by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

(Part 2 of 2)

Yesterday we published the results of  the specific suggestions we received for making the conference more valuable to IECA members, schools, and programs that work in the area of emotional and behavioral needs. With the results we noted the numerous changes we are making to the conference schedule to ensure more interaction between consultants and programs and between programs and traditional schools. As part of the same survey we concluded with an open-ended request for comments, thoughts, or questions about the conference schedule. We read hundreds of such remarks. Eleven suggestions/comments seemed to come up often enough that we wanted to respond. In doing so we note that we have provided honest, direct answers which do not necessarily satisfy everyone’s concerns.

1.  Can you require IECA Members to attend the Swap? We do encourage them strongly and perhaps we need to do more. But remember, not all consultants do special needs, so some do not attend the Swap, just as some consultants who do ONLY special needs do not attend the School & College Fair.

2. Can you schedule more interactive and point/counterpoint sessions like we had in Charlotte? We agree, please suggest topics!

3.  Can’t we have more conferences in the West? We do need to pay more attention to conference cities. We have Dallas, TX scheduled for 2011 and San Diego, CA scheduled for 2013.

4. Consider holding one conference a year just for schools and colleges, and the other just for special needs. We’ll have the Strategic Planning task Force look into this idea. One fear is that one of those may get many more participants leaving programs or schools very frustrated. It also hurts the effort requested above for more interaction between therapeutic programs and traditional schools. Finally it also raises concerns that we create a fissure between specialties among consultants.

5. Can you offer CEUs for MSWs and psychologists? We’ll look into doing that. If we can, we will.

6.  Why do special needs programs pay for a full week, but only get to attend for a few days? Why don’t we get to attend as much as schools or colleges? This is a misperception that I would like to correct once and for all. Traditional schools, colleges, therapeutic schools and programs all pay the same fee, and all have the same amount of time at the conference. Schools and colleges attend from Wednesday mid-day to Thursday afternoon. Therapeutic programs have attended from Friday morning to Saturday mid-day. When therapeutic programs requested more interaction with traditional school representatives a few years ago, we began allowing school reps to visit the Therapeutic Information Swap one hour prior to its opening. (And based on the change we announced on  this blog yesterday, you will now be attending 2+ days.)  Only consultants attend for the entire 3-1/2 days of the conference. IECA member consultants pay less, as their dues cover a portion of the conference. Everyone is treated as fairly as possible. The conference fee is comparable to other conferences, and unlike some others we do not charge extra for tables at the Swap or Fair.

7.  Have you considered holding one national and several regional conferences each year? The Strategic Planning Task Force, a regional group task force, and the Board of Directors are looking into these issues right now.

8.  Why is the Therapeutic program always at the end? Why not alternate so that every other conference the Therapeutic days are at the beginning? What looks like an obvious possibility is simply not feasible. More than 100 educational consultants participate in college campus visits prior to the start of the conference. Typically this involves 7 – 8 colleges over three days. Others visit 3 – 5 boarding schools. Members consider these visits a central part of their conference experience. When therapeutic schools and programs exist near the conference city, they are typically spread out, allowing one or two such visits. In any case these visits must occur on a weekday. If the college part of the program was set later in the week, Friday and Saturday, it could then take consultants out of the conference hotel on the days that therapeutic programs are available. Remember that 80% of those doing therapeutic placements also do schools or colleges, so the chances of consultants opting for tours over the Swap are unacceptable. A secondary reason is that we commit to certain hotel room pick up (booked rooms per night) years in advance, and we are required to pay for unused rooms. When attendees are unsure of the schedule (due to constant shifts) they tend to book the whole week, only to cancel rooms at the last minute. Such last minute cancellations, which marked our earlier events prior to the format change in 2007, run into hundreds of rooms with penalty fees over $100,000. So while we can’t ‘flip’ the days, we try to do everything we can to meet all attendees needs.

9.  Can you increase the participation of educational consultants? The numbers seemed low in Toronto. It didn’t just seem that way as the number of attending consultants was low. Some attendees LOVED it and said it made for quality discussions. Others felt frustrated. Don’t worry though: no more Canada meetings for a long time. As someone else pointed out in their survey: remember that some of what we all are seeing is the impact of the terrible economy, not necessarily ongoing concerns.

10.  Can we have more clinical sessions? This ties in with a concern we heard from consultants: Programs used to send a therapist or programming person. Today, most send marketing and admission reps. Consultants would prefer hearing from those who work directly with students. The more such attendees we have, the more clinically-based presentations we can offer. (And the happier consultants will be!)

11. Finally: Can’t you do something to allow for more networking during the conference? Conference Central has proved to be a great addition. In Ohio, thanks to your suggestions, we will be expanding the time for breaks to promote more networking. We think you’ll notice the difference.

Colleagues, I hope the information shared over the last two days demonstrates our commitment to keeping a dialogue going toward making all of your interactions with IECA and our members positive, valuable, and cost effective. As you can see, wherever possible we effected change immediately with most suggestions being implemented this fall in November. We’ll be in touch soon after to see whether you noticed the differences.

The 2010 IECA Fall Conference is in Cincinnati, November 4 – 6. Registration will open the first week of August and all information will be available on our Web site. We hope to see you there!

Related posts:

1. Responding to Surveys: Special Needs & the IECA Conference
2. With IECA Conference Approaching, Focus on ROI
3. At IECA Conferences, Education Shares Spotlight with Networking: 5 Rules for Success
4. Nearly 100 Presenters will Examine Hot Topics in College Admission, Boarding Schools, Special Purpose Programs & Independent Educational Consulting
5. What Makes the IECA Conference Unique? “No Where Else…”

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Tagged: admissions representatives, College Fair, College tours, educational consultants, IECA board of directors, IECA Conference, IECA Leadership, IECA members, IECA's Information Swap, School and College Fair, special needs consulting, Therapeutic Consulting