2008 President's Letter

Happy New Year, and welcome to the Valleys of Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Training and Development.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Frank Dees your President for 2008. Your new board of directors, myself included, are listed on our website www.roanoke.astd.org. Our mission is to “provide leadership to individuals, organizations and society to achieve work-related competence, performance and fulfillment.” This year your board has chosen to emphasize three areas:

Chapter growth
Member, institutional and resource connectivity
Programmatic diversity and excellence integrating the core values of a learning organization

In the area of chapter growth, we plan to grow our chapter’s membership by adding additional value to the professional lives of those to whom designing, developing and delivering concepts and knowledge is important. We will do that by being both a source and resource to you, our membership. Through our new website and portal you will be able to access not only other ASTD chapters and each other, but obtain information on what’s new, what works and what does not. You will have a global window into what’s new and important in our field.

Your Vice President of Programs this year, Mary Anne Leslie, and the rest of the board have identified all of this year’s programs. Our choices are a reflection of the core values espoused by ASTD. You, our membership have provided your board some feedback on 2007’s programs and we plan to incorporate that by alternating our segment on Best Practices with a field-related Book Review for each meeting. This year we plan two special events, the first is our March program featuring Bob Pike, and a second this fall featuring Holly Huntley, the Chief Learning Officer for Computer Science Corporation.

If you have any suggestions for Chapter improvement or want to be involved with one of the board committees, please do not hesitate to contact any of us. We appreciate your confidence and look forward to working with you this year.