This newsletter covers what happened in February and will give you a heads up on what to look for in March and the months following.

In this issue:

In developing the Academy strategic plan for 2020-2025, we are deliberately working as a planning committee and teams to create a future that is both audacious and magnificent. To paraphrase Paul Biya,

"I want to believe that those who have been appointed to accomplish this mission [strategic plan] will be committed, devoting all their skills and determination to their work. I urge you to lend them your support so that, together, we can build that bright future worthy of our [organization]."

We are striving to engage members in building a future of impact. We have crafted an audacious goal that is the core from which strategic goals are developed. Our new plan will be designed to impact culture, define strategy, build capacity, and design work to be done beginning in 2020. As we create this five-year plan, we will request your feedback on a draft.

Share your best thoughts and skills. We invite you to participate in the challenging work of actualizing a future of significance.

Joann

Did you know that the minutes of the Academy Board Meetings are available to ALL Academy members? In this article, we offer highlights of the most recent board meeting(s):

Jan 2020 minutes        Feb 2020 minutes (not yet approved)

Successful Organizations & Strategic Planning

We brainstormed some key characteristics for what a wildly successful organization looks like. Please check them out in the minutes and stay tuned for how the Strategic Planning committee incorporates these ideas into the Strategic Plan!

Monthly Officer/Director Reports

We will be discussing the monthly officer and director reports in March - we plan to take a holistic look at the process in order to improve it.

The Next Board Meeting:  March 11, 2020

URL:  https://zoom.us/j/295947580
Meeting ID:  295 947 580
Telephone number:  646 558 8656
iPhone one-tap: +16465588656,,295947580#

(Working draft of the March agenda)

First, REGISTRATION IS OPEN for PE Conference 2020! Register NOW and get the earlybird rate!

The 2020 Conference planning committee is continuing their work at a very quick pace and many of the planning decisions have been completed. All presenter proposals received have been assessed and returned to the presenters in early February with a strong request to complete the Final Proposal and submit by or before April 1st, 2020.

The Conference program (draft), including all of the conference sessions and events, has been posted. Please note this is a draft schedule and is sure to be updated prior to the conference itself.

Information about the St. Louis School of Pharmacy campus, lodging, and local activities has also been posted.(On-campus lodging is one of the pieces of information still to come.)

We encourage all conference presenters and attendees to review the Conference information posted online and make your preparations to join us in St. Louis in June 25-27, 2020!

If any members, guests, or presenters have additional questions please send them to barlowwpb@gmail.com

With the popularization of "growth mindset" and the realization of its benefits, people with growth mindsets might ask, "What's next?"  I would answer with another question: "What are you doing with your growth mindset?"  When situations push you outside your comfort zone and you see them as growth opportunities, you're starting to increase your growth capability.  But what about situations that push you outside your comfort zone and you think, "I can't do that.  It's too hard.  I can't be successful here."?  Now it's time to gain a self-growth mindset.

While a growth mindset says, "I can increase my ability to make improvements where I want to," a self-growth mindset says, "I can increase my ability to make improvements in areas where I previously thought that wasn't possible." That’s shifting your mindset from "I can't" into “I have unlimited potential.”

A time where I grew in an area where I thought I couldn't was doing martial arts.  My biggest barrier was about hitting people.  Even though sparring happened in a safe and restricted environment, past issues with a threatening family member made me feel that I couldn't hit someone, or be hit by someone.  One evening I even cried to the head of the school about how overwhelming this was.  But I recognized that this was part of the school’s expectations, and if I wanted to advance my rank (which I did, because I'm an achiever like that), I'd have to persist.

I managed to spar.  I got to the point of hitting people (with no intention of hurting them), and even got a few solid hits on black belts.  I found out that it was ok to get hit, (with safety gear, and when they aren't intending to hurt me, either).  I never liked it, but I did find a way to do it, and to keep improving at it.

Was this growth or self-growth?  I'd say growth. I set the challenge, I persisted in what I needed to do, and even did some parts of assessment (before I knew about SII).  But most of the growth was caused by working in an environment that supported and pushed my development.  

What would make it self-growth?  Believing that this growth potential was transferable to other areas of "I can't".  

If you strengthened your self-growth capability, what power would you have?  What barriers could you eliminate, and what opportunities would now open up for you pursue?  

You can strengthen your self-growth mindset and capability by participating in the Self-Growth Institute the precedes the Conference in St. Louis in June.  Facilitators and mentors include Dan Apple, Ingrid Ulbrich, Tris Utschig, Al Rowe, Steve Beyerlein, and many others.

Registration is available NOW, so grab your spot!

