Office at 1315 Peachtree Garners LEED Platinum with 95 Points; No Points Denied
PR Newswire
ATLANTA, March 5, 2012
Today, leading design firm Perkins Will announced that its Atlanta office at 1315 Peachtree Street earned LEED Platinum with 95 points awarded, the most of any project in the Northern Hemisphere to date under the 2009 version of LEED for New Construction.
"Perkins Will has designed a showpiece building," said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). "1315 Peachtree Street exemplifies the kind of environmentally sustainable measures that can be taken during a building retrofit. It has earned its high LEED score and will continue to pay dividends through energy saving measures for decades to come."
The office building, originally constructed in 1985 and located in the heart of Midtown Atlanta, across from the High Museum of Art, has been redesigned into a high-performance sustainability-focused building. Perkins Will purchased and began renovating the structure in 2009. The firm wanted to showcase its commitment to the environment and the transformative power of sustainable design by incorporating building re-use and renovation efforts into the concept of sustainability. In addition to LEED Platinum, the project is already a recipient of the Urban Land Institute's Development of Excellence Award.
"As Mayor of the city, I am proud that Atlanta is home to the highest LEED score of any building in the Northern Hemisphere at this time," said Mayor Kasim Reed. "Perkins Will's LEED Platinum office building shows what happens when true innovation in design, sustainability and reuse come together. This designation further underscores Atlanta's commitment to becoming a top 10 sustainable city in the United States. I applaud Perkins Will on their achievement."
Perkins Will's Atlanta office occupies the top four floors of the mixed-use building. In line with one of the project's goals of supporting the greater community of Atlanta, other tenants include The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) – its presence made possible by infilling what was once the building's parking deck – and the Peachtree Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library.
"We set out to make 1315 Peachtree a living model of sustainability and we have been inspired by the results so far," said Willard Lariscy, Perkins Will Principal and Managing Director. "A 95-point LEED Platinum Certification is another confirmation that we've accomplished our goals, but since it's a living lab, we'll continue to create new goals as we adapt to change and experiment with new ideas."
Reducing energy use and increasing efficiency were key to the building's design. Exterior renovations include more energy efficient exterior glazing and alterations to the front facade. An exterior terrace on the fifth floor serves as lunch, meeting and office social space. It also features a garden for employees to get their "green" thumbs dirty.
The interior represents the latest in workplace design, encouraging collaboration through office-wide wifi network access, computational nodes, collaborative benching-style workstations and multipurpose team rooms with transparent walls that can be easily reconfigured to incorporate the largest amount of input from all staff.
The building is equipped with raised flooring and a radiant heating and cooling system, the first of its kind in Atlanta. It utilizes passive sun shading on lower levels and an active, dynamic exterior sunshade on the building terrace level to control afternoon sunlight and heat gain. The building's design also incorporates views and natural daylight in virtually every occupied space. Lighting control strategies such as daylight harvesting and reduced ambient lighting coupled with the use of LED lamps also reduce the building's energy needs.
Microturbines and an adsorption chiller on the building's roof are part of a trigeneration system. By using natural gas to produce electricity, the building's carbon footprint is reduced by 68 percent to comply with the 2030 Challenge for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. And in Atlanta, where water availability has become an important issue, a 10,000 gallon cistern catches rainwater that is then filtered, treated and re-circulated for landscape irrigation and low-flow urinals and toilets.
All of these initiatives together have helped the building cut energy consumption by 58 percent and municipally supplied potable water use by 78 percent. 1315 reused, repurposed, recycled or otherwise diverted 80 percent (630 tons) of material from the building. Perkins Will was able to connect with 19 local nonprofit groups, and match their needs for furniture and materials with their inventory of items salvaged from the existing space. This experience spawned the Lifecycle Building Center, which is now a nonprofit resource for repurposing salvaged material for future work in the region.
For more information about Perkins Will and 1315 Peachtree Street, visit http://www.perkinswill.com.
About Perkins Will
Established in 1935, Perkins Will is an international integrated design firm founded on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance society. Serving clients across a broad range of markets and disciplines, Perkins Will ranks among the world's top design firms and has most recently earned the National Building Museum Honor Award for Civic Innovation in its inaugural year. With more LEED® Accredited Professionals than any other design firm in North America, Perkins Will is recognized as one of the preeminent sustainable design firms in the country. More information on Perkins Will and its services can be found at www.perkinswill.com.
