Dear Conference/Meeting Planners and Directors of Centers
and Faculty Development:
Have you picked your speakers for your fall 2011–2015 events
or next decade yet? No? Then you need to get on the stick.
Have I got a speaker
for you! I just saw him in Calgary and San Diego and he will blow your beach
chair right out from under you.
With all of the financial cutbacks, you may be crunched for
funds to import super-star speakers, but you can consider those lower on the
food chain or not even on the food chain, but dangling on a hook like bait.
For example, I know this speaker personally (he sends me
birthday e-mails) who will work with you to cut expenses, plus he will pay your
mother’s social security in August if the President doesn’t.
This means he will
1. sleep in your garage (with a bucket of ice if you don’t have ac) instead of
a hotel, but not before washing your vehicle,
2. fly WITH Southwest’s free baggage,
3. hitch a ride from the airport to your garage,
4. walk to his home airport (25 mi) to save mileage and parking fees,
5. deliver his handout to faculty door-to-door,
6. eat just navel oranges & Fig Newtons,
7. drink tap water only, and
8. not tip anyone.
Those sacrifices can make a major dent in the expenses. He
will also slash honoraria under 5 digits to fit your budget. Should I
continue? Is this a dream come true?
Anyway, he speaks on 17 topics on humor and multimedia, Net
Generation, multigenerational classroom/workplace, stress reduction, student
assessment, faculty evaluation, and PowerPoint. Abstracts are available on his
Website (www.ronberk.com). His most
popular topics appear on his LinkedIn profile (www.linkedin.com/in/ronberk) and
2011 brochure.
Testimonials by buckets of clients, some of whom may be your
peers, and a few extraterrestrials are listed on the brochure and posted on
those sites FYI.
If you would like further information, please contact the
speaker, who is currently preparing his PowerPoint in a garage in Biloxi, which
is in Wyoming, while sucking key limes.
Have a wonderful decade and go pick up your beach chair!
An anonymous blogger
COPYRIGHT © 2011 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
A “legitimate” request was recently posted on the POD Listserv for faculty developers by Mackenzi Huyser, Dean for Faculty Development and Academic Programs, at Trinity Christian College. She asked for an appropriate, snazzy name for “Fall Faculty Orientation,” which will attract faculty. She received several excellent suggestions by Lynn Sorenson and others.
Unfortunately, that request triggered my twisted mind to think of some evil names that should NEVER be considered by an institution of higher education or any institution for that matter. As always, I am ashamed of myself for creating these names and, in no way, should this list be misconstrued to disrespect Dr. Huyser, her request, her institution, her colleagues, her relatives, her heirs, or Christianity.
Please enjoy this baker’s dozen list in the spirit in which it is intended.
(NOTE: This is for your entertainment only; any other use, without the expressed written and notarized permission of the blog author, is strictly prohibited by his mother, his heirs, yada, yada.)
TOP 13
13. Boot Camp for Newbies
12. Fall Face-Lift for Faculty
11. Faculty Survivor: Trinity-Style
10. The Apprentice Teacher at Trinity
9. Basic Training for Faculty
8. Fall Faculty Indoctrination
7. Mirandizing Faculty on Trinity Christian College
6.Your Worst Faculty Nightmare Has Come True
5. What’s NOT in Your Contract
4. The Temptations of Faculty
3. Sins that Will Get You Whacked
2. Guess What? This Is Not Glee!
AND THE NUMBER 1 REJECTED NAME FOR ‘FALL ORIENTATION’:
1. EXTREME Fall Faculty Makeover
I really hope Mackenzi gets a great title for her faculty event. Again, please accept my apology for the above list. I couldn’t resist. Now I can take my meds.
COPYRIGHT © 2011 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS?
Social networks are not just the rage, they have revolutionized the way we communicate. There is even a movie about Facebook, but I forgot the same. The networks are free and open to every age, from diapers to diapers.
So what’s the problem? The networks have different purposes and require time to contribute. If you don’t contribute, they don’t serve their purposes and benefit you. And TIME is a major issue with all of us.
This blog series is about one specific network, designed for “professionals”: LinkedIn.
TRADITIONAL NETWORKING RESOURCES
Consider our traditional networking resources:
1. stone tablets
2. business cards, held together with a rubber band or paper clip
3. napkins with smeared ink name and phone no. (WAIT! That was for dates.)
4. Rolodex® cards
5. printed directories from institutions, associations, and conferences
6. mobile phone directory
7. PDA directory
8. other “on the fly” techniques you have used
Over the past decade, our institutional Website posts our profile with publications in some set format, which complements 1–8.
WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE?