Your Academy Board recently approved a series of proposals to help clarify our fiscal policy and to set fees for the upcoming conference, To see the fee schedule, look at the registration form. We have summarized the fiscal policy below:

1. Separate the annual conference budget from the winter meeting budget and the operational budget.

2. Provide training for the Treasurer and Finance Officer

3. Institute a quarterly review of the finances with the Treasurer and Finance Officer

4. Review current budget line items and document what funds are included in each budget line

5. Change the Academy fiscal year from June 1 - May 31 to October 1 - September 30. This will ensure that the income and expenses for the annual conference will occur in the same fiscal year. It will also mean that the renewal date for Academy dues will move from August 1 to October 1.

As process educators we are often asked for the one thing that faculty should start with to make the most difference. Most PE veterans will tell you that the SII Assessment is that silver bullet. So for the month of March we are reading module 4.1.9 SII method for Assessment Reporting. This module was authored by Jack Wasserman and Steve Beyerlein and is located on pages 465-466 in the print version. This month's pick comes highly recommended by the Academy's Professional Development Director, Tris Utschig, who says the following:

"I have shared this module with more faculty members than I can count, and reference it frequently in scholarly work. It is simple yet powerful, and it can be used on its own in meaningful ways without prerequisite knowledge. I use it for course assessment planning, in external grant assessment proposals, and in scholarship of teaching and learning projects as a data source."

I am hard pressed to add anything to Tris's glowing remarks. Clearly this is a must read!

As you read this module, consider the following inquiry questions:

1.    What does SII stand for?
2.    What is the role of performance criteria when conducting an assessment?
3.    A helpful mnemonic going around the PE circle these days is "strengths and why, improvements and how". Explain the meaning of this phrase and how it can help strengthen your assessment process.
4.    When is it important and productive to conduct a self-assessment and when is it important to engage in reflection?

If you have any questions about using SII assessments feel free to email me at mwatts@tcc.edu. Stay tuned for the next FGB module of the month.

Necessities at work (and let's be honest, less than level 5 time management skills) have required that I take a step back from several aspects of my life that I find important. One of those things has been near daily involvement on some level with the Academy of Process Management. While I haven't been publicly active, many of the things I've learned over the last two years have been internalized to one degree or another, and are part of my daily and weekly routine. I routinely perform SII's on performances, and teach others to do so as well. Every class I teach has access to the Reading Methodology in our Course Management System, and I use it myself when reading articles for research. I try very hard to give assessment-based (instead of evaluative) feedback to students whenever possible. I still address my life vision regularly in my journal. I guess the point is that even without constant reinforcement, Process Education is 'sticky'.

This is good news from the standpoint of organizational growth. Previous members and past participants at events have probably found something useful and implemented it into their lives or classrooms. Probably without attribution, but do as I say, not as I do. :-)  They may not even realize where what they're using came from. If they can be reminded, then perhaps they will come around to see what else of value we have to offer.

If you have stories about tools or techniques rooted in Process Education that you use in your daily life or the classroom, please send them to me. I'll attempt to load them into the social media channels and share them. I will try to share all stories across all channels, but if you don't provide a picture it will be more difficult to share on Instagram.

As a reminder, our social media channels are all AcOfProcEd. We're on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Please send stories to me at thomasnelson@southalabama.edu, and put PROCESS EDUCATION STORY in the subject line. I'm getting about 300 emails a day at the moment and that will make it easier to find and share your cool stuff.

March 17, 2020      7:00-8:30pm, Eastern
Click to visit the workshop page for this workshop!

Zoom Information: https://zoom.us/j/203869838    
Meeting ID: 203 869 838  Dial in: +1 646 558 8656

Part A (Selecting Learning Skills for a Course): Process Educators have both learning and growth goals for each of their courses. We are content experts in our respective areas and we have concrete disciplinary knowledge/skills that we want our students to master. We also believe in enduring learning skills that enhance transfer of disciplinary knowledge and that also better prepared students for life. This workshop will be centered around using the new classification of learning skills to extract a subset of appropriate skills to focus on in particular courses.

Part B (Creating a Facilitation Plan with Learning Skills in Mind): To create robust educational outcomes we need solid curricula but we also need a plan for engaging students in that curricula and also promoting valuable life skills that can enrich performance in other settings. This session will examine components of a facilitation plan that seeks not only to achieve narrow disciplinary objectives but also prompts interventions that can promote life long learning skills.

Prepare for the Workshop
•    Visit the workshop page and complete the REQUIRED reading and answer the Exploration Questions PRIOR to the workshop!

(Register for the workshop on the Workshop page or on the main Professional Development page. Don't forget to invite friends and co-workers!)