Training Committee Meeting Minutes

October17, 2013 1:00 pm at Thompson Library Room 305D

Attendees: Amy, Cheryl, Dan, Greg, Kevlin, Melanie, Quanetta

Melanie’s departure/annual call for committee volunteers

Melanie announced she will be leaving the Libraries as of Dec. 5 for a job at NEOMED. That prompted a discussion of which members’ terms are over and about the annual call for volunteers in general

Proposed training and development schedule – recap of Exec meeting

  • Quanetta reported on the Executive Committee’s reaction to the Training Committee’s proposed training schedule for Libraries employees for the next academic year. They are 100 percent supportive, and they would especially like to schedule LMSI 1 or 2 with DeEtta Jones in the near future.
  • Q. reported that Carla Strieb also requested that a session on time management be separate from the Project Management session scheduled for February, and that it be arranged as soon as possible, possibly in December. Members discussed various strategies to meet the request, although nothing firm was decided. Q. suggested the Libraries send two Training Committee people to a time-management workshop then have them train Libraries employees. She also said she would talk to Brian Miller about his experience at a time-management workshop he took several years ago to see if it’s worth sending two people to it. Another suggestion was that the Project Management workshop be reduced to a half day and the facilitator for that workshop then do a half-day workshop on time management. That way, both could be provided for the same price, although the committee would have to see if the sessions could be offered earlier than February.

Outlook training recap

  • The session provided on Oct. 15 appeared to go well (one attendee – a new employee – said she learned a lot of things she didn’t know she could do!), although having three presenters might have been too much. Dan said he would take the video of the screen shots that was made and do a voice-over for it so the whole thing can be made available to people online. Dan said he would like to do the same thing for future tech training sessions offered so the most people can benefit from them.

Training evaluation form

  • Cheryl presented a draft of a Training Evaluation Form to be used for various workshops and other training opportunities that the committee will provide in the future. The committee discussed possible revisions and additions and decided the committee should distribute a short pre-session survey that would help determine how well the committee communicated what was to be covered in the session, then would distribute a longer form after the meeting to determine how well the information was communicated.
  • The committee also decided that the focus of some of the questions – such as how easy the presentation is to see and hear for attendees – should be made into requirements for each presenter. These are:

Provide an agenda.
State or post the learning objectives at the beginning of the training.
Provide handouts, slides, audiovisual materials, and other resources.
Check on whether participants can see and hear well enough to learn.
Provide time for questions or discussion.

  • Cheryl also suggested that the committee do pre- and post-session surveys to determine how much the attendees knew before the session and how much they learned from the session. This information could then be showed to attendees’ supervisors.
  • Cheryl said she would follow up on the suggestions and make revisions as necessary.

Minutes taken by Kevlin Haire