PRE CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
(8:00 am – 12 noon)
"Essential Staff Training Activities"
Presented By: Jim Cain Ph.D
Tips, activities, ideas and suggestions for making your next staff training program active, engaging, memorable, effective and fun! Author and teambuilding guru Dr. Jim Cain shares his favorite, newest and best activities for making the most of your next staff training or teambuilding program. This workshop includes hints, techniques, activities and suggestions that will improve your delivery of key staff training topics. Bring along $30 for a discounted copy of Jim's new book.
Dr. Jim Cain is the author of five team and community building activity books, including Teamwork & Teamplay, The Book on Raccoon Circles and Essential Staff Training Activities. In the past decade, he has presented programs in 46 states and 19 countries. Most recently he has been working with local groups to translate and publish Raccoon Circle books in Japanese, Greek, Turkish, German, Spanish, Italian and French.
"The Anatomy of Trust"
Presented By: John Losey
Trust is at the core of what we do as experiential educators. The better we understand the components of trust (anatomy) and the interactions that impact trust levels (physiology) the more effective we can be. You will walk away from this workshop with a practical model that will help you design and facilitate learning programs and give you a powerful tool for any kind interaction. (Note: this is not an overview or repeat of Covey)
John Losey is the author of The Experiential Youth Ministry Handbook, John has been teaching and leading people for 20 years and is currently the Training and Development Manager for the University of Farmers, Claims (Farmers Insurance) and the Director of Praxis Training Systems. His expertise is facilitation, program design and staff development workshops. John speaks for Youth Specialties and he has consulted for such organizations as Campus Life, Forest Home Christian Conference Center, Amor Ministries and Center for Student Missions. John has also been part-time faculty at Cal State Northridge, where he taught Theories and Methods for Outdoor Education, Backpacking, Ropes Course and Quiet Water Paddling. He is also the author of 2 books, outdoor education curriculum and is a scuba instructor.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
(1:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
"Living the Dream: Turning Your Passion Into Your Career"
Presented By: Allison Phaneuf and Stephanie Sibille
Are you new to the job hunting process – or returning after a number of years? Tired of explaining to the rest of the world what it is that you do for a living? Hoping to use NCCPS as a way to "get in the game?"
Come join us for an interactive and strategic workshop that will help get you in alignment with that perfect job you've always wanted!
With this workshop, you will:
- Spend time assessing your personal career values, goals and strengths, in order to learn solid skills for the job hunting process.
- Learn how to create a powerful resume that highlights all of the skills you have to offer.
- Demystify the networking process and learn how to leverage it in a way that is advantageous to your success.
- Be empowered and prepared to seek out any job that you desire!
Our goal is your success! See you there!
Scholarships available! Contact allison_phaneuf@hotmail.com or stephanie@granddynamics.com for details.
Allison Phaneuf has spent the past fifteen years involved in education, training and consulting, career development, and health and wellness coaching. With graduate degrees in both Organizational Development and Counseling Psychology, she has been an adjunct instructor and guest lecturer of psychology at many New England area colleges and universities. She is currently a member of the Human Resource Leadership Association of Eastern CT, previously held the position of President for the Connecticut Chapter of ASTD, and has served on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Challenge Course Professionals.
Stephanie Sibille currently serves as the Program Specialist for the Western Region of Grand Dynamics International, creating, selling, and delivering Team Building and Leadership Development programs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University, where she spent four years working in one of the country’s foremost college career development offices. Stephanie is also the secretary on the Western Regional Association for Experiential Education (WRAEE) Leadership Council. Her career began twelve years ago when she first set foot on a challenge course, and she attributes much of her success to her understanding of professional development strategies.
"Ecological Debriefing Models"
Presented By: Shawn Moriarty
This workshop will present several models for debriefing / facilitating from ecological models and metaphors and we will also explore using the local natural world as a template for facilitation. If you want to intentionally bring a more environmental framework to your programming, this workshop will give you a good foundation. Participants should bring information on what "Biome(s)" they work / live in. And they should bring information on what programs they offer already, especially if they are part of an Outdoor / Environmental Education program.
Biome: A broad regional area characterized by distinctive climate, soil type, and biological community.
Shawn Moriarty is the Big Foot of "A Single Footstep," a company that works to bring ecological literacy into experiential education and summer camp programs and to develop abundant sustainability as a daily practice. Shawn has been working for 25+ years in the camping field and 20+ years in the experiential education field. In addition, Shawn is a rock climbing guide and survival skills instructor in the Bay Area. He also writes the blog "What's Out There," a blog for parents who what to get their kids more connected to nature.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
(8:00 am – 5:00 pm)
"You Are Selling Whether You Know it or Not!"
Presented By: Dave Vermilye
The question is whether or not you want to be more effective at it? Most of us got into the field of experiential training and development because we like what we do, not because we wanted to sell. However, we are selling with every phone call and conversation. You may have noticed that you connect better with some people than others. This training will help you discover how to be more effective with all types of customers.
