STED Committee Teleconference
Conference Call Agenda and Notes
October 27, 2011
(2:00-4:00 pm Eastern Time)

Dial-In Logistics

Attendees List:

Agenda And Discussion Notes

Agenda Items:
Welcome to new member Rod Sheets
How do you contact STED?
Why do you contact us?
Need contact info on our web pages
Introduction to SharePoint for document editing and exchange - https://collaboration.usgs.gov/wg/sted/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Discuss about Survey - Alan
Review and Assign Action Items from Face to Face – Prioritize and set deadlines

Additional Topics brought up:

Completed Action Items
AI: Obtained web access to assist Mike with general updates and adjusted web pages to reflect new membership information (Nicole) - Done
AI: Adjust email group to reflect new members (Nicole) – Done
AI: Create a method of document exchange and storage outside of email (Nicole) – SharePoint requested to hold this information – DONE
AI: Present to Jered for review and submission to Water SR. Staff - Emails sent and Rod Sheets was added as the Northeast and Midwest area WSFT Specialist. DONE
AI: Alan to send list of classes to STED and have them review before the survey is sent (ALL) – Alan sent list to STED and asked for responses by 9/30/11 DONE
AI: Bill to give STED brochure to Mike and Nicole to Post – DONE

Discussion and Action Items - Training Tracks:
AI: Create a list of Job Series which STED will target to create training tracks – Start with 1-4 and expand as process develops. – Do we start with Hydrologic Technicians, or other series that might be easy to define?
AI: Create a list of different “tracks” or “specialties” for each of these job series. – How can we come up with a way to define the difference between general courses and those that would only be needed for people in specific career specialties?
AI: Create Categories for training and classify all current training classes within these categories (Computer, Ground water, Interdisciplinary, HR, Leadership, Management, Safety, Surface water, Water Quality) – are the NTC categories enough or do we need more breakdown or are their gaps? – What can we add?
AI: Create different targets for career tracking (examples: Before they start working, Annual, First Month, First Year, Emerging/Changing Technology, Role Based, First 5 years, Within Career) – Start to define a catalog – think of it like college catalog of things to choose from to graduate
AI: Fill in Gaps and come up with a plan to reach out to teams to fill gaps for future training. Encourage trainers to design courses with national consistency in mind – STED to present training plans and reach out to training developers to suggest gaps and content needs
AI: Develop a point system to assure staff reaches appropriate training per year. – Credit hours needed per year – scale to show managers and employees are invested in continues training and advancement to assure consistency in our data/product.
AI: Emphasize training options that are effective without being costly to the science centers. – With the shrinking budgets of science centers, we have to find cheap alternatives. To assure consistency in the organization, people must be trained regardless of shrinking budgets.
AI: Provide a skeleton product to management for their consideration and approval. If approved, STED to post guidance and get management approval to include guidance as part of employee development program. – Management needs to determine if training tracks are optional or mandatory. If they decide they are mandatory, then the governance lies with them to communicate this to science center managers.
AI: Determine equipment needs and identify network issues at office that may interfere with video streaming - Reach out to those involved in streaming and video conferencing options to test and plan for how to optimize these options to extend the training beyond the traditional classroom and still be effective.
AI: Tip Sheets? Field Manuals? Lecture Series?

Members:

Training Survey:
AI: Email to be sent to all Study Chiefs via ‘GS-W Studies Chiefs’ encouraging survey responses from supervisors in their center (Tony)
AI: Alan to add something to the survey email text that gives feedback on how the last survey was used (Alan)
AI: Alan to draft email about this year’s training survey and STED will review (All review) – This would help define what needs to be address in survey.

TEL and Streaming:
AI: Create a list of current limitations to streaming and a plan for testing creative solutions to get streaming out to the field. Need actual statistics and results on how streaming is received in the field.

Web Page (Michael Ierardi and Steve Lipscomb):
AI: Mike to make a draft web page so that edits can be sent to the STED for review.
AI: STED members to send emails to the group with subject line “Web Pages” when web content is being sent to Mike to adjust (ALL).
AI: More photos to be added to the page. Send photo’s (assure appropriate safety is being followed in photos) to Mike to add to pages (ALL) – More pictures will help the page’s appeal.
AI: Bill to give STED brochure to Mike and Nicole to Post – DONE
AI: Set up schedule and assign members the monthly duty of checking web pages for errors. Find tools that can be used to scan pages for dead links (Nicole and Mike).
AI: Contact Mike Knowles and find out about moving the training that was done my him and is stored in Menlo Park to Reston (Jim)

Interaction with Data Committees:
AI: Draft an official tech memo. Have STED review it and then request it be reviewed by Bill W for consideration and distribution. (Franceska – Nicole to assist as needed)

USGS Course Catalog Project (Alan Ward):
AI: Alan to send information to STED on List-Serv and have Mike post this on the STED web pages.
AI: Jim to send email to tech offices and Subject Matter Experts to request they schedule their courses as far in advance as possible.

General Comments and Action Items (ALL):
AI: (ALL) Send electronic copies of handouts, documents, and PowerPoint documents to Mike to put on the web pages.