The CSTD E-newsletter:
April 8, 2009

Briefly, the proposal states:

• Blackboard drop its recently-filed lawsuit in a timely manner.
• In return, Desire2Learn will donate $1,000,000 to non-profit schools and educational organizations.
• Blackboard is invited to join Desire2Learn with its own donation. 
• Up to 50% of the Desire2Learn donation will be directed toward schools in need in and around the Washington, D.C. area, the home of Blackboard."

Thank you, Desire2Learn for this breath of fresh air in these turbulent times.

News from All Over 
Canada's Best Diversity Employers
Monday night, I attended a reception celebrating Canada's Best Diversity Employers for 2009. Congratulations to Corey Garlough and the Scotiabank Group who were amongst the esteemed winners. A number of other CSTD member companies are also in the winners' circle.

Awards
Speaking of awards, the CSTD program has been launched for 2009. Here is your ticket to the international conference in October! Win an award and bring senior managers from your company to see you accept it. Listen to the Awards Orientation webinar to get the low-down on how to submit.

Asia's Best Recognize the Opportunity for Training
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Asia's best employers are seizing the opportunity of the economic downturn to send their management ranks out into the field to talk with consumers, dream up new products and attend dozens of training workshops. For instance, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd of Mumbai, has increased their training budget by 8% this year.

Google e-Books
Google is now becoming a reseller of books online. Using the old business model of selling products directly online, the Globe and Mail reports Google has relaunched Google Book Search.

What Canadians Think About Everything
The Globe and Mail published what I think was a pretty interesting interactive survey. Click here to learn more about 'What Canadians Think About Everything.'

As always, if you have questions or comments about CSTD, e-mail me at ljohnston@cstd.ca.

Lynn Johnston, CAE

President, CSTD 

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1. Allow yourself to make a wish list; you might be able to do more than you think.
Dream big and allow yourself to make an extensive list of what you want to accomplish, as you may find a solution out there that will accommodate your wish list. You do not have to implement all aspects at once, but create the big vision first of what it will look like when everything is in place. This will help ensure that your solution is capable of meeting your future needs as well.

2. Learn to Knit. Knit well. Stick to your knitting.
When you are ready to implement, determine what the main focus is for the project. Learn how to implement the main focus and stay the course. Learning projects can become quite huge and overwhelming, so it may be necessary to phase in. You can always expand at a later date.

3. Get the right people on the train or the train won't move.
Take note of projects that have worked well before in your company and ones that haven't and take notice of who was on the team. Make sure you have your key areas represented: Other Training Team Members (don't do it alone!), IT, HR, Your Customer (internal or external), Quality and most of all, you need an Executive Sponsor.

Read More...

Sheri Phillips, CTDP is Manager, Technical Training and Development with Teva Novopharm, a leading generic pharmaceutical organization. Sheri has extensive experience in leading teams, implementing learning management systems and eLearning content, formalizing On the Job Training, leading change management initiatives, and facilitating. Her experience spans many industries, including: manufacturing, information technology, automotive, financial and pharmaceutical. Sheri is a certified facilitator, certified personal trainer and serves as on the Board of Directors for CSTD and for CCCE. Sheri will be presenting A Prescription for Alleviating Learning Technology Pains during the CSTD National Symposium from May 20-22 in Halifax, NS.

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We recently talked to Cheryl Bakke Martin who is the President of Inspirations Unlimited, a Calgary based Career Counselling and Coaching Company. Cheryl just finished an outplacement counselling program for employees at Flextronics, an international electronics manufacturer. She was very impressed with Flextronics for their commitment to helping staff through the career transition process. She said, "Flextronics really had their people's welfare as their top priority."

Flextronics is in the process of shutting down their Calgary facility which employed 370 people. Cheryl told us, "people tend to create their own obstacles to finding satisfying jobs, and my job is to shift people's energy from despair to hope and optimism." She says the key is to realize what they are good at and what they like to do.

Read More...

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Did you produce an innovative learning program or product in the past year that deserves recognition? Were you an integral part of a learning and development team whose efforts produced exceptional results? If you can answer yes, then the Canadian Awards for Training Excellence (CATE) has a category for you! CSTD is looking to honour innovative, Canadian-developed learning products and programs through its annual awards program. The CATE seek to validate submissions which meet "best practice" learning principles. These awards also provide comprehensive feedback outlining merit and areas for improvement. Open to all organizations with at least one CSTD member, CATE recognizes programs in several categories and awards the winners with prestige and credibility. This year's informational webinar has been posted for viewing.

Deadline for submissions: May 4th, 2009

Register to submit now!

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Learning Leaders 2009 - Nomination Deadline: June 30, 2009
Is there a senior business leader in your organization or enterprise, outside of T&D, - the CEO, General Manager, or Senior Manager - who walks the talk in learning and development? Is he or she a role model for personal development and lifelong learning? Does he or she provide the support needed to embed training and development in your organization? If you answered yes to any of these questions than you may want to nominate a candidate for this year's Learning Leaders program.

Nominate a Learning Leader now!

Watch for Navigating the TCA online webinar coming soon!

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Are you are a registered certification candidate ready to take the online knowledge exam?

Upcoming Exam Windows

The exam windows are now open for Registered Certification Candidates. 
June 10-13, 2009
More dates to come...

To register for the exam click here.

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CSTD offers professional development and networking opportunities across the country on a variety of topics of interest to members. Network with fellow workplace learning and development practitioners while discovering the newest trends or latest advances in the field.  

Upcoming Professional Development

For regular updates on upcoming CSTD events, please bookmark:

www.cstd.ca/events

Check back often! Events are added on a regular basis.

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