?
• Benchmarking?
• More coordination w/National ASTD?

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Success so far. . .

• Profit Center for chapter

• Few new members. . . But more senior attendees
  at all events
• Getting the content / peer-to-peer
  interaction right!
• We now consider the specific needs of this
  market in everything we do.
• -Regional Conference Senior Track
• -Evaluations Break out senior feedback

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What are you going to do?
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Issue to consider when implementing a Senior
Initiative for your chapter

• Do you have the data on who the Senior
  practitioners in your area are?
• What content works with seniors? What does not?
• Can you form a team of seniors to lead the
  charge?
• How can you best leverage the link with ASTD
  National?

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Contact me for more info!

• Sheryl AlstrinCascadia Chapter VP
  Eventssalstrin_at_verizon.net503-639-6446