“Together, We Work!” at the District V Institute
With 53 people in attendance,
IAWP District V Director John Wittenstrom opened the 2008 District V Institute in Pinehurst, North Carolina. The educational event was held at Pinehurst Resort’s beautiful Carolina Hotel
on Friday and Saturday, February 29-March 1 and is a gathering of IAWP members from North and South Carolina.
A patriotic opening featured
a Marine Corps Color Guard posting the colors and an uplifting presentation of fun and breathtaking songs by the outstanding
282nd Airborne Chorus. The crowd was on their feet after each song
that this group sang.
With the theme “Workforce
Development and Economic Development: Together, We Work!” the Institute started off with a welcome by Moore County Commissioner
Tim Lea and then the Executive Director of Moore County Partners in Progress Ray Ogden shared some information about Moore
County. He said that the area would soon be getting about 16,000 new jobs as
Fort Bragg
expands. He also said that the state needs to promote rural areas and training
to produce more qualified job candidates.
The group was lucky to then
hear from the heads of both the North and South Carolina Employment Security Commissions.
NCESC Chairman Harry Payne thanked IAWP for “all you do to enlighten and inform us to do our jobs better.” He anticipates that the national economy will continue to decline but that maybe a
new administration will help change the trend. Like many other states, budgets
continue to be cut, but he has asked the NC legislature to consider additional funding to help both the UI program and special
funding for temporary appeals staff to decrease the backlog of cases. He wishes
that local leaders would stop by a Joblink office (like SC’s workforce centers) to actually see the people standing
in line and not rely on data alone: “They are not a pie chart,” he said.
“It’s not logical”
according to SCESC Executive Director Ted Halley when talking about cutting budgets to workforce services when the economy
is facing a recession. With South Carolina
having the third highest unemployment rate, we have to “use every tool we have” to partner and continue to provide
services to the state’s citizens. Halley said that luckily SC owns (not
rents) all but three buildings in its workforce center system. He is also asking
for more Reed Act funding and additional administration funding for the UI program.
He also worries that a natural disaster could bankrupt our UI Trust Fund so he is looking into additional funding or
increased taxes to shore up the fund.
From the economic development
side, Janice Scarborough, Director of the Pee Dee Region (NC) Workforce Development Board said that outbound commuting from
her area and low literacy rates are a problem in her three-county region. She
is excited about the increase in jobs from the Fort Bragg expansion and the partnerships that have been formed to assist in economic development.
The Executive Director of
the NC Department of Commerce Roger Shackelford the states challenges include rural versus urban economic development, changing
demographic (older workers, Hispanics), high poverty rates, and low educational attainment.
He feels that there should be a “no wrong door” system of seamless access to services throughout the state,
a balanced mix of face-to-face and technological services, and diversified funding with a common and coordinated mission.
Sharing data to support the
connection between education, workforce development and economic development, Dr. Elizabeth McGrath with NC’s Policy,
Program Evaluation and Research Department said that education and health services are the “biggest gainers” in
the area. She also shared outcomes form the NC Common Follow-Up System that tracks
clients of services to evaluate system successes (or challenges). The data showed
2.3 million people in NC partook of services in the state and that NCESC and the community college system in NC served the
most people.
Myra Allen Beatty of the
NC Department of Commerce Dislocation and Work Expansion Services Department encouraged attendees to “Always, always
tell the story!” She means that we need to share success stories in order to better our services and promote what we
can do for our citizens in crisis. She is a member of a task force on dislocated
workers that attempts to help prevent worker dislocation (by leveraging funding to help struggling companies), establish an
“economic disaster plan,” provide full access to programs and services (by making sure that all service providers
know about all services so no one falls through the cracks), and to market what we have to offer.
After this very full day
of educational activities, a social activity was in order! An indoor croquet
tournament was held at the hotel with the final two teams causing a North Carolina versus
South Carolina final.
The South Carolina team of Robin McManus and Lorraine
Faulds lost but were consoled by the fact that they didn’t have to bring home trophies with “Croquette Champions”
engraved on them!
Saturday morning greeted
attendees with an extravagant breakfast buffet and updates from the chapter presidents. The featured speaker of the day was
Denise Day, Director of the Mid-Carolina Workforce Development Board who taught attendees how to “Recharge and Rejuvenate.”
She gave the group lessons in stretching, Laughter 101, and 79 tips guaranteed
to help you recharge and rejuvenate. (See sidebar for some of the tips.)
With everyone recharged,
International President Laura Coburn gave an update from the International level. She
reviewed what had been accomplished during her term and shared plans for the International Conference in Richmond, Virginia in June.
International Vice President Daniel Hays was also in attendance and shared the progress made on the revised IAWP website
and marketing committee products. After a short District V Business Meeting,
the group was adjourned and wished safe travels.