Online Profile: This session starts with an in-depth research-validated assessment with a 23-page profile that helps people understand themselves, their customers and their relationships. Interactive Facilitation: Participants will be led through an engaging experientially facilitated session to gain a full understanding of the DiSC® system and learn how to adapt their behaviors to be more effective selling to each of the 4 buying styles.
Post-Training Reinforcement: Transfer the learning outside the classroom with the interactive customer interaction maps. Through these maps, you can compare your selling style with your real-life customers’ buying style, adapting your approach and raising your likelihood of closing the deal.
A Tool for Your Toolbox: The last portion of the training will be devoted to an explanation of how you can utilize DiSC related tools in your facilitation tool box to create opportunities that will add to your bottom line and deepen your facilitation skills.
Prerequisites: Completion of online assessment prior to workshop.
David A. Vermilye is the owner and CEO of Edgeline Resources LLC. His undergrad and graduate educational background is in education, focusing on cross cultural communication, anthropology and experiential education. For the last 20 years, Dave has been using his experiential educational approach to teach group and team development in corporations, schools, churches, and other community groups. He is a visiting professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. He has been involved in leadership development in several Community Leadership Programs. Dave focuses on creating an environment of respect where participants can have a safe place for growth to transpire. Dave is a trained DiSC Personal Profile facilitator and authorized Inscape Publishing Distributor. He has experience with the Learning Styles Inventory and many other tools, integrating these tools with his experiential approach for training.
- Experientially-Based Facilitation
- Trained DiSC Personal Profile Facilitator
- Authorized Inscape Publishing Distributor
- Certified Ropes Course Manager/Trainer
- Community Leadership Retreat Facilitation
- Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
*(8:00 am – 6:00 pm)
"Elements of Choice"
Presented By: Tom Leahy
* We will meet in Boulder at NCCPS site @ 7:00 am and carpool to workshop site in Golden, Colorado.
We will return to Boulder by 7:00 pm.
Learning on a challenge course is a metaphor about the incredible complexity of choice. It is about finding a voice in the midst of a challenge and team. It is about discovering the transformative meaning and deep complexity of all those words we throw around so freely: trust, confidence, success, choice, participation, encourage, support...and a few words we seem to avoid at all costs: fear, failure, coercion, force, embarrassment and humiliation...
Elements of Choice© is a journey to discover how we make choices and when we let others or situations choose for us. This 10-hour intensive workshop explores the complexity of choice, goal setting, communication and supportive team relationships. Together we will explore a model for teaching choice and goal setting experientially and the real implications of the lack of true choice in our programs.
The philosophy of "participation by choice" has been used for years in the challenge course industry in an attempt to remove the external pressure for participants to perform in the midst of perceived or imposed expectations. Often, in these situations, participants do not perceive they have a choice and inadvertently go beyond their own real physical and emotional limitations. This has resulted in great physiological / emotional exposure for the participant. The failure of programs to teach the concept of choice results in an incredible lost opportunity to greatly impact the lives of so many people. Simply promising choice as a disclaimer during a program is not enough. Adapting our approach to low and high elements may well ensure that every participant leaves our programs feeling not only successful, but also equipped with tools that actually work effectively in real life.
Elements of Choice© coaches facilitators and therapists to the depths of facilitation of risk elements and encourages them to see beyond the all too often ineffective promises of "participation by choice". It brings them to the wisdom that the learning is not just in the climbing, in reaching the top or in getting to the end. Learning is internal for each participant and it must respond to the very real challenges that they face in life.
Elements of Choice© is a powerful experiential lesson that provides facilitators with an incredible set of tools to work with a range of participants. From the timid and nonphysical to bold and over powering peers. This material is a collection of 25 years of lessons around my failures and successes in using the low and high challenge course as a tool for growth. Elements of Choice© will forever change your view of challenge, choice, setting goals and encouraging others.
Tom Leahy has 30+ years of experience using the outdoors as a classroom with a spectrum of clients. He is the president of Leahy & Associates, Inc., a multi-faceted consulting company providing challenge course / climbing wall design and installation, facilitator training and corporate team skills training. Over the years, thousands of facilitators, teachers, therapists and students have been infected with his passion and experienced his models for decision-making, problem solving, communication and the teaching of choice as a key life skill.
In 1993, Tom created the National Challenge Course Practitioners Symposium (NCCPS), a unique conference and training venue that truly places participants in control of their own learning. In 2002, Tom was awarded the Michael J. Stratton, "Practitioner of the Year" award by the Association for Experiential Education. Tom was on the Board of Directors of the Association for Challenge Course Technology (ACCT) for 6 years and was Chair of the ACCT Training Certification Standards Committee. Tom and his wife, Jennifer live in Boulder, Colorado.