Now there’s another option to 1–8: your iPhone® or Black’n Blueberry®. Well, your phone is an option since it can contact anyone and connect with just about every piece of electronic equipment, but that’s not what I meant to type.
What I meant was: LinkedIn. It’s kinda the professional counterpart to Facebook or Twitter. Instead of tweeting or facing, you are linking. Is it a gimmick or a waste of your valuable time?
ARE YOU ON LINKEDIN?
Academicians, in particular, seem to be unaware of LinkedIn and those who are on the network rarely use it to its full potential. “Why?” you’re thinking, or maybe not.
Administrators and faculty are overwhelmed with a bazillion tasks that usually do not require a vast network of colleagues and the need to build a network, advertise a business, and/or hunt for a job. According to my latest calculations, there are about 4 administrators and 3 faculty who use these services on LinkedIn.
Academicians teach, write grants, conduct research, advise students, mentor faculty and students, grade, administer departments, plan faculty development events, write journal articles and books, present at conferences, consult, attend a quadrillion meetings, plus other activities I missed. So why aren’t you on LinkedIn? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?
So, let’s consider 10 reasons why you should NOT join LinkedIn in my next blog.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WARNING: Yo, 3D-IMAX fans!! If you were expecting a deep body massage, aromatherapy candles, or Betty White cracking wise in this blog, fawgetabbouttit. None of these will happen in this blog series on weeds. I’m withholding those treats for special-occasion blogs, such as those on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Passover. Stay tuned.
The strategies for heart weeds will be covered below:
2. HEART: (NOTE: This paragraph is not for the faint of "you know what." Buck up.) Soften your heart. Rid yourself of those nasty weeds that have grown in your heart over time. Let go of those weeds. Change your attitudes, words, and actions to foster positive relationships in your work environment. Repair any damaged relationships with colleagues and students. Demonstrate care and compassion for the people with whom you interact. Reach out to them.
Direct some of your energy toward growth in your teaching and research. You should be learning nonstop. Attend faculty development events and conferences, especially if I come to your campus. Haha. They’re for your benefit.
That growth will revitalize you and pump adrenaline into everything you do. It’s like gulping down one of those turbo-charged, high-energy sports drinks. That'll get your heart a thumping! Those drinks will definitely kill weeds and even small critters. (NOTE: It is not the official policy of this blog to endorse any product or controlled substance. I’m just really into figurative language.)
My next blog will tackle one the most difficult categories of weeds: poison ivy. WROOONG! It’s: Relationships! To prepare, I’m going to practice on my lawn right now. See ya tomorrow.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
As a follow-up to yesterday’s list of faculty comments on their resistance to attend teaching events with or without speakers on teaching methods, this blog will proffer some practical, “successful” ideas to increase attendance. They are derived from the experiences of faculty developers over the past decade, plus a sprinkling of marketing techniques I’ve learned over the past couple of years.
A DOZEN STRATEGIES TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE
Here are a few suggestions you might want to consider. You may have tried many of these already. I hope there’s 1 useful idea in the list:
• Conduct an anonymous, short, online survey to determine topics that interest them; give them ideas to check off. (Note: If they don’t respond, shrug it off, dust yourself off, and start all over again. After shrugging and dusting, elicit ideas from your peer developers at similar institutions and don’t use “off” 20 times in a sentence.)
• Pick topics in which faculty have interest or need information based on the survey results
• Package the event so that it is salable; make believe you’re Steve Jobs promoting the latest iGizmo.
- Provide adequate info on each workshop, including title, detailed abstract, speaker bio and pic, links to speaker’s publications, Websites, blogs, etc.
- Select a title that will grab their attention, not an “academic” title
- Post an abstract that will pique their interest and suck them in
- Prepare copy like a business marketer, not academician
- Send out multiple announcements and reminders that are worded differently; be creative; use a video promotion
• Tease or encourage attendance with special perks, such as free books from the speaker or a trip to Hawaii
• Require registration at each workshop to provide the illusion of importance; that will also help you to gauge deployment of personnel and resources
• Open the workshops to staff on topics of broader appeal, such as coping with stress, time management techniques, how to conduct meetings, and suggested activities during furloughs
• Promote aggressively to area institutions to increase attendance and build positive PR with those institutions; request their financial support; you’ll get the regional reputation for quality workshops and speakers
Please let me know your experience with any of the above. Suggestions are also welcome to share with others.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
The problem of skimpy attendance at faculty development events seems to afflict buckets of institutions. You’re not alone in this battle. Although you have probably heard a bunch of excuses by faculty for opting out of these events, I thought I’d open some of those old wounds with the comments I’ve heard. Maybe newbie developers will benefit.
