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Feature Stories
Advisory Committees Help Your Program Succeed
Advisory Committees Serve as Soundboard for Ag Ed Programs
Advisory Committees: From the First Meeting to the Best Data and Beyond
Advisory Committees Make Things Happen for Agriculture Programs
Advisory Committees Help Your Program Succeed
“If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.”
We’ve all uttered that phrase a million times. It might be after your kids “wash” the dishes, or your students “clean” the barn. If it’s to be done the “right” way, then you have to carve extra time out of your busy day to do the task at hand.
But the truth is, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Just having something done “right” doesn’t mean it’s always the “best” way to accomplish the job. Case in point – your agriculture mechanics program needs new welding masks. The right thing to do is to go to your administration and just ask for them. “Money’s tight,” they say. “Surely you can make do until next year.” You shrug and leave with nothing. Money is money, and if it’s not there, then it’s not there, right?
In this case, what you deemed the “right” thing didn’t yield the results you wanted. Now what? How about doing it the “best” way—by getting your advisory committee involved. Armed with influential business-owners and members of the community, your principal has no choice but to listen to your concerns. Those welding masks are as good as yours!
This issue of Making a Difference focuses on the seventh National Quality Program Standard – Program Planning and Evaluation. We hope that the following articles will help you in putting together an effective and influential advisory committee, or incite you to better use the one you already have in place.
Peace of mind is just one of the benefits afforded by an advisory committee. In addition to lessening your workload, an outside committee lends credibility and visibility to your programs, acts as a sounding board and provides much-needed outside perspective. Read Advisory Committees Serve as Soundboard for Ag Ed Programs to learn how to make your committee work for you.
Maybe you’ve already formed your advisory committee or are in the process of putting one together. Now what? Check out Advisory Committees: From the First Meeting to the Best Data and Beyond to find out what to do next and learn why data collection is so important when forming a committee.
From advising on curriculum to helping locate financial support and influencing key decision makers, an advisory committee can do all this and more. That’s why it’s an important part of the National FFA Organization’s National Quality Program Standards. Read Advisory Committees Make Things Happen for Agriculture Programs to see how working with advisory committees have helped two programs succeed in doing what they once thought impossible.
In this month’s Perspectives editorial, California regional supervisor Hugh Mooney chimes in on advisory committees and why in-name-only committees fail and what you can do to ensure that your committee is poised to succeed.
Know that you should be tracking your student data, but not sure how? Check out this month’s LifeKnowledge® Spotlight, Using the LifeKnowledge® Precept Indicator for Data Tracking, to learn how this awesome tool can help you with data collection.
And please take some time to answer this month’s Question for the Profession, where Nina asks, “Where Did All the Advisory Committees Go?”
Just one more issue until summer break! Make sure you sign up for our RSS feed so you can have Making a Difference delivered to your inbox each month.
Best,
Amber Striegel, Editor
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