ASTD VOS - President's Blog

The Voices of our Members

This is feedback from our most recent April meeting.  It's quite humbling and exciting to hear such great support from our membership!

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"I invite anyone who has not been to a Valley of the Sun Chapter ASTD event in some time to look again.  This is not the ASTD you think you know."
-- Michael Young, HR Training Manager,
1st National Bank of Arizona

“Thank you for the opportunity to speak to your ASTD Chapter - everyone I spoke to had glowing things to say about […] the chapter. I definitely would be interested in speaking @ your fall conference. […] Thank you again for the opportunity - I had a BLAST!”
-- Meagan Johnson, April Meeting Speaker
http://www.meaganjohnson.com/

“Excellent choice in having lunch meeting...best food I've had for an ASTD meeting.  Speaker was very enthusiastic.”
-- Michelle Zellmer

“It was my great pleasure to join ASTD-VOS and to attend my first meeting.  Meagan was fantastic and I heard from other attendees that all your speakers are great. Looking forward to joining you for many more.”
-- Wilhelmina C. Savenye, Ph.D. , Associate Professor and Admissions Chair, ASU

“Megan Johnson was the best speaker presentation I've attended since joining the VOS-ASTD group in October 2006. As a member coming from Orange County, CA, it has been a welcome boost to know that I can continue my association with ASTD now that I am residing in Phoenix. Thank you for your extraordinary efforts on behalf of our Valley of the Sun members.  It is truly making a positive difference.”
-- Shelly Yocum, Training Specialist Human Resources, ASU Foundation

“As a long time member (since 1991) and someone who has not been at a meeting for a long time, it seems like you're doing all the right things to rebuild the chapter and get people involved.  As a 9 year member of the program committee and a former board member, I can attest to the many benefits of being involved in the chapter. I don't do training as a primary job duty any more, but have not been able to give up my ASTD membership because I love the organization and still use training and OD messages in my work with other managers. Some of your upcoming programs are likely to bring me back, so 2007 Program list is a great marketing tool! Take care and keep up the great work! “
-- Alice Bimrose, City of Phoenix Aviation Department

2007 Annual Membership Report published!

As President of the chapter, it is our responsibility to provide an annual report for members.  This annual report typically includes three important items:

1. Introduction of the new Board of Directors.
2. Review of last year's goals and how we executed to those goals.
3. Outline of the current year's goals.

This year we included our three-year goals as a chapter so you can see where we are going.  Our primary driver this year was to increase the number of value added opportunities we provide for you to network, learn and share your wisdom as a professional in your field. 

2007 Annual Membership Report (PDF)

We hope this plan makes it clear where we are going and most importantly, what opportunities you have to participate in making it happen. Please download and read the report.  In invited you to respond to this report by commenting directly to this posting using the "Comment" link below.

Yours, Michael T. Abrams
President, ASTD VOS Chapter

New Meeting Photos Published

We've just finished posting two new sets of photographs.  One set is a photo of your ASTD VOS Board during their Annual Planning Meeting.  Check it out and see who you recognize ASTD Board January Meeting Photo .The other set is from our January meeting, which was outside under a tent! BBBRrrrrrrr. We had to pull out the heaters for that one.  Take a peek at these photos too January Monthly Member Meeting .

How to Post a Comment

One of our members asked "how do we post a comment" to the blog.  Glad you asked.  Here are some brief instructions for Blog newbies to post a comment. 

Under the Blog entry you are reading, find the word "Comment."

• Click on “Comment”
• On the new page, scroll down to “Post a Comment” form
• Complete this form with your remarks
• Click "Preview" button if you want to see it first.
• Click "Post" button when you are ready to submit your comment.

To return the the blog home page, just click on the header "ASTD VOS-President's Blog."  For more help, just shoot me an email at mike.abrams@tbdconsulting.com .

March Meeting Memories

Special thanks again to Karroll K. Alexander for presenting at our March meeting.  Each month we have continued to grow in participants and this month is no different.  We ended up with 61 registered participants for the meeting.  Great!  That's 10 more than last month.  For those of you who could not make it to the meeting, check out the photos in our "Even Photos" section in the left hand column.  You can also just click here...

• March Meeting Event Photos

Moving into the 21st Century

Welcome to the President's Blog first posting.  One of the primary concerns as a board member of the ASTD Valley of the Sun Chapter is ensuring we are providing the right services to you at the best level of quality we can.  Once we've done that, the second concern is always how to communicate with you that we've done it. 

Why Blogging, Why Now?
Blogging has become a great way to communicate ideas in an adhoc fashion...when the moment strikes, you can quickly get your ideas out and published to the web.  This vehicle also enables you to be part of the conversation in posting responses to our posts.  Lastly, this is also a great way to develop a community of people and ideas...and that's a great thing. 

Why Should We Come Back?
As president of the chapter this year, I want to keep you in touch with what we are doing and give you a voice to share your thoughts and feedback on how we are doing.  This blog is really all about you.  I'll share information here on a quicker basis than on our traditional website http://www.astd-vos.org .

How Often Will You Post?
My goal is to post at least once a week, but if something very cool is going on I'll share it sooner.

What Do You Need From Us?
Glad you asked!  :)  I need you to come back, participate and share this blog with an interested friend.  The people and viewpoints we have the greater this blog will be.  If this works out well, we'll introduce other blogs on different topics. 

Thanks for checking in.  Looking forward to meeting you all at an upcoming meeting.

-- Mike Abrams