By JuliAnn Graham, CCC, Communications Manager, TCEC, Hooker, Okla.
The Certified Cooperative Communicator (CCC) board meets in person three times a year, with monthly conference calls between meetings. The fall board meeting was September 12 at NRECA headquarters in Arlington, Va. Fifteen people were present, including NRECA staff and board members.
Following introductions, the spring board meeting minutes were approved. Chairperson April Lollar said her focus is on quality during the process of refreshing the Body of Knowledge (BOK). Program Administrator Jean Capon reported more people are not passing the portfolio the first time around. The board discussed revisiting the eligibility requirements for the program as well as completing a sample portfolio form and posting it to the CCC site, so applicants better understand how to fill it out.
Mike Wilson, the Council of Rural Electric Communicators representative on the board, said the Council has four new members. He mentioned the upcoming new communicators orientation, and the board discussed the involvement of the CCC representative on the planning committee. He said the Spotlight on Excellence call for entries would be coming soon.
Board member Magen Howard gave an update on the G&T summer meeting and mentioned she’s heard some feedback that the CCC program is more for distribution co-op communicators than it is for G&T communicators. The board discussed tweaking the messaging and positioning of the program with that audience. The board then moved on to discuss the CONNECT conference and the sessions to be sponsored by the CCC program. Jean Capon announced that CCCs will receive a registration discount for CONNECT.
Following the committee breakout sessions, NRECA’s Diane Rhodes-Michaely presented on Learning Management System options for the Body of Knowledge. The board then discussed using the online tool SurveyMonkey for exams moving forward.
UPDATE: The SurveyMonkey platform was a success during the CCC Exam in October.
NRECA’s Tracy Steiner called into the meeting. She has been asked to make the program self-sustaining financially within the next five years. The new learning management system should help with this, and the board will look at additional ways to make the program more efficient and reduce costs.
NRECA’s Mike Lynch showed the board a proof of concept he developed with module one of the revised BOK for cooperative.com. Jean mentioned that a related effort will be updating the CCC Web page on cooperative.com, so it is easier to navigate and more intuitive.
The Body of Knowledge 2.0 project’s focus is to:
Reorganize the BOK into a digital format consisting of learning modules
Refresh and update content
Modernize the BOK by making it more interactive and by incorporating multimedia elements
The CAPS committee reported work on the BOK refresh continues. The program is moving to a cohort approach to applications rather than the rolling applications in 2020. The Communications and Marketing Committee discussed ideas for the newsletter and the CONNECT Conference. The Program and Planning Committee presented a transition plan for the refreshed BOK and the new cohort process for applications. The board discussed segmenting audiences with targeted messages to promote the CCC program. The strategic plan was reviewed with a note to incorporate feedback and send a new version to the board.
The board discussed the peer advisor program and moving to a new format that would be better for the candidates. An ad hoc committee was formed to develop a proposal to revamp the peer advisor program.
NRECA’s Val Parks presented alumni pages on cooperative.com that are currently in development and using the CCC program as a launch group.
Future meetings were reviewed before the meeting adjourned.