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Begin Planning Now: November’s elections may seem far away, but the sooner you begin planning effective nonpartisan ways to help your students register, volunteer, learn about the issues and turn out at the polls, the better prepared you’ll be as deadlines approach, and the more interest and momentum you’ll build on your campus. Plus every student registered in spring is one less to register in fall. Here are 10 areas where you can begin acting now:
1. Build a team.
• Create a core group of administrators, faculty and staff to coordinate campus election-engagement efforts and ensure key people are talking with each other across different departments and disciplines.
• Approach key campus leaders now to get commitments to help engage your campus. Include Deans, Provost, President, Student Affairs, Service Learning Coordinator, Registrar, IT department, Residence Life, Campus Newspaper Advisor, Faculty Development, Coaches, and academic departments.
• Review what your campus has done previously during election cycles and brainstorm ways to build on it.
• Brainstorm funding sources for ideas not already built into campus budgets. For instance, printing of voter engagement materials, food for get-out-the-vote volunteer parties, and transportation for students who want to register voters off campus. If you have a non-federally funded student philanthropy program, they might be interested in helping with this. We can also give them ideas for micro-grants where they can help engage other schools in the election.
• Approach student leadership. Student government and student programming boards can be important allies, as can the student newspaper. Begin planning together for fall.
2. Check the Calendar. Develop a preliminary calendar including:
• Key campus dates:
• Deadline for the site students use when they register for fall classes, so you can post the Rock the Vote registration tool.
• Deadline for submission of materials to campus registration packets.
• Deadline for student orientations to include election-engagement activities and voter registration.
• Fall book order deadlines for election-related course themes.
• First and last days of classes.
• Election related dates: For info on state deadlines and rules, nonprofitvote.org links to info supplied by your Secretary of State and the League of Women Voters site, vote411.org has excellent summaries.
• Voter registration deadlines.
• Deadlines to get an on-campus polling station.
• Dates of state primaries or caucuses and local elections.
• Fall early voting timelines.
3. Identify Key Potential Areas for Campus Efforts
• Voter Registration: Schools can play a key role in helping get students registered. Add registration components to activities like graduation, orientation, course registration, sporting events and concerts. Encourage student and relevant off-campus groups (like the PIRGS) to register voters in public spaces, like campus quads and the student union. If you have a residential campus, work with student organizations to do a "dorm storm," where they go door to door to register students where they live. Encourage the campus Republicans and Democrats to do joint registration drives.
• New Voter Registration and Identification Rules: In many states, these have changed rapidly, making student registration and voting more confusing and difficult. Schools can play a critical role in ensuring that every eligible student knows what they need to bring to register and vote, and how and when to do it. In many cases schools can supply approved forms of identification, whether particular types of student ID cards, letters from the President attesting that a student is enrolled, or zero-balance utility bills. Nonprofitvote.Org and vote411.org have state-specific information. Your Campus Compact affiliate may also be creating a website section with information and templates. If your school runs into consistent hurdles trying to help your students register and vote, you can call the 1-866-OurVote hotline or visit 866ourvote.org to connect with lawyers who can advise you.
• Student electoral volunteering: Work with your service learning center to encourage students doing off-campus service projects to register the communities they work with, and to connect the nonprofits through which they volunteer with key resources like those offered by nonprofitvote.org. Encourage students to work with nearby schools to help register eligible high school seniors. Encourage them to volunteer with candidates and political campaigns, according to their individual beliefs. Encourage faculty to offer credit for any of these activities if students include reflective components like journals and reports.
• Candidate and Issue Education: You want your campus to be a hub where students reflect on key issues and critically evaluate local, state and national candidates. Steer students to resources like votesmart.org where they can vet candidates’ stands. Schedule debates and forums. Think of creative ways, like those provided by the Annenberg School’s flackcheck.org, to help students question misleading campaign ads and actively challenge their airing. Plan for election and civic engagement-related speakers, and plan ways to distribute nonpartisan voting guides, like those that the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote will be preparing.
• Voter Turnout: It’s never too early to collect pledges to vote, or plan parades to the polls, debates and forums, mock voting days, and absentee ballot mailing parties (longdistancevoter.org is a great resource).
4. Plan IT support for student engagement and voter education .
• Campus web pages, listservs, and social media sites can play a key role in getting students registered and involved. Work with your IT department to place the Rock the Vote registration tool on prominent campus websites and distribute it through campus e-mail. Ask them to distribute the nearly completed election-information Smartphone app that we’ll be sending out shortly from the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights, by publicizing the URL to download it and display its QR code in venues like the football stadium Jumbotron screen.
