Honda PACTAdvisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
11:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
Penguin Union Building, room 258B
Honda Advisory Members:
Alex Bassett, Teresa Cole, Gary Schuler - Dick Hannah
Rory Blumenschein - Town & Country Honda
Jaleen Clark, Mike Gerstler, Isabel Manzano, Jennifer Laughlin, Emre Wilson- American Honda Motor Co.
Julia Ferguson - Stirling Honda
Jose Moreno – Parker Johnstone’s Wilsonville Honda
Rich Purinton – Dick’s Hillsboro Honda
Joey Thomas – Dick Hannah Acura
Monte Wolverton – Honda NW Training Center
Clark College:Tonia Haney, Automotive Professor/Dept. Head; Mike Godson, Automotive Professor; Jason Crone, Automotive Professor/T-Ten Coordinator; Brian Tracy, Automotive Instructor; Brent Fuller, Automotive Instructor, Michaela Loveridge, Recruitment & Retention Specialist; Genevieve Howard, Dean of Workforce & Career Tech Education; Brianna Lisenbee- Career Services;Cathy Sherick, Associate Dir. of Instructional Planning & Innovation; Nichola Farron, Secretary Senior - Advisory Committees
In the absence of a Committee Chair and Vice Chair, with elections scheduled for this meeting, PACT leader Mike Godson called the meeting to order at 11.06am
Mike Godson opened with a quote from Mr. Honda: “Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure”. Mike continued that he hoped the committee can work with Clark to make the PACT program a success.Followingthis introductions were made.
Office of Instruction Updates
Cathy Sherick shared with the group that the College has now finalized its Academic Plan and this is available to view online. The Plan focusses on instruction and how to drive Clark to become a pathwaysled institution.
Cathy continued that a Recognition Event is held every year to thank the College’s Advisory Committee members – there are currently 28 committees supporting the programs and students. Next year’s recognition event will likely be in the evening.
The pre-apprenticeship program is also under development, which is a trades-focused scheme to prepare students for entry level positions, further apprenticeship programs or 2 year degrees at Clark.
The Career Coach portal was also demonstrated that provides students with online tools to investigate jobs, salaries and the course options at Clark available to them to pursue those areas.
Committee Structure - Elections & Bylaws
Mike outlined that, to many present, this is a business planning committee: but from the Clark perspective, this is an Advisory Committee and there are certain points of order and structure that need to be set in place. As such, a committee chair and vice chair needed to be established whorun the meetings. Mike emphasized that the goal remains that the Honda PACT program will become the dealers program, not necessarily the College’s.
Joey Thomas volunteered to serve as Committee Chair, Rich Purinton volunteered for the role of Vice Chair: these nominations were unanimously approved by the committee.
Mike then displayed a set of draft bylaws for consideration, including a quorum set at 5 voting members to mirror NATEF practices.
Gary moved to accept the bylaws as written, this was seconded by Joey and unanimously approved.
Recruitment
Michaela provided an update on recruitment: the program is starting as a blended program with the HiTECC scheme. Currentlythere are 3 Honda PACT students, and 2 strong candidates to confirm in the next couple of weeks. Michaela continued that she is currently developing an extensive recruitment plan document to strategically recruit over the next Academic year and generate more leads. In addition, she is broadening the focus to include recruitment in non-traditional areas and looking at how to engage High school students.
Michaela shared that 2 recruitment videos have been produced for Clark automotive, accessible here:
(Univision Spanish vignette currently being aired)
In addition, Michaela explained that a Facebook page is established and she is excited to announce that, in collaboration with Clark’s communications and marketing team, a billboard is being produced that will be displayed in Vancouver.
Jason continued that a key piece of recruitment is dealer engagement: Clark remains committed to bringingstudents to the dealers; but it is a competitive market and students have options open to them. Providing opportunity – either through job shadow or other means – is crucial in retaining them.
In response to a question from Teresa about the age of potential students, Jason responded that they are primarily 18 years of age. He also works with High Schools, connecting in the junior year so that students are ready to come to Clark as seniors.
