Scientific and Technical Employee Development (STED)
Meeting October 20-22, 2009 – Reston, VA

Committee members:

Meeting Introduction:

• Bob Hainly opend the meeting, welcomed everyone in attendance, and reviewed the agenda.
• No additions were suggested.

Review and Refinement of Draft Senior Staff Presentation – Discussion Leader = Bob

• A draft PowerPoint presentation was reviewed.
• Major comments were:
• Add more and better facts concerning history of WRD Training Committees and efforts.
• Charter – emphasize that committee has moved from advisory to more active role by developing tools and advocating guidelines and policy.
• Goals – Change short- and long-term “Goals” label to current and future “Activities”.
• Introduce STED with one slide listing current activities
• TEL courses – emphasize some are WRD and others are non-WRD courses

• Some discussion about approach to present recommended and essential courses concept
• Difficulty in scheduling for both instructor and students
• Results from annual EDNA survey no longer available

TEL Tuition policy – Discussion Leaders = Steve B. and Bill

• January 2008 – Bob Hirsch set no tuition policy for non-interactive courses
• Water supports Breeze licenses at about $25K/year
• Four funding option - pro rata, full WRD support, full tuition support, WRD + tuition
• Conclusion of initial discussion is WRD + tuition:
• $25K from WRD for Breeze license
• Tuition fee per hour - $100 - $500 limit
• Deliver suggestion to Senior Staff

(Note: These parameters were modified slightly after the SS meeting and were presented in a written proposal to SS).

Review and Results of the Senior Staff Meeting – Discussion Leader = Bob

• Staff suggested continued face-to-face meetings to encourage interactive discussion within committee and between committee members and Senior Staff.
• Water Science Centers would like to see results of return on TEL tuition investment and control of fee spending by WRD, not EOD.
• Deliverables requested:
  • Written proposal for TEL tuition policy.
    • Finalized and delivered to Steve B. on 10/22/09 (separate document)
    • ACTION ITEM: Need for Jody Eimers review? If not, Steve to submit to SS
  • Include estimate of annual tuition fee collection potential, if possible
    • Fee schedule provided but annual estimate not generated or delivered

Essential and Recommended Technical Courses – Discussion Leaders = Dave and Franceska

• General discussion of "rigid" scheduling philosophy within SW & GW, QW
• To work, must:
  • Identify core set of courses – must fold in training needs into priorities
  • Schedule instructor
  • Get schedule - cancel if insufficient numbers?
• Consensus: Difficult to schedule/establish employee development plan without schedule
• Seek increased commitment in WSC to meet required and enhancing course requirements
• EDNA gone, IDP not used beyond supervisor/employee
• OGW - OK with mandatory, have none, reviewing course list
  • Possibly all recommended with suggested progression list
• OWQ – currently reviewing all training
  • 2-week methods course? too big and costly to require
• Technical areas: 1) core/basic, 2) collection/analysis, 3) simulation
• Suggest less formal approach to gain acceptance
• OGW and OWQ currently reviewing technical courses for TEL candidates
• Identify minimum skill set to produce list of essential core courses
• Course scheduling
  • OGW - intact to some extent, schedule core courses?
  • OWQ - review list then look at core offerings
• IT – could establish core and recommended - some are required
• NWIS - courses could be re-assembled to provide hierarchy
• All information should feed into STED web page

Charter Review – Discussion Leaders = Lynn and Barb

• Add activist role to objective
• Mission - remove item #6 (NTC operations recommendations)
• Membership - remove names (keep positions), EDNA reference, remove Exec. Secretary, remove support functions
• Add Webmaster as committee member (or support staff position?) – need further discussion
  • ACTION ITEM - discuss Webmaster position addition during next conference call
• Operation - remove annual meeting timing
• ACTION ITEM - Lynn and Barb to edit existing charter and deliver draft for review

Goals Update and Future Directions – Discussion Leaders = Lynn and Barb

• Move long-term #1 (Recommended and Essential Courses) to short-term #3
• Revise short-term and long-term wording to Current and Future activities
• Does urgency of backfilling for retiring workforce require moving idea of a regionally-based coop education program to a current activity?
  • ACTION ITEM - Bill to research resources available and report back to committee
  • ACTION ITEM - Barb to ask Ralph to add 2009 and 2010 goals

TEL Program Development Strategy – Discussion Leader = Alan

• Recent NTC statistics, OED-NTC newsletter, and TEL Course Development status distributed
  • Lacking statistics on regional offerings
• Would like to develop and distribute Training Needs survey to WSC to gather data similar to EDNA (needs for existing courses and recommendations for new/modified courses)
• Resulting discussion concerned elements needed to make this survey effective
• ACTION ITEM - Alan will develop and circulate a draft survey for committee review and approval
• ACTION ITEM - Once endorsed by committee, Alan will distribute through Steve/Matt and Regional Directors to WSC Directors

HRI Funding Proposal Development Strategy – Discussion Leader = Alan

• Use funding to complete in-progress and/or develop new courses?
• Potential candidate - Sediment transport course
  • ACTION ITEM - Alan to confirm need with OSW and, if warranted, find help to get started
• ACTION ITEM - Franceska will provide estimate of funding needed for WQ Principles beta test (9/9/09 Update: STED presentation confirmed on SS meeting agenda)

Web Page Enhancement – Discussion Leader = Alan, Barb, and Lynn

• Most pressing need – STED web page needs to be moved to new server
• ACTION ITEM - Lynn to contact David Boldt for suggestion for STED home page location
• ACTION ITEM - Lynn and Barb to act as interim webmaster until STED position filled

Topics for Next Conference Call

• Regional coop education priority and strategy
• HRI funding proposal strategy
• Review face-to-face meeting, additions to minutes, and results
• Schedule discussions on remaining topics from face-to-face meeting

The next conference call is scheduled for Thursday, December 3 at 1:00 pm EST.