• Votinginfoproject.org, initiated by Google and Pew, is still developing its tools, but they’ll let students look up voting places online. They’ll also offer other key resources, like helping students get ballots if they’re studying abroad, as will overseasvotefoundation.org. Make sure your campus IT dept knows about these resources, and coordinates with your study abroad program for the latter.
• Start a Facebook group or Twitter tag for later use. People can sign up easily and you can then efficiently remind them come fall.
5. Check out existing web resources – and keep your eyes open for more to come.
• www.Compact.org/initiatives/campus-vote-home/ [This will be Campus Election Engagement Project’s main site - CEEP is in the process of updating it]
• www.Ysa.org/ServiceVote From Youth Service America
• www.Campusvoteproject.org From the Fair Elections Legal Network
6. Include registration options at key spring events and in key materials.
• Display the Rock the Vote registration tool prominently on key campus web pages, particularly those where students sign up for fall classes.
• Include mail-in registration forms in any materials given to students (e.g., class descriptions, graduation packets, summer residential life forms).
• Try to incorporate voter registration drives into as many end-of-year activities as possible, like graduation. One person with 100 voter registration forms can register lots of people in just an hour.
7. Encourage students to vote in primaries and local elections. Nearly half the states still have upcoming primaries and local elections. They’re great places to learn about candidates and issues and become more involved. Congressional seats, Senate seats and state and local offices fill out most primary ballots. Talk about ways these matter.
8. Encourage faculty to add voter education to their curriculums
• Invite primary candidates (presidential, Senate, Congressional or local) to speak on campus, or even host a debate.
• Include voter registration forms in course syllabi.
• Incorporate relevant election-related discussions and readings into classes.
• Combat political cynicism by exploring how electoral and non-electoral participation can complement each other, whether in the civil rights movement, Occupy, or the Tea Party. Assign books that give students a sense of how social change has unfolded in America, and the critical role of elections.
• Add an election volunteering component to classes involving service learning. See nonprofitvote.org for nonpartisan ways nonprofits can register and educate voters.
9. Build master lists for fall updates – Get e-mails (for text message) and phone numbers from all related events and programs. By fall, this could be a great list of students for Get Out the Vote efforts.
10. Work with the local board of elections for an on-campus polling location. Making voting easy and convenient will significantly boost campus voter turnout.
Produced by the Campus Election Engagement Project, a nonpartisan effort to help campuses involve students in the election, working primarily through the state affiliates of Campus Compact and other partners like Youth Service America. For more info contact campuselect@gmail.com.
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Your neighbors and colleagues know best! The education, networking and practicality of a regional conference makes this experience one not to miss. Registration for all four the NACAS Regional Conferences is now open! Attend the one closest to you or pick the programs that work best for your auxiliary needs at the time. View the dates & information for all four events today.
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...that NACAS provides a online connection between job seekers and higher education auxiliary employers? Created with the unique needs of auxiliary services community in mind, the NACAS career center is free for all job seekers. Visit nacas.org/careers and take the next step in your career!
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It's time to renew your NACAS membership! Your access to member benefits ends June 30, 2012, and now is the perfect time start your renewal process. Visit nacas.org/renew or call our national office at (434) 245-8425. You can also e-mail info@nacas.org with any changes to your membership information or to update your institution's list of member representatives.
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The NACAS Education Foundation is proud to support the professional development activities of NACAS. The Education Foundation provides full funding for many programs and partial funding for others, offsetting program expenses which helps provide these programs at a reasonable cost to members. Many NACAS members enjoy the benefit of a Foundation-sponsored program or a Foundation-supported program throughout the year.
We hope you’ll take a look at our new NACAS Education Foundation video. The Education Foundation Board, with a great deal of assistance from the University of Arizona Student Union staff and students, created this video highlighting some of those members who have benefitted and some of the work done by Board members and others to generate funds to provide that support.
The NACAS Education Foundation thanks you for your support. Without the generous support of our members and NACAS Business Partners, many important NACAS programs would not be possible.
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Got a story to tell? Share it with colleagues in an educational session format. Traditional Educational Sessions, Corporate Connection Sessions, or a Flash Session...there’s a format meant just for YOUR story.
