As 2021 comes to a close, I want to take a moment and reflect on the year that was. ATD Houston was successful this year because of you, our chapter members. You continued to develop employees, help people upgrade their skills, and lead your companies. Also, you found time to attend ATD Houston Events. ATD Houston has remained programming virtually during this challenging time despite our best efforts. But you have continued to upgrade your skills by attending ATD Houston Events. These included virtual GIG, SIG, General Meetings, and our Annual Technology Conference in the Spring and Talent Development Conference in the fall.

I want to pause here to thank the 2021 Board for all their hard work. Donna Hailey-President-Elect, Sandhya Lakhanpal-Vice President Membership, Brittanni Below-Vice President Finance, Jasmyne Patterson-Vice President Groups, Harriett Pritchett-Vice President Programs, Kent Nutell-"Interim" Vice President Professional Development, both Bruce Abbott-Vice President Marketing and Communication and Gloria Alvarez who stepped in halfway through the year when Bruce had to step down, and finally Debbie Richards-Past President. This group has been the glue that held us together for 2021 as we continued to suffer the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and ATD Houston would not function without them.

We look forward to 2022 and what we can bring to the table for Talent Development in the Houston area. May you and your family have a Happy Holiday, and we look forward to seeing you in 2022.

Summer has arrived in the Houston area with a vengeance with highs approaching 100 degrees already. You ATD leadership team has been hard at work putting together some equally “hot” events. First, let me encourage everyone to put the ATD Houston Virtual Fall Conference on their calendars for October 13 through 14. This day and a half virtual conference is being geared to talk about how Talent Development impacts change as we move back to the basic skills using the ATD Capability Model. We are very excited to announce that our featured keynote speaker will be Sardek Love. Visit the conference home page HERE to read more about the conference.

Secondly, I want to encourage everyone to attend our July General Meeting on July 13 where Houston’s own technology guru and ATD Houston Past President, Debbie Richards will be presenting What’s New? Moving to Hybrid Meetings. As we all begin to move towards the reopening and move to our “new normal” this will inform you on some best practices.

Finally, as you may recall ATD Houston had planned on moving to hybrid meetings for July. In May I talked about that and about how ATD Houston, like many of you, struggled with 2020 and the first half of 2021 due to impacts on our revenues. The reality is that not every venue is open at this point. For example, the United Way of Greater Houston, where we have held most of our meetings over the past several years, may not reopen until January 2022. The programs team, led by our V.P. of Programs Harriett Pritchard looked for viable alternatives but were unable to find a location that enabled us to meet in an affordable manner for July. We are continuing to look and will keep everyone informed. At this point we are hoping to have an in-person meeting in September. We are also looking at having a Happy Hour Networking event at a local restraint/bar in August. More to come on that later.

I want to thank everyone for their resilience over the past year and a half as your ATD Chapter navigated the COVID crisis. It is our goal to continue to provide value for the greater Houston talent development community.

Talk soon.

Robert

Happy May everyone. I hope you and your family are doing well as we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 Pandemic. We have had a great first four months of 2021 that included a fantastic technology conference put on by our programs team. I wanted to send this note out to our membership to provide you an update on where ATD Houston is on moving back to in-person events as well as provide an update on our virtual programming. 

At our Board Meeting on May 3, the Board of Directors voted to begin a hybrid version of programming beginning in July. A hybrid version means that there will be both in-person and virtual options of the meeting available. The plan is to begin with our General Meeting for that month. Naturally this will only occur if we stay on the current trajectory. During May and June we will be developing the protocols for meetings to ensure everyone’s safety and those will be announced in late June. 

With this change to our programming we will also make another change. At the beginning of the pandemic your Board of Directors shifted all programming to virtual only. Recognizing that times were difficult we also suspended payments for all programs so that we could support the Talent Development community in the Houston area. Like many of you, 2020 was a difficult time for the Houston ATD Chapter. Our chapter relies on three primary streams of income: memberships, programs, and sponsors. The pandemic disrupted two of those streams; programs and sponsors. While the board was diligent and reduced as many expenses as possible we do have fixed costs that cannot be changed. While we have maintained a positive balance thanks to our previous years where we managed to save reserves, our income dropped significantly. With this in mind we will also be moving back to a fee based approach for all of our programs in July as well. This will help us continue to support the Talent Development community in the Houston area by keeping the chapter on a stable financial footing. 

If you have any questions regarding this change please feel free to reach out to me or any of our board members. I look forward to the rest of 2021 and seeing everyone very soon. 

Robert Cocheu, CPTD
2021 President
ATD Houston

Good Monday morning ATD Houston. I am honored to be moving into the office of President for ATD Houston for 2021 in January. It is a huge privilege and responsibility. Before we go any further, I want to extend the most heartfelt gratitude to our 2020 President, Debbie Richards for all of her hard work this past year. As a board, she has led and mentored us, and made sure we met the needs of ATD Houston during this incredibly difficult time. We could not have done any of it without her. I also want to thank the 2020 board. This group of individuals has worked with their teams to ensure we filled programing needs during 2020.

I believe we hold the future of work in the Houston area in our hands and it is up to us to ensure that individuals have the skills necessary to do that work. One way we do that is by ensuring that our programs match what our community, (you) tells us they need. We do this by issuing an annual survey. You should have received the survey last week. I want to encourage every one of you to go out and take the brief survey. 

Thank you for your hard work and I look forward to serving all of you during 2021.

2020 has been a challenging year! Thank you so much for your support of the chapter this year. We had two in-person events this year before switching to virtual events. Our events teams were quick to "adapt and swivel" as we had a number of webinars and on-line events - everything from our two-day Fall conference to informal meet-ups just to stay in touch.  We hope our programming was interesting and engaging for you! 

The annual Employee Learning Week events are scheduled for the week of Dec. 7-11. We hope you will take the time to celebrate learning in your organization as well as take time for your own professional development. Please join us!

The ATD Houston Gives initiative for 2020 will benefit the Houston Food Bank. Please consider at least a $10 donation to help those Houstonians in need. Go to https://app.mobilecause.com/vf/Celebrations/Fundraiser452 to make your donation. Thanks in advance for helping with our fund raising effort.

It has been my honor to serve as President of the 2020 ATD Houston board. I now move forward into the role of past president and mentor. I look forward to "seeing" you virtually soon - and with high hopes of seeing you in-person in 2021. 

Exciting news for our ATD Houston Virtual conference attendees! We have a ATD certificate program registration (up to $1600 value) to raffle off.

See certificate program details here:  https://www.td.org/education-courses/certificate-programs

How to win: Be the most active in the Whova app during the conference, and you will be entered into a drawing to win the conference grand prize!  Attendees with the top activity on the following will be entered into the drawing: Whova app leader board, completed session evaluations, exhibitor passport stamps and of course photo contests!!

The winner will be announced during the conference closing session. Good Luck and Happy learning, sharing and networking! 

Register before Oct 1, 2020 for a chance to win an Apple iPad plus start networking now with attendees, speakers and sponsors.

• View the Conference Schedule: Schedule
• View the Speaker Lineup: Speakers
• View the Sponsor Information: Sponsors
• Sign up as a sponsor: Chapter Sponsors Benefits and Become a Sponsor
• Register for the conference: ATD Houston 2020 Virtual Talent Development Conference

New to the conference

• Creating Personal Growth: The conference presentation provides ideas, examples, and a challenge. In the second follow-up session (after the conference) the speaker will debrief their application and provide feedback so all can learn through actual and shared experience.
• Mentors!: A chance to engage with "mega-mentors" who will lead a session focused on one of the ATD Capabilities.

At the conference, you will be able to watch live educational sessions via video streaming and participate by asking questions, leaving comments and joining activities in real time. If you miss a session, you will be able to watch the recording later.

Your registration also includes access to our mobile app - network with attendees, speakers and sponsors - before, during and after the conference.

Reskilling and job search assistance

LinkedIn, Microsoft, and GitHub are offering free learning paths mapped to jobs that are in-demand, discounted Microsoft certifications to validate skills, and best practices for job searching and interview prepping, so you can put your best foot forward. Start developing your skills for free with learning paths from LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn, then practice tech skills in the GitHub Learning Lab.

Go to https://opportunity.linkedin.com/ to get started.

Diversity and inclusion

Understanding and creating diversity, inclusion, and belonging are essential to building a better workplace and society. Here is a free learning path to help us all recognize unconscious bias, communicate across cultures, and have inclusive conversations.

We are continuing to host free webinars and opportunities for your to engage with the ATD Houston community. Please let us know if there is any topic that would interest you.  We'll do our best to bring it to you! We are especially excited to share four special opportunities with you! 

Speaker RFPs for Sept Conference

Please submit your RFP for the ATD Houston 2020 Talent Development Conference to be held on Sept 17th!  We are not sure if this conference will be in-person or virtual yet. But we are excited to begin working on it! Go to https://tdhouston.org/2020-TD-Conference-Speaker-RFP.for details and to submit your RFP.  If you have never spoken before, have a topic to share, and would like to get coaching, please contact speakerchair@tdhouston.org.

Thank you to our generous chapter sponsor! Experience Skillsoft Percipio, an intelligent online learning experience platform that delivers an immersive learning experience. This is a benefit just for members.

Log in at  https://tdhouston.percipio.com/login.html#/ using the email that you use for the tdhouston.org website.  If you have any issues logging into the site, contact feedback@tdhouston.org. By the way, anyone can sign up for the free Skillsoft Perspectives conference. Go to https://www.skillsoft.com/perspectives/ for details.

May Membership Drive

Join (or rejoin) the ATD Houston chapter at a reduced rate in May! Use the code "MayMember" to save $25 off your general membership rate. Help support our chapter and get access to member-only special offers such as the Skillsoft Percipio platform. Application for Membership

ATD is launching its first-ever Virtual Conference: Building Capabilities and Connection, June 1–5. This event will connect you with subject matter experts, leading thinkers, and visionaries in our field, while learning about important trends and core capabilities that are especially relevant for times like this. Join our global talent development community to learn, collaborate, and network in a safe and responsible way. 

Chapters with five or more members attending the virtual conference are eligible for exclusive rates ( $370 for ATD national members and $470 for nonmembers). Contact feedback@tdhouston.org to be a part of our team and get the discounted rate.

Want to brush up on existing skills or learning something new?  Here are upcoming  free or low-cost online webinars and conferences.

Skillsoft Perspectives - FREE 24 hour conference
May 13 - https://www.skillsoft.com/perspectives

Online Conference of the International Association for Blended Learning
April 22 - https://iabl.org/First-OnlineWCBL2020/.  

Here’s your chance to participate in a one of a kind conference experience and learn from experts worldwide! For 24 hours on April 22, at 10 A.M. EDT, come learn about moving and teaching online at the Online Conference of the International Association for Blended Learning, all for only 20€ (about $22). You will also receive links to all recordings. 

ATD webcasts - https://webcasts.td.org/

The Staff Superhero: How to Save the Day and Keep Remote Employees Engaged
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
https://webcasts.td.org/webinar/3718

ATD’s Certifications and New Talent Development Capability Model
Thursday, April 30, 2020 8:00am - 9:30am EDT
https://webcasts.td.org/webinar/3749

How To Convert Workshops to Remote Training
Apr 29 - https://www.situationexpert.com/events/2300

How then do we cushion the impact on the way we do our training and learning when faced with a sudden crisis? How do we convert our classroom training into online learning with the least effort, lowest cost, and still make it effective, interactive and impactful?