Is Industry in the dna of your program?
These urinals are fine. They work. There is no issue with their operation. They are in the bathroom of a new multimillion dollar facility. I don’t know what an industrial grade urinal costs nor the price of the installation or the dividers but I do know that these are a complete waste of money. When this building was built, there were architects, engineers, designers, plumbers, and many other people involved in taking this from a pile of dirt to a top notch facility. Yet somehow, these urinals are not used. I imagine in the process that despite the many people involved there wasn’t clear communication about the full design of the facility.
Have you ever been given the opportunity to build something for your program? You were given money. You were trusted to make the decisions about what was needed. You were making your vision come to reality.
Has that ever backfired on you? I have. I remember I was given the reins of a new program and I was super excited. I came up with a plan. I make the inventory list, design the engineering schematics, order, and install the gear. I was king of the world. Then I realized that I bought some things I didn’t need. I didn’t buy some things that would have made my program run smoother and give my students better experiences. Looking back - I imagine those two things would have canceled each other out but I was too smart for the room. I knew what I was doing and I was going to do it. I never consulted anyone from outside of my world.
Advisory Councils are that. If done right, they are the support you need to make sure you don’t get in your own way when it comes to the growth of your program.
What is an Advisory Council?
According to the Perkins Act of 2006, where most CTE programs get their funds, an Advisory Council is “parents, students, academic and CTE teachers, faculty, administrators, career guidance and academic counselors, representatives of tech prep consortia (if applicable), representatives of business and industry, labor organizations, representatives of special populations, and other interested individuals in the development, implementation, and evaluation of CTE programs.”
I sit on several Advisory Councils and I will share that none of them are the same. Some have all teachers. Some sprinkle in an admin or two. Some have a parent and maybe a student. I am now sitting as “the” industry person on several. The make up of your council is dependent on a lot of things but there are a lot of excuses that used to exist that no longer apply. For example, several years ago, the excuse of “there are no industry partners in my area” is gone. In the day of virtual meetings, your location in the world no longer matters. You have to make sure to build your council to be as broad in scope of attendees as possible.
What an Advisory Council Should Be.
I’ll be perfectly honest with you when I say that school admin and non-video teachers are ok to have on the council but, in the grand scheme of things, aren’t that beneficial. They can help you with making sure your lessons are fundamentally sound or in compliance with local rules but for improving your program, they aren’t huge role players. Your expertise is going to push you in terms of the activities of the classroom. If you are blessed enough to have more than one video teacher in your school, COLLABORATE AT EVERY STEP!!!
Students and parents are a great way to help tell the story of your program and your successes but again for the growth of the program, they aren’t huge. They are a great tool for the story of your program.
The key to a great advisory council is industry. The California Department of Education’s CTE Advisory Committee Guidelines dictates that a successful program “must have extensive business and industry involvement, as evidenced by not less than one annual business and industry advisory committee meeting and planned business and industry involvement in program activities.” The term extensive should not be overlooked. Ideally, you should have industry woven into the DNA of your program.
If I had worked with industry as closely as I should have when I started the program mentioned earlier, I would have known more about NDI and would have known to invest more in NDI infrastructure than I did. I would have known that the hundreds of feet of cable that I purchased for live productions would soon be useless as we were working to set up a central control room.
How To Get Industry Into Your Program’s DNA
Vulnerability. That’s the key. As a teacher, it’s tough. We want to be the person that leads the way - especially in our classroom but ultimately, it’s hard to stay up with the times when it comes to technology and technique especially paired with the idea of being locked off from the world for 9 months a year. (Let’s be honest when school is in session, you aren’t typically thinking about anything outside of the classroom) In order to help build your program while you are in the trenches, you are going to have to be ok with two things:
Putting yourself and your program out there for review and feedback.
I was always scared to have someone look behind the curtain. I have always struggled with imposter syndrome and was always afraid that someone would see that my program was a paper tiger. My biggest fear was that someone from the outside would say that my program wasn’t good and that I was essentially wasting the students’ time.
It really scared me to have someone really dig in on my program. Once I did though, it was great. I found out that there were things that we were doing that were outdated and other things that were right on the money. It was a relief but I had to get past that initial fear in order to really grow my program. From that point on, I found that when I brought people into my program, they were shocked at what was actually going on and were excited to see it (The thing you have to remember is that video production is a passion based industry. No one stays in this industry if they aren’t passionate and that passion will carry into your program as they get excited to share their passion)
Hearing “No” or nothing…
The production area for UGA Sports Media Certificate students at a basketball game at Morgan County High School in 2018.