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Stay in style! The reservations process for the 2012 Annual Conference will open in May 2012. Enjoy the style and practicality of the Hyatt Regency Atlanta during this year’s conference. More information will be posted at nacas.org/annualconference when the block is open.
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Take a look to see the business partners that are supporting NACAS in 2012. A huge thank you to our generous sponsors!
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By Brent O’Bryan, SPHR
Whether you have a job and are looking to make a change or are currently unemployed, job fairs can be a great way to meet with recruiters. But, they can also be quite intimidating to the uninitiated. With some job fairs attracting thousands of applicants, it’s important to arm yourself with a plan of action before you arrive. Think of attending a job fair as analogous to a visit to Disney World®. Do you want to spend valuable time waiting in a line to get on a random ride you may or may not like, or do you want to do some advance research, get a "FASTPASS," and spend time enjoying the park? You will get the most out of a job fair when you put in the time to make it work for you.
As a veteran human resources professional who has been on point at many job fairs, I have witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly in job fair behavior. By reviewing the following tips and techniques for job fair navigation, you’ll be prepared for a successful experience before, during and after a job fair.
The Good
• Knowledge is Power - Smart candidates take the time to thoroughly research the job fairs they attend. They find out what companies will be on the premises and decide which companies are of interest to them. They then read as much as they can about their favorite companies. When they arrive at the job fair, they have a short list of companies they want to make a personal connection with. A recruiter who is meeting with dozens of people in one day is much more likely to remember the applicant who took the time to read the book from that company’s CEO, for example, or who had carefully reviewed the company’s job postings and website to see where they could offer the most value.
• Demonstrate Aptitude - To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, fellow job fair applicants, "should ask not what your ‘company’ can do for you, ask what you can do for your ‘company.’" Savvy job fair attendees focus on how their experience benefits the company and offer tangible insight on how the skills they have garnered translate to on-the-job benefits for the employer.
• Presentation Counts – If you are going to a job fair, you want to stand out from the crowd in a positive, professional manner. What does that mean? Even if you are applying for a position that will likely require a uniform or carpenter pants, wear a freshly pressed suit and comfortable yet professional shoes, and make sure that hair and nails are freshly groomed. Savvy recruiters look for long-term potential. Can this maintenance worker become a supervisor? Can this receptionist become an account coordinator? Dress for the position you would ultimately like to have.
• Manners Matter – Successful job fair applicants are generally conservative when interacting with hiring personnel. Never assume that Mr. Fred Johnson wants to be called Fred. Reference him as "Mr. Johnson" until he says otherwise.
• Link Up for Best Results – Not all social media is created equal, but LinkedIn, which was created for the business community, is an ideal online network for job hunters. Many companies are using LinkedIn to research and find candidates. LinkedIn helps companies leverage the networks of their employees as well. Many successful job fair applicants connect with their recruiters on LinkedIn after their initial meeting.
• Traditional Paper Resume Still Rules – Sure, flash drives are cool and can hold a lot of information, but most recruiters are still pretty old-fashioned and would prefer an old fashioned paper resume that they can read on the spot. Successful job fair applicants should bring plenty of one-page, concise and informative resumes with them in a neat briefcase or portfolio.
The Bad
• How Much Does this Job Pay? – Asking about salary and benefit immediately is a turn-off to recruiters. Think of a job fair as a way to market yourself to employers to get an interview. Few recruiters will want to move forward with an applicant whose initial questions revolve around salary, benefits, and vacation and personal day allotment.
• Failure to Differentiate – An applicant who arrives at the job fair with no advance information on what companies will be on-site and who they want to impress, runs the risk of waiting in endless lines to talk to recruiters at companies that aren’t the right fit. By failing to do advance research, time is wasted for both the applicant and the recruiter.
• Resume Has Typos – It is important to proofread a resume for typos and misspellings which undermine an applicant’s ability to get interviews and secure a job. The resume should be an error-free showcase of your experience, skills and capabilities.
• Twittering Away to Irrelevance – Job hunters who are social media aficionados run the risk of information overload. While a professional, updated LinkedIn profile is always a plus to human resource professionals, a Facebook page "gone wild" with postings about raucous nights at the casino or a Twitter account detailing compromising personal information, can be a liability.
The Ugly
• Gum Chewing – While it seems incredulous than anyone would chew gum and talk to a recruiter simultaneously, it happens more than I’d like to admit. Sometimes, the gum chewing applicant is a cigarette smoker who is trying to cover their tracks. Whatever the reason, there is no place for gum chewing on the job search circuit! Likewise, munching on chips or engaging in any other manner of food consumption in front of a recruiter is strictly off-limits.
• Hygiene Matters – Meeting with recruiters is not the time to forget to brush your teeth, take a shower, or groom your nails. Being remembered due to body odor or bad breath is not a ticket to employment satisfaction.
• Employment Stalker – At every job fair, there are applicants who fail to recognize the social cues that their interview is over. They linger at the booth, or return to the recruiter again and again during the fair. Or they send daily e-mails to the recruiter asking for progress reports. While appropriate follow up is important, harassment will not land you your dream job.
Job fairs sometimes offer workshops on any variety of topics related to employment. Take the time to attend these free events to bone up on skills and information. Be sure to judiciously follow up with the recruiters you’ve made a good connection with at the job fair. Assemble the business cards you amassed from human resource professionals and fellow attendees and link up to them on LinkedIn. Recruiters appreciate receiving a follow up thank you e-mail, which signals your interest in contributing to the organization. Just as recruiters have to keep track of multiple applicants, applicants need to develop their own system for logging information on all potential job leads.
About the author: Brent O’Bryan, SPHR, is Vice President, Learning and Development at AlliedBarton Security Services, www.alliedbarton.com, the industry’s premier provider of highly trained security personnel to many industries including commercial real estate, higher education, healthcare, residential communities, chemical/petrochemical, government, manufacturing and distribution, financial institutions, and shopping centers.
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By Wayne E. Reed, Assistant Vice President for Auxiliary and Support Services, Georgia State University; Chris Connelly, Director of Marketing and Administration Support Services, Georgia State University
When you think about the many opportunities within your staff and around your campus to collaborate with others, as well as with members within NACAS who are so willing to share from their experiences, the opportunity to collaborate to achieve something great is one of the wonderful advantages of working in a college or university environment. Such was the case when at Georgia State University, in Atlanta, we recognized the need to improve our campus post office.
At Georgia State University, our ambition within Auxiliary and Support Services is to serve as we would like to be served, viewing our mission from the vantage point of the customer's perspective. Our guiding philosophy emphasizes the importance of serving others in fulfilling our mission, in providing high quality, excellence, and professionalism, along with the personal touch of a caring and concerned approach in serving our customers and constituents. Within that context, as we recently focused on our campus post office, the need to update the facility to enable us to improve the quality of the customer experience and to enhance the environment for our staff members who work there was obvious.
Our campus post office had not been updated in more than 25 years. The service area had paned glass windows between the customer and the cashier; the signs were dated, and the overall area gave a poor impression to our wide variety of customers on campus. It was evident that this important service area needed a face-lift. "It was important to us for our Post Office to be a student destination," said Kevin Kelley, GSU Assistant Director for Mail, Vending, and Printing Services. Through a series of discussions within our internal staff group, we knew that we wanted to change the design and improve the overall space to make it more inviting and welcoming for our customers, as well as more comfortable and functional for our staff members who work there.
Recognizing that just a short distance away in Atlanta, our friends and colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology had completed renovations of their campus post office, we began to collaborate with them as we contemplated renovations of our campus post office. Kevin took a short trip to the Georgia Tech campus for a visit to their renovated campus post office. Having gained insights through his discussions there, Kevin then reached out to our local representatives within the U.S. Post Office and confirmed that the U.S.P.S. would be willing to assist in our efforts through providing modular work stations designed for a new point of sale system that Georgia State was interested in implementing.
The process continued as we worked within our division to solidify funding for the much needed renovation project. With the funding secured, we then moved forward, working within our Facilities group, who provided architectural assistance in designing a more customer friendly space, which would eliminate the glass barriers that separated post office staff from the customers whom they would be serving. The concept was to take a relatively small post office space, built within a space that necessitated customers to line up along the corridor as they waited for service, and completely demolish the interior and then start with a new and fresh design that would enable customers to walk into the post office space. Facilities Renovations staff members worked with a strong sense of pride in performing their work in the transformation that would result.
In addition, the new point-of-sale system that was selected would enable post office staff to utilize best-in-class touchscreens, with fast and reliable order processing. The new point-of-sale system would also provide real-time customer views of transactions and faster operating speeds that would enable shorter check-out times for campus post office customers. The capacity of the new point of sale system would further enable the campus post office to expand its products to include USPS branded "Ready Post" packaging materials that would create a new revenue opportunity within the post office.
To say that the positive outcomes were more than at first we imagined would be an understatement. As our post office staff moved into their newly designed space, something almost magical happened within the campus post office. With a more welcoming post office space in which customers could come inside, rather than being served from the corridor through glass barriers separating them from the staff members serving them, a compelling, more customer-friendly space was born. Campus post office staff members immediately became engaged with their customers in exciting and friendly manners, far beyond anything before, when they were in their previously outdated surroundings. The reactions on campus have been extremely positive and the interactions with our customers have been revolutionized. To be sure... at Georgia State University, we did indeed experience something great because we took the time to collaborate. GSU now has the second-highest revenue-producing United States Postal Service (USPS) Contract Postal Unit (CPU) in the Atlanta District, and the largest located at a college and/or university. The U.S. Postal Services recently recognized the Georgia State University Post Office as the National Contract Postal Unit of the Month, for the month of January 2012 and featured its success in both the national and local USPS news links.
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The Shop24 ultra convenience store is a self-contained, refrigerated and robotic convenience store designed to enable 24/7/365 consumer purchasing. With more than 190 locations currently operating in Europe, the company is now under American ownership and focused on expansion in the United States. Shop 24 brings an innovative idea to ultra-convenience, dispensing a variety of items such as snacks, household supplies, over-the-counter medicine and even freshly prepared sandwiches closer to the customer and in a fraction of the time it takes to go to and shop at a traditional convenience store. The more than nine-foot-tall machine offers up to 200 traditional convenience-store items ranging in weight from less than 1 ounce to 8 pounds. Shop24 accepts different methods of payment including cash, credit cards, debit cards, campus dining cards, Flex Cards, and supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) cards 24 hours a day. This is the most inventive way to bridge the gap between retail products and the end consumer.
In the US, Shop 24 stores currently operate successfully on college campuses in California and New York as well as apartment complexes in Texas and Utah. The Company has seen an explosion of interest from Apartment Community operators nationwide who recognize the huge popularity of the stores with residents.
"The response has been incredible," says Michael Weigel, Chief Marketing Officer. "Making the most commonly used convenience store items available around the clock and right on the apartment property is a great amenity."
To facilitate growth in the Philadelphia region, Shop 24 Global created a strategic alliance with Shop 24 of Pennsylvania.
"Multifamily property owners and managers are always looking for a WOW factor to distinguish their property from the competition. By providing the hyper-convenience of a Shop 24 store, apartment complexes will increase occupancy levels and resident satisfaction while enjoying a new and completely turnkey profit center," says Ken Kaplan, principal of Shop 24 of Pennsylvania.
"The vision and professionalism of Shop 24 Global’s team motivated me to become involved. The benefits of having a Shop 24 on any type of residential community or commercial facility speak for themselves." Profitable programs are available for locations that wish to be owner operators and also for those that want to have a store on their property with no operating responsibilities. "It’s a win-win-win from every angle!" Kaplan continues.
Experts say there is a huge market for this type of ultra-convenience store and it is the wave of the future for the convenience store shopping experience. These stores even create the need for more jobs with the addition of delivery drivers, distributions centers, and managers. Shop24 does not discount the need for grocery and convenience stores, but knows that consumers want to have their purchases quickly in this fast-paced world.
To learn more about Shop24, please visit the website: www.shop24global.com or call: 866-973-2424.
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Thank you for your continued support of the CASP program. This Recertification Application is for the Certified Auxiliary Services Professional (CASP). This application is designed to assist you in the CASP Recertification Process as well as to provide a framework for you to compile your recertification documentation. More information to be posted on nacas.org soon.
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In the days when I taught more formally, I’d share with my students the depressing lesson that no matter how good our semester or their education program was, on the day they graduated they began becoming obsolete. I quoted another faculty member, Blaine McCormack* who explained that it is a PRIVILEGE to be certified as obsolete by a major American university AND that their salary would probably increase WITH the degree rather than without it.
McCormack wrote a REALLY good book that used one of my favorite historical figures, Ben Franklin, to talk about how to be successful in management (for which we ALL strive). As I embark on my favorite travel times, attending each of the four NACAS Regional Conferences, I’m reminded of ALL that NACAS does to ensure that YOU don’t become obsolete.
Ben Franklin strongly suggested that the best education is self-education. I love that the regional conferences provide a rich multi-level opportunity for learning.
