by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

(Part 1 of 2)

Last month we invited special needs consultants, as well as representatives of wilderness and emotional growth schools (more than 1,000 professionals), to provide us with feedback on a number of ideas about ways to make the IECA conferences more meaningful and valuable to those working with troubled teens. Hundreds responded and we are grateful for the honest feedback. We promised to reply, and here are the survey results along with an explanation of what we will do, might do in the future, and won’t do!

Tomorrow we will post the 11 most common questions or suggestions that we received in the open feedback section of the questionnaire.

[1] One suggestion was to extend the Traditional Boarding School and College Fair by an hour on Thursday morning, and allow special needs program representatives to join consultants for the final hour to allow for school-to-program networking. Of those expressing an opinion on this issue, 85% of respondents were in favor.

Our Response: We have extended the Fair by 45 minutes (the most we could find) in Ohio this fall, and all special needs program representatives will be invited in for the final hour.

[2] The next proposal was to change to an expo format: programs would each get a 10×10 booth to staff for three full days with consultants choosing when they wish to go to the expo hall instead of educational programming. Of those responding, 28% were in favor.

Our Response: We have tabled this proposal and will not move toward a large exposition hall.

[3] We asked you to consider a change that would ensure a period of overlap when all conference attendees—schools, colleges, special needs programs, and consultants—would all be in attendance at the same time. Of those giving us an opinion on this topic 93% were in favor.

Our Response: Much of the Ohio program was already created, but we were able to rework it. After the final hour of Thursday morning’s School & College Fair there will be breakouts and a lunch with a wonderful speaker, for all attendees. There will also be opportunities while everyone is in attendance for networking in Conference Central.

[4] We asked how you felt about the desire of IECA members to have some educational sessions just for consultants, allowing them opportunities for free discussion on topics of particular interest to them. Of those responding 86% (and more than 95% of IECA members) were in favor.

Our Response: We will implement this change. This will mean more breakout times for special needs representatives, but that one or two at each time period will be designated for educational consultants only.

[5] We asked about bringing back the Saturday morning “Program Showcases” (short presentations by programs) from time to time. Of those with an opinion, 72% were in favor.

Our Response: We will hold two showcases on Saturday morning in Ohio, allowing up to 30 programs to offer brief presentations. There will be no cost to programs to be included, although there will be limited number of spots available.

[6] We asked about the proposal we’ve heard from some to eliminate the Information Swap completely and let networking occur more naturally. Just 23% were in favor of this option.

Our response: We won’t go there!

[7] We asked about the Master Class that has been featured with a nationally known expert offering an intense three-hour session. The responses:

24% wanted to keep them as they are
21% wanted to keep them, but shorten them a bit
23% wanted to eliminate them
12% wanted us to switch to something more interactive
20% wanted to eliminate all Saturday programming

Our Response: Clearly opinion is all over the place, although most IECA members wanted to keep the Master Class concept either in its present form or shorter. In Ohio we have arranged for one of the nation’s top experts on bipolar disorders. The session will be two hours (rather than three), in part to ensure time for the Program Showcases.

[8] We asked about shifting to one conference a year rather than two. Of those with an opinion, 56% were in favor.

Our Response: This question impacts more than just the therapeutic community, and so we need the opinion not just of the Special Needs schools and consultants but the college, traditional boarding schools, vendors, gap year, consultants, etc. All results will go to the Board, as this represents a policy decision. The Board will see your opinion.

Bottom line, we are working actively to incorporate as many ideas as we can, within the structure of existing contracts. We appreciate all those who responded and offered their opinion. Tomorrow we’ll respond to the questions that came up most: frequency, location, daily schedule of conferences, and much more.

by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

June 30th marks the close of our Fiscal Year and IECA’s 34th serving as the principal voice of the profession of independent educational consulting. We entered the year committed to helping our members thrive, and exploring ways to strengthen the profession, promote the value of the work we do, and enhance the services offered by the Association to students, families, schools, and our member consultants. And while it was a difficult year for some, with many parts of the country suffering a deep economic recession, we have continued to move forward together.

Some of our progress occurred right here as we greatly expanded our efforts in electronic communication and social networking sites. This blog saw more than 200 original posts and over 150 comments. There are readers who come to our blog from our Web site, while others read it on Facebook, and well over 200 subscribers choose to receive it via e-mail. I have spoken to reporters as well as school and program heads, and college vice presidents that mention things they read on our blog. We have 300 followers on Twitter, more than 600 views on our Flickr photostream, 162 IECA members connecting on our LinkedIn group, and 900 fans (and growing) on Facebook. We have worked to assist members to master this new world of communication and will continue and even expand that effort in the coming year.

Of course all this attention to new media is meant to provide two key benefits: increased communication between and among IECA and its publics (consultants, school reps and the general public) but also to encourage more visits to the IECA Web site. In the past year the number of unique visitors increased 14%. More than 28,000 people searched the “find a consultant” feature of the Web site alone. Our goal to connect families to members is working and we intend to increase that effort in the coming year. A central core piece of our mission is to change the public’s sense of educational consulting from “what is a consultant?” to “I need a consultant, and I’ll only look to IECA as the assurance I need of competence.”

