ATD Houston is committed to providing a reliable and supportive educational environment, even during these difficult and uncertain times. The health and safety of our members and volunteers is of the utmost importance. We are here to support you, our colleagues, during this time.

• Our programming has moved to a virtual setting until we are able to come together in person again.
• We have postponed the Technology Conference until we can schedule an in-person event.
• General meetings and GIGs are still happening every month in webinar format.  These events will be free until we can return to our regular in-person events.
• Community Chats provide a break in your day to collaborate virtually with your peers.  Come with questions, challenges or just the opportunity to connect with others.
• Friday's Virtual Happy Hour is a fun way to end the week.

Additional Resources - Just for fun and relaxation

• Engage remote employees and retain customers. Create competitive quizzes, polls, and e-learning that anyone can play on any device. https://quizizz.com/business

• A Conference Call in Real Life.  https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ

• Stay Home & Color: A collection of free coloring pages to help you relax.  https://dribbble.com/stories/2020/04/03/stay-home-and-color

• Watch movie-quality shows designed for your phone. New episodes every day. Sign up for Quibi now and get a limited time 90-day free trial. https://quibi.com/

If you have any questions or feedback on how we can best meet your needs, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at president@tdhouston.org.

Take care of yourself!

One of the core values of ATD Houston is taking care of our community. This enduring value guides us as we face the difficult challenge of responding to the coronavirus (COVID-19), which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on Wednesday. Our hearts and thoughts go out to the people who have been affected by this unprecedented event and we appreciate the healthcare workers, local communities, and governments around the world who are on the front line working to contain this coronavirus.

At this time, we are in the process of setting up the infrastructure to allow you the option to attend ATD Houston programs virtually and to collaborate in online discussions. Please stay tuned as we make adjustments to our programming. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

For the latest coronavirus updates and resources in our community, please visit http://www.hcphtx.org/Resources/2019-Novel-Coronavirus

Here are learning resources to support those in your own organizations. If you have a specific need or question about moving to virtual meetings or training, please contact us. We will add a page on the ATD Houston site and update it with more resources as we get them. Please share these with others! 

• Resources for Virtual Training Design and Facilitation: https://www.td.org/virtual-training
• COVID-19: HELPING YOU HELP YOUR PEOPLE (includes assets for creating three essential courses (Take Precautions: COVID-19, Form Your Virtual Team and Lead Your Virtual Team): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/covid-19-helping-you-help-your-people-megan-torrance
• Tips for Those Who Are New to Being an Online Learner: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tips-those-who-new-being-online-learner-karl-kapp
• Remote Working: Setting Yourself and Your Teams Up for Success: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/paths/remote-working-setting-yourself-and-your-teams-up-for-success
• Tips to Level-Up Your Virtual Learning Game: https://learningrebels.com/2020/03/13/tips-to-level-up-your-virtual-learning-game/
• Virtual Training Resources: https://www.cindyhuggett.com/resources/#!/checklists
• Compiled list of resources for creating live virtual training (includes offers for online tools): https://airtable.com/shr80xyNQnIoDBi0s/tblq6Vs7UG85iJZsj?blocks=hide

Over the last week, the COVID-19 Coronavirus has become a global topic of concern. As the viral disease continues to spread, some employers are canceling conferences and limiting travel.

At this time, ATD Houston is continuing to plan face-to-face meetings and conferences. We will take necessary precautions based on local recommendations where a meeting is taking place. Should conditions change, we will make decisions based on the best interest of our members.

We will work closely with speakers to recommend against engaging in activities that involve physical contact—such as shaking hands—out of an abundance of caution and to respect individuals’ personal preferences.

We will continue to monitor the latest information available from global public health authorities and will provide updates as soon as possible.

For more information:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/

There are a lot of reasons why you should be a speaker for an ATD Houston event. Depending on how you look at it each and every one of us is a product or a brand. This is true for people who own their own company, are partners in a firm, or are high visibility employees. To sum it up, being a speaker gets you exposure, builds your brand, and can ultimately get you more business/exposure. Being a speaker at an ATD Houston event and showcasing your thought leadership on the subject you are presenting is truly the best advertisement for your business. Plus, what a way to shine and show your stuff to our ATD Houston community!

ATD Houston is always looking for talented and innovative speakers throughout the year, so it is always a great time to submit a proposal. We offer a variety of programs, including workshops, general meetings, lunchtime meetings, virtual events and our two conferences, which includes a keynote and workshop speakers. Consider speaking at one of our events and share your insights with your ATD Houston community!

Here are some tips to help your submission(s) stand out:

• Keep in mind that our members are looking for tangible takeaways that they can implement when returning to their workplace.
• Our members love to hear how other learning and development professionals have approached a key challenge. Any case studies or examples that you can present are very desirable!
• Our members also love learning about what not to do, or how other organizations learned from their mistakes.
• Members come to ATD Houston events to hear unbiased presentations and we do not tolerate pitches for any kind of product or service. Please keep your abstract and presentation focused purely on education.

Go to https://tdhouston.org/Request-for-Speaker and complete the form. Note:  topics submitted should relate to the new ATD Talent Development Capability Model. See https://www.td.org/insights/new-capability-model-is-a-blueprint-for-talent-development-professionals for specific details. Please know that all of our ATD Houston speakers undergo a vetting process.  Once your speaking proposal is reviewed, someone from our events team will follow-up with you.

If you have any questions about submitting a proposal, please contact one of our respective board members for programs, groups and professional development events.  You can find their contact information here - https://tdhouston.org/BOD.

I look forward to seeing you “shine” at an upcoming ATD Houston event!

Debbie Richards, ATD Houston President 2020

Thank you for being a member of the ATD Houston community of like-minded talent development professionals.  Whether you are new to talent development or have been in the industry for years, our ATD Houston chapter is a valuable resource for professional development and networking. Our promise to you is to work hard to provide valuable content, resources and networking for you. Please let us know what you need to achieve your talent development potential in 2020.  You can contact me directly at president@tdhouston.org or any board member – see https://tdhouston.org/BOD for their specific email addresses.  We’ll do what we can to accommodate your needs!

We have big plans for 2020 and hope that you will continue to be part of our network! We will continue to have monthly meetings, webinars and conferences.  Look to our website and/or social media platforms for updates.

2019 Reflections

The ATD Houston vision is “Inspiring talent development professionals to achieve their full potential.” In 2019, we made great strides towards fulfilling this vision. Here are some of our accomplishments over this past year:

• Engaged the community through networking events and workshops. 
• • We held 65 events including webinars, general meetings, geographic interest groups (GIGs), special interest groups (SIGs) and workshops.  There were 612 registrations for these events including out-of-town guests.
  • We also had two major conferences with a total of 256 attendees. 
• Held the first annual Pinnacle Awards
• • Houston Metro, MD Anderson Cancer Center - Leadership Institute, Plains All American and TechnipFMC were recognized for their achievements in Talent Development
  • Strategic Ascent received the Community Service award!
• Exceeded the ATD national chapter requirements!
• • The chapter achieved 100% Chapter Affiliation Requirements (CARE) and Membership Super Star Status! This recognition means our chapter met all 18 elements of CARE in 2018.
  • The chapter won a Power Membership Award based on its achievement of high levels of joint membership as reported in Chapter Affiliation Requirements (CARE). With a joint membership of 57 percent, our chapter was awarded second place in the large size category with a $3,000 prize!
• Participated in community projects
• • In May, we participated in the Walk to Cure Arthritis raising $1,146.00 for the cause!

Debbie Richards
ATD Houston President 2020

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