Career Pathways - Steering Committee - Minutes

Date: July 25, 2006, 10:00 am -11:15 am
Location:Cornhusker Hotel - Lincoln

Attending: Dennis Ellis, Dept of HHS, Mary Hawkins, Bellevue University,
Marshall Hill, CCPE, Richard Katt, Department of Education CHAIR,
Jean Petsch, AGC, Nebraska Building Chapter, Bill Hitesman, Central Community College, Jim Linderholm, HWS Consulting Group, Joan Modrell, Department of Labor, Greg Smith, Central Community College Mary Katos, ADC, Gregg Chrsitensen, Department of Education,Tony Glenn, Department of Education, Bonnie Sibert, Department of Education Dean Folkers, Department of Education, Seth Derner, FutureForce

1. Executive Board Update (Katt) – Rich shared that the Executive Board is developing an Operating Policies and Procedures document to guide FutureForce. The document is still in the editing process. Members agreed that FutureForce should become established as a legal entity at some point but that the status of the organization should be dictated by what is in the best interest in accomplishing the long term goals of the group.

2. New Coordinator Update (Katt) – Rich introduced Seth Derner as the recently hired, full-time coordinator for FutureForce. Seth was hired through a grant received for the State Scholars Initiative. Seth’s position is being hosted by the Coordinating Commission for Post-secondary Education. Seth taught agricultural education in Elgin, NE, for four years before going to work for the National FFA organization in Indianapolis, IN, for the past four years. He has been involved in a number of national
grant activities that involve curriculum development and teacher training. He will work from is home office most of the time. His phone is 402-261-5956. His email will be seth.derner@ccpe.ne.gov. A fulltime assistant has been hired and will start next week. She will have an office at CCPE and will support State Scholars and FutureForce activities.

3. Marketing Update (Hawkins) – Mary shared the newly produced table top displays now available. Three sets have been produced. Members are encouraged to request the use of a display when hosting a FutureForce meeting or giving a presentation on FutureForce. The website is still running well; Patrick is in the process of revising and fixing some of the content elements. A newly developed video presentation was demonstrated. It highlights the accomplishments of FutureForce and provides a general overview of the group. Patrick developed this presentation. This and other ‘canned’ presentations will be made available on CD for FutureForce Steering Committee members to use in presentations.

Mary asked if there were any objections to her plan to move forward with drafting a Marketing Plan and Budget to increase the awareness of FutureForce. She will bring this plan to a later meeting for feedback
and input from group members. The group agreed this was an effective solution.

4. Pathway Updates –

a) Biotechnology: Rich shared that the biotechnology pathway was initiated meetings and would soon start organizing a committee to work on pathway development. Dr. Don Lee from UN-L’s agronomy department, Craig Frederick from the Dept. of Ed and Julie Karavas of BioNebraska would be instrumental in leading that effort.

b) Finance: Bonnie Sibert shared how a state committee would begin working on pathway development using models developed by national business education efforts. This pathway will include insurance, accounting, banking services, corporate finance, and securities & investments.
The group hopes to have the pathway developed by the summer of 2007.

c) Construction: Jean Petsch reported that action was happening with this committee. They have been focusing on career awareness using events where students and parents can learn about construction career opportunities.

d) Manufacturing: Tony Glenn reported that the initial results from the five pilot schools involved in the manufacturing pathway look very promising. The pathway is part of the “Dream It, Do It!” campaign.

e) Transportation, Logistics, Warehouse Distribution: This committee met in North Platte and included a tour of the Wal-Mart distribution center. The group is planning to develop a speakers list and a logo to be included for use.

5. Update on LB690 and Perkins Federal Legislation (Katt) – Rich shared that federal legislation had passed both house and senate that would reauthorize Perkins (vocational education) for another 6 years. This legislation will likely mean few changes in programs and procedures from current operations. Rich also shared that Rule 46 had been passed by the State board of Education which creates the parameters for the $450,000 school grant system. These grants are to be used by local schools to redesign career education curricula with an emphasis on linkages to post-secondary programs. These grants will become available in the Fall of 2006.

6. Presentation of NebraskaCareerConnections.org (Folkers) – Dean shared the background and functionality of an on-line career development system that was test piloted during 2005-2006. The system will pull together resources from multiple state agencies in a way to make it easy to use and
access for Nebraska schools, students and citizens. The system uses the common framework and language of career education. The system could replace NCIS as a resource tool for schools. It will be revised and a new version released this fall. Members were very interested and impressed with the system.

It was brought up that it might make sense for NebraskaCareerConnections.org to become part of FutureForce in the future to prevent the system from being perceived as a Department of Education project. No action was taken at this time.

7. Other Items:

a) Greg Smith announced that the community colleges in the state were seeking a grant to support efforts in renewable fuels (wind and biofuels). He believes this will continue to be a high growth area for the state.

Action Item: Greg sought mutual consent to include support from FutureForce in the grant proposal. There were no objections.

Action Item: Greg moved to support the concept of a renewable fuels pathway project. There was agreement that it would be useful to consider the pathway and agreed, in principle, to the suggestion.

Other Business: The steering committee moved into the 3rd Annual Project Update Meeting luncheon in a meeting room next door where Lt. Governor Rick Sheehy spoke, leaders in each of the pathways were recognized, and new initiatives were shared with the group of nearly 50 leaders in business and government. Next Meeting Date: To be determined.