Mike Gerstler continued that he has connected with Michaela and informed the committee that he will be looking for her to make dealer visits in June; he asked those Honda representatives present to think about individuals already in their employ that could be connected to the program. Mike also indicated that he will be putting information in the dealer newsletter and asked the committee to connect with Joey and Michaela with any ideas.
Monte asked for a clarification of the PACT program. Mike Godson responded that the student is attached to a dealer before they come to the program so that they have passed employment screening. Then works on a model of ‘quarter in, quarter out’ where students’ alternate college based learning with periods at the dealership. The progression is electrical 1 and 2 and brakes, then internship, then steering and suspension and engine performance, then 3 weeks of air conditioning and then back to the dealer. When they return to the College in winter, the focus is on engines and manual and automatic transmissions before a final internship period. Jason confirmed that this structure means that the dealers constantly have a student with them: a full time employee positon is covered by 2 rotating students.
Dean’s Report
Genevieve emphasized how Michaela’s report demonstrated how much the college is invested in the program. Automotive is the first department to hire a recruitment and retention specialist, and the first to have a billboard etc. The college is hoping this will be a successful model for other departments.
In the tooling discussion, Tonia shared that the college has purchased 10 a-tech systems, a new pro-cut with Honda adaptors and laptops for students to use in the shop.
Genevieve also introduced Brent as the new instructor. She continued that she hoped that these developments illustrate how committed the College is to the department.
Work Plan
Mike Godson talked about the work plan as a document that the committees use to structure their support of the program. In reviewingthe work plan, Gary asked if the goal was to have everything done by the fall. Mike responded that the program will be going forward no matter what as to wait would be to lose an unacceptable amount of time. The PACT instructors are working rapidly through the modules they need to take. Mike emphasized that the focus remains on quality.
The committee then discussed the need for the ‘dealer buy-in’ to the program in terms of providing job shadows and hands on experience for students. Jason outlined his belief that he feels it appropriate that students get experience on the service line and in meeting customers, seeing intake process and also light maintenance.
Teresa commented that part of the screening process is to ascertain what the goals of the students are in terms of understandingtheir motivations as Honda is always looking for someone with the potential to be afuture service director.
Mike Godson also informed the committee that a point will come in the future where they will need to assess curriculum as by that point instructional planning should be completed down to the daily level with listed outcomes.
Mike Gerstler asked how quickly a student could be bought on board should it be necessary, and with the August start point in mind. Genevieve responded that Michaela is available to expedite the process in terms of financial aid, advising etc. should that be needed.
Monte asked if there was a process in place to check the levels of qualification, especially in view of the level of attrition he has seen over the years. It was outlined that Michaela has developed a solid screening process that assesses academic suitability.
Mike Godson confirmed that the work plan will be revisited in the fall.
Gary proposed a motion to accept the work plan as written; the motion was seconded by Julia and unanimously approved.
New Business
Monte made a suggestion that there would a benefit to running an electricals class to cover the basic principles: many applicants arrive at the training center without a foundation of knowledge as many high schools have been deficient in teaching the fundamentals.
It was discussed that a ‘stand-alone’ class for approximately 5 technicians per month would be beneficial
Mike agreed that he and Tonia could discuss the possibility of this and come back to the committee.
Cathy spoke to the committee to confirm how important their role is, in terms of supporting the students, but also the need to ensure quorum is always present to facilitate curriculum development.
Follow Up Items
Items requiring further action:
-Progress on equipment purchases to be reported at next meeting
-Ongoing recruitment
-Reviewing the work plan – an ongoing process. Curriculum to be addressed in the fall meeting.
-The Acura DPSMs are to be invited to the next meeting
-It was agreed that it would be beneficial to have Technicians at the next meeting
-Tonia and Mike to investigate the feasibility of the electricals class proposed by Monte.
Next Meeting Date
The committee scheduled the next meeting for Wednesday 16th November at 11.00am. The meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held at the Honda Zone Office. Nichola will work on setting this up with Michelle Wallis at Honda.
Joey adjourned the meetingat 12.28pm.
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Prepared/submitted by Nichola Farron
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