This past year we completed two member surveys: one that focused on the field of consulting to help us better understand where things stand, so we can better respond to future needs; and the second one that focused on educational needs of members to help guide our committees and shape future initiatives. A major development came from a survey that we did not conduct. An independent national study showed a far larger percentage of “high achieving students’ than anyone had ever imagined were working with educational consultants (26%). Such widespread use of consultants can have a major impact on the actions of college admission officers and IECA has been reaching out to them in unprecedented ways.

While a number of educational organizations saw membership decline this past year, IECA continued its moderate growth with a 5% increase in members. Our conferences in North Carolina and Toronto were extremely successful as local host committees (made up for the first time with school representatives as well as consultants) worked to raise the academic content (the new Master Classes and Point/Counterpoint sessions, for example), and we also introduced an active Conference Central that included a bookstore (and author book signings), networking cyber-lounge, and much more, designed to increase networking and sharing.

IECA’s signature training programs: the Summer Training Institute continues to ‘sell out’ as does the Transitioning to Private Practice Seminar which IECA runs in partnership with NACAC. The first ever certificate program in independent educational consulting is now being offered by U.C. Irvine in a program jointly designed and taught by the university and IECA and its members. We have been working more closely with our association colleagues at SSATB, NAIS, NATSAP, and more. We manned a booth for the first-time ever at LDA this past year and are committed to extending our efforts into the LD and therapeutic communities in the year ahead. Internally, our new Affinity groups have expanded to involve dozens of members in planning and leadership roles.

The Board of Directors, working with a new Long-Range Plan, found members articulating their priorities for the coming year: educate the public so they are more aware of the role of independent educational consulting, ensure that the public identifies IECA as the ‘gold standard’ of the profession, increase outreach to affiliated professional communities, emphasize ethics, and enhance education. These will form the basis of the work that the IECA office staff, Board, and volunteers will highlight for the Association’s coming 35th year.

The staff feels honored to work on behalf of our members and in promoting this important field. We are excited by what the coming years have in store.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

Our spring conference registration opened less than a week ago, and registration is already approaching 250. Early bird discounts end THIS FRIDAY (February 26), so if you are planning to attend our gathering in Toronto (May 12-15), get your registration completed right away. Full details on the conference are posted on the IECA Web site (http://www.iecaonline.com/conferences.html) and additional information, including details on all breakout sessions, will be added to the site in the next few days.

I have gotten a few questions and welcome this opportunity to clarify:

“I really don’t work with Canadian schools or universities (or ‘We don’t really get any students from Canada’). So maybe there won’t be as much for me at this conference.” Hold on!  Just because we are meeting in Canada for the first time doesn’t mean our focus is shifting. Of the first 225 registrants, just 15 are Canadian consultants, schools, or universities. The other 210 are from the U.S. What we expect is full participation by our IECA members from across the U.S. with a bit of an uptick in non-U.S. participation, reflecting how much easier it is for consultants in Asia, South America, and Europe to travel to Canada. We expect all of the schools, colleges, and programs that typically attend IECA conferences to be joining us in Toronto, but with the added bonus of greater participation by Canadian institutions. Remember, school, program, and college representatives from Nova Scotia to Vancouver helped us plan the conference!

“There’s so much going on before and after the conference, I’m still trying to figure out what to do, so I can’t register yet.” Wait a minute! We don’t want you to lose out on the early bird discount. Register for the conference now and get your discount. You can always sign back on using our Web-based registration system and modify your registration. That way you won’t miss the discount. We know there’s a lot going on: pre-conference activities include IECA tours of Ontario universities; special tours of Ontario boarding school and gap year programs; the popular Speed Meetings—actually two of them: one for traditional boarding schools and the other for therapeutic programs; and a pre-conference workshop on LD issues as well as one on Web-based marketing. Whew!! Post-conference activities include TWO different college tours: one of universities in upstate New York and the other in Nova Scotia. There’s a school tour in Nova Scotia as well.

“I just got a conference/tour price list via e-mail and it looks like the prices really went up.” NO! That was an e-mail from some other association! Don’t be confused. The cost of our three-day college tours (pre- or post-conference) is still just $95—not the $200 the other group charges. Our conference fee for members, including meals and special events and even including a pre-conference workshop, is unchanged at $395 ($370 early bird)—not the $595 the other group just e-mailed for their conference and pre-conference registration. IECA works hard to keep our costs as low as possible (with thanks to our conference sponsors). As proof: our membership dues have not changed in 30 years! Finally, even non-members can save a bundle. Our conference and pre-conference workshop full registration for non-member consultants is $530—not the $745 others are charging, according to that e-mail. Of course, cost is just part of the story. We are confident that everyone will get a great deal out of participating in the IECA conference: amazing speakers, great educational sessions, and lots of opportunities for networking.

By Brian Fisher, AdmissionsQuest

The first official morning just concluded. Formats and offerings have changed and that’s good.

I talked with Mark Sklarow from the periphery of the Speed Meeting sessions to get his take on the conference and the new approaches.

In a word, there’s more meat. The conference has tightened its focus on professional experiences and information. There’s still networking to be sure, but serious education and professