NZATD Auckland Branch President's New Year Message
Tuesday January 25, 2011
Welcome to 2011!
Your Auckland Branch is planning to deliver lots of professional development opportunities and initiatives throughout the year.
Each month will be a professional development session (Our first being the Colin Cox breakfast meeting on February 1st). Also available after each event will be a „white paper‟ that provides an executive summary of the key learning from each session. We are going to improve access to these sessions and are looking toward podcasts and free webinars and down loads from the website.
The newsletter is also going to contain more information that will help in your professional development – in fact you might notice that the newsletter is sporting a new name – we moved from “Networker” to “Learning Matters”.
We decided as a committee that the name “Networker” didn't adequately describe the benefits and values that the association is striving to deliver. We do not want our Association to be seen as simply a social organisation, while there is no doubt we enjoy catching up on meeting with professionals within our industry, what really matters is that the association assists members improve as professionals.
FYI – The brief for brainstorming the new name was that: ”NZATD is a Professional Peak Organisation designed to help professionals involved in consulting or managing training and development initiatives. The newsletter is to help members keep their finger on the pulse of their profession. The newsletter keeps members in touch with new developments in the industry and in touch with other industry professionals. The newsletter will provide insights and keep members posted with information that will be of value and benefit.”
BTW – The other names that the committee brainstormed included: Pulse, Communique, The Professional Trainer, Professional T&D News, Insight, Intouch, Update, Professionally, The NZATD Auckland Branch Newsletter, Mind Mapper, The Brainstorm, Energizer, Ice Breaker, Take a break, Mastery, Masterizer, Gordian Knot, In focus, Training Matters and of course – Learning Matters.
Whether we are a self-employed consultants or employees in a large or small organisation we all carry a responsibility to effectively help people to learn and perform better. The word “Training” is in the name of the Association but what really matters is the learning that takes place.
The new title also reflects the kinds of information you will find in the newsletter. It will cover all matters related to our profession - Learning and Development Technologies, E-Learning, Performance Management, Cultural Beliefs, Leadership Development, Organisational Effectiveness, Score Cards and Metrics, Consulting and Partnering Practices, Tools for Training, Team building, Presentation Skills, Industry benchmarks and best practices – in fact anything that matters in the profession.
The executive of the Committee decided on Learning Matters because it had the double meaning of addressing all matters related to Learning & Development but also it reinforces the importance of our industry...
Learning really does matter.
Steve Coy
Auckland Branch President
January 2011