• First, they provide wonderful formal education. Their education programs are now based upon the key workforce analysis conducted by NACAS and funded by the Education Foundation for the CASP certification program. This analysis not ONLY provided the basis for certification but much more broadly provided the underpinning for many of the professional development programs offered both nationally and regionally. It’s an important knowledge base for all of our learning.
• Second, equally important is the opportunity to use our formal and experiential experiences (those we bring with us from the real life on-the-job experiences) to fill the nuances of learning for each of us. Formal learning takes greater meaning when taken WITH a campus tour, or discussed with a colleague during the rest of the conference. Learning becomes even better when you can supplement the classroom with a visit to the vendors who also work in the field and see how competitors (and colleagues) design often different systems to meet similar auxiliary demands.
• Third, if you really want to learn a subject, talk about it publically, or even better, teach it. Franklin felt strongly that discourse on a topic made it clearer for ALL, including the one doing the teaching. This above all is a safeguard against creating illusions of reality as we often face tasks in solitude. NACAS claims to be The Connections That Count and it is these connections that really do provide the guard against obsolescence. If you really want to learn, you’ll create relationship/connections that you can use to test your ideas when you return to your campus.
Franklin also saw and described the value of NACAS – well not exactly NACAS, but the concept. He created the Junto (pronounced JUNE-tow). In his autobiography he describes that "I should have mention’d before, that in the Autumn of the preceding Year I form’d most of my ingenious Acquaintances into a Club for mutual Improvement, which we call the Junto." His formal, structured meetings of like- and unlike-minded individuals was a strong basis for his continued learning. Much like NACAS, the major "rule" was that there be a sincere and respectful "inquiry after truth." Also, those that showed up controlled the meetings. Those who missed, lost out. I contend that those who haven’t attended a NACAS regional conference REALLY lose out. In addition, many have heard me state that most of life is justifiably controlled by those who show up.
Finally, NACAS South is hosting our Spring offering of the Certified Auxiliary Service Professional (CASP) exam. And that gives me just excuse enough to talk about two of my other favorite topics, NACAS Certification and the NACAS Education Foundation.
The NACAS Certification Program gives you the ability to do two more "Franklinesqe" self-learning tasks. First, it allows you to pit your own learning against the psychometrically qualified knowledge and testing necessary to be certified. More about that in next months "Commentary," but there is no other more necessary activity given the demographic and qualitative challenges of today’s higher education environment. Franklin strongly felt that you had to test your knowledge against the best of any industry.
Second, the reading recommended in the NACAS CASP Handbook is certainly a good place to start for you own improvement. We’d also like to know what YOU feel is fundamental work for auxiliary success.
Finally, you "can’t miss" the new Education Foundation video where I say "Thank you NACAS Education Foundation." The main take-away from the video is the tremendous work that the Foundation is doing to help us ALL to stay at the cutting edge of auxiliary services, hence NEVER becoming obsolete. The Ed Foundation produced two videos, one on the Foundation and the other on CASP. The most important Ben Franklin point is that they are BOTH accurate and honest. And lest I forget, three GREAT business partners led by Barnes and Noble College, American Campus Communities and Education Realty Trust are leading the Foundation in their support of our certification program.
NACAS South Conference link: May 5-9, Austin, Texas
http://www.nacas.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Regions22/SouthRegion/default.htm
NACAS West Conference link: June 3-5 in Albuquerque, NM
http://www.nacas.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Regions22/WestRegion/WestRegionalConference/default.htm
NACAS East Conference link: June 10-13, Long Island, NY
http://www.nacas.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Regions22/EastRegion/EastRegionalConference/default.htm
NACAS Central Conference link: June 13-16, St. Louis, MO
http://www.nacas.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Regions22/CentralRegion/2010CentralRegionalConference/default.htm
NACAS YouTube videos:
CASP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI8-r9pHYMs
NACAS Education Foundation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocq2oIrkhXs
So what can you do to prevent becoming obsolete?
• Read and interact with your reading.
• Interact with others about what you’ve learned through experience, reading and every way you learn.
• Orally present your learning to others and ask for critique.
• Participate with NACAS – we hope we’re your Junto.
As always, agree or disagree to bob@nacas.org. The time for us to enjoy that together is too quickly dwindling down.
*NOTE: The book on which many of these observations on Franklin are based is: Ben Franklin’s 12 Rules of Management: The Founding Father of Business Solves Your Toughest Problems by Blaine McCormick, Entrepreneur Press, 2000.
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