Staff Development Coordinating Committee

Members of the Committee are: Laura Power (Chair), Mary Beth Blalock, Gayle Grantham, Dale Manning, Debra Quarles, Suellen Stringer-Hye and Gail Workman.

The Acorn Award brown bag session held on March 2 was well attended. The group discussed the pros and cons of the program. A suggestion was made that staff should be reminded about the awards on a regular basis. The Committee discussed responses to the Acorn Notes program. Most of the comments were positive but there were some concerns that the number of Acorn Notes required in order to receive a porcelain acorn and thus a nomination for a Special Merit Award was too high. There was also some discussion of ways to encourage participation in the awards program.

Gail reported on Alphabet Soup, a two-day program, sponsored by Human Resources and the Opportunity Development Center. The first day included descriptions of specific laws. On the second day, a panel discussed examples of various situations and responded to questions from participants. Gail felt the program was worthwhile and agreed to identify topics that would be beneficial to staff.

The Soaring to Excellence program, "Technolust, Technostress, and Techobabble", will be presented on March 23 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the Central Library Classroom. Joint facilitators are Merry Balthrop, Deborah Bilbra, and Debra Quarles.

The Information Alliance Executive Committee is planning a meeting for May 7 at Dale Hollow State Resort Park. Agenda has not yet been set but tentative plans call for a general session in the morning with break-out sessions (Managing Electronic Journals, Electronic Reserves, Managing URL's, Virtual Reference) in the afternoon. The meeting room at Dale Hollow will accommodate approximately 45 people.

Debra continues to work on the planning Calendar of Events. Members plan to review the calendars that are now posted on the web to determine best way to "advertise" training and development activities.

Discussion will continue at the April 6 meeting. The remainder of the meetings focused on priority "courses" from the training program that we might offer in the near future. Gail talked with Linda Parish and Pat Pierce. At the present time, TOD does not have anyone certified to hold Myers-Briggs sessions. Gail did get the impression that TOD and the ODC would be willing to work with us to adapt some of the sessions for library staff.

Laura talked with James Taylor about "Dealing with Difficult People" sessions. These are usually 2 day (4-hours a day) sessions. He was willing, however, to scale down the sessions and tailor to our environment.

She also contacted Ellen Trice and Pat Harrison about a "Coping with Change" program. They did not have a formal program but did have times available for sessions. Health Plus staff are willing to hold classes on ergonomics, proper lifting techniques, and stress. Fred Pryor sessions including "Training the Trainer" and "Project Management" were mentioned. These sessions costs between $200-$250 each.

The need for a session(s) on organizing work and time was discussed. A leader for these sessions has not yet been identified. A decision was made to offer two sessions a month in addition to the technology classes. Plans are to offer "Effective Writing" (Elaine Goleski), "Difficult People (James Taylor), and "Coping with Change" (Pat Harrison) during April and May. Classes will not be offered during August.

The Committee did not meet on March 16 and 30.