FACULTY COMMENTS ON WHY THEY DON’T ATTEND
Here are a few comments from faculty. Take your meds and suck it in.
• “Last year’s speaker was horrible; I’m not going back.”
• “The event is a waste of my time.”
• “Who cares about these teaching topics? I know how to teach.”
• “The speaker sounds boring.”
• “My job is bringing in money and getting grants.”
• “I can’t relate to the topic.”
• “I don’t have the time. There are more important things I have to do. In fact, just about everything I do is more important than going to listen to these speakers.”
BOTTOM LINE: The message is that many faculty look for every reason not to attend rather than to consider any positive value to attend. (Sidebar: My simple and, perhaps, naïve notion about outside speakers on my campus always had been that I have a lot to learn and attending the event is a small time price to pay for something I might gain. What an idiot! What was I thinking?)
Back to reality. Tomorrow, I will suggest a dozen strategies to increase attendance at faculty development events. I hope they can help.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
As a faculty member, has that thought ever raced through your mind or taken up residence there? If you’re a faculty developer, is that the perception of some of your faculty? If I didn’t word the title to this blog the way I did, would you have opened it? Read on, Macduff!
DISCLAIMER: I am not now nor I have I ever been a director, coordinator, or facilitator of faculty development or a center for teaching excellence. I was assistant dean for teaching for 5 years, but my job description was more limited than a center director. I have been a faculty member for 30 years and a keynote/workshop speaker at faculty development programs for 15 years. At nearly every voluntary event where I have spoken, directors have communicated to me the constant battle to persuade faculty to attend. Mandatory events had other issues. On the receiving end of successful and, especially, disastrous events, I’ve learned a lot. I’d like to pass on a few ideas that might be helpful.
THE PROBLEM
The problem is clear: How do you write this blog with humor and still make a serious point. WROOONG!! That’s not your problem. It’s: How do you improve the quality of teaching when many faculty members don’t want to attend events designed to acquaint them with the latest techniques? (Sidebar: Hummm. Isn’t this challenge a little bit like teaching students who don’t want to come to class to learn a boring, horrible subject, say statistics? Rings a bell, Pavlov!)
THE EVENT
Many institutions hold, at minimum, annual or semi-annual showcase or teaching events and, at maximum, a series of workshops or seminars throughout the academic year. One-half-day to three-day extravaganzas are often intended to allow faculty the opportunity (1) to share their innovative teaching ideas, (2) to recognize their teaching, and (3) to encourage them, plus gain the insights of an outside speaker on teaching methods. On-going speaker series may tap local talent as well as well-known, hired-guns from teaching conferences.
This blog will continue tomorrow with “faculty comments on why they don’t attend these events.” Next I will suggest a dozen strategies to increase attendance. It’s a doozy! Stay tuned for all of the excitement. Yeah, right!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
This blog continues my tribute to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Faculty training and athletic training is not a match made in Olympic heaven! Among the vast array of occupations represented by the athletes from 8000 countries, the number of college professors is, according my latest calculations, 0. There are probably a lot of reasons we’re not found in the Olympic gene pool. After minimal thought and no research on Google, I generated the following “twisted” top 10. Enjoy!
TOP TEN REASONS YOU WON’T FIND U.S. COLLEGE PROFESSORS ON THE 2010 OLYMPIC TEAM:
10. PowerPoint is not permitted in Olympic events
9. Teammates refuse to complete assignments on Blackboard
8. No one will attend a faculty development workshop at the Olympic Village
7. Home institution will not reimburse “foreign” travel expenses to Vancouver
6. No meetings with agendas and minutes to attend for 2 weeks—what a bummer!
5. Events on snow and ice are too much fun to be scholarly
4. Lecturing to “non-student” teammates will put them in a coma
3. Forbidden to use NIH research funding to support training at Vail
2. Olympians text and tweet; they don’t like to e-mail
AND THE NUMBER 1 REASON:
1. Your department chair or dean will never understand
Maybe by the next Olympics in Russia, a professor will find a way to conquer the above reasons and represent us proudly on the “speed lecturing downhill” team. With the increasing number of furloughs many of you are experiencing, you’ll have more time to practice. Go for it.
Blog-wise, please let me know what topics you would like me to address that I haven’t covered in the last 7 months and whether you prefer “humor” blogs. I want them to be useful and/or entertaining for you. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
(BLOG ALERT: If you would like to send this list to your faculty, PLEASE DON'T COPY and send electronically. It will be detected by COPYSCAPE. Send faculty the blog URL: http://ronberk.blogspot.com/.)
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