In 2014, I had the idea of focusing my program on live sports production and I found that several universities were doing the same thing. I started doing research and found the director of the sports media certificate at the University of Georgia and I called and emailed several times. Nothing… I kept trying and I wouldn’t say that I gave up, I would say that I moved on. I started working with Sherik Hodge at Georgia State University and that seemed to satiate me. Later while at a sports production conference, I crossed paths with Vicki Michaelis from UGA - the person that I had been trying to contact - and we started talking about the program (I never mentioned that I tried to reach out - sometimes silence is the best option). She was lamenting that they are journalists and had no clue what they were doing in terms of the engineering of a live production. We set up a meeting later for her to come our facility and see what we were doing…. Fast forward 5 months and there were 30 UGA students at all of our football games working as talent as we engineered the show.
While that story had good arc and ending, there were many other that didn’t. I’m not one to hold a grudge but I do have a good memory and I have many stories about schools that told me straight up no including one that told me “High School Students Should Stick To High School Work.” That person never got a student from me - As high school teachers we don’t have a ton of power but we can steer our students to places that welcome growth! (I have sent many students toward programs that worked with us and I am proud of their accomplishments!)
How to get started with building a real, relevant advisory council:
Look at your program
Determine your goals
Determine your student’s goals
Assess what you really have going on
If you are a broadcast program and the school/community wants a film program or vice versa, it may be time to make some changes.
Look Locally - Try to meet with locals to build a relationship
Who are people that can support your program in your area
Parents
Industry representatives
Administrators
Local Post Secondary options
Colleges and Universities have to recruit students as well
Bring them into your program just to hang out - don’t have them come do their sales pitch. Kids hate those and it does nothing to build your program.
OTHER TEACHERS IN YOUR AREA!
This is often missed. We are all on the same team. Reach out to other video educators in your area. Meet up, have coffee, build your network.
Reach out regionally - build an email base of regional support
Look around your state who can help.
Connect with your trade teacher organization
ACTE.org is a great place to start
If there is a person or company doing cool things, reach out and see if they will support your program by attending advisory council meetings or by presenting to the students (in person or virtual)
Start communicating regularly with your people
This is the part that a lot of people miss out on. While sending blanket emails is great to inform your people what’s going on. Sending individual emails carries so much more weight. It makes the recipient think you are thinking about them specifically. Personalize everything you can and don’t make the person feel like you are just a mass marketing company trying to promote what your program does.
(I just had this idea as I wrote) What if once per month, you targeted one person on your email list to receive an email that not only talked about your program but spotlighted a student that may be of interest to the recipient. For example a senior who is about to make their choice of college is promoted to a professor at a college that has a program that would benefit the student. It’s a simple thing that you can do that will carry a lot of weight with both the student and the professor
How to host an advisory council meeting
Schedule a meeting - virtual, in-person, or a combination of both. ( I always did a combination so I had an excuse to bring in food and showcase our facility)
Invite everyone at least 2 weeks out
HAVE AN AGENDA
I attend several advisory council meetings each month and you would be shocked how many have no plan… Those are the most painful to attend
Things to include:
Number of students in the program
A list of the courses offered and the overarching products produced by those program
Recent successes
Upcoming needs
“What can I do for you?”
I recently attended Carol Parrish’s meeting and it floored me when she asked that. I had no response or need - other than for her to be herself and keep going!
Send a reminder email 2 days out from the meeting
Keep your meeting to around an hour - less if possible.
End the meeting but don’t leave.
Some of the best ideas and support I ever received came after a meeting when the dust had settled and someone had time to digest the stuff we talked about
Send a thank you
If you can, do a hand written note. No one does that any more and it is a HUGE deal!
It is my belief that if you want your program to go to the next level and you want to put your students in the best position possible for success, you have to have industry running through the DNA of your program or you are basically just putting urinals in front of a mirror! The urinals in this restroom were rendered “out of order” simply because someone didn’t take a look at the whole scope of that bathroom until it was finished. Therefore anyone using the first four urinals in this facility could be viewed by anyone walking to their seats! (This wasn’t the first event in this facility and it wasn’t noticed until the ribbon cutting ceremony and I have to admit I was shocked when I walked out of the restroom and saw 4 people standing there looking into the room from the hall. Each had a different form of “how did that happen” face)
Meet the Author, NAME
Author bio (make sure to add author name as a tag)
Success breeds success. This article talks about the importance of getting your students involved in video and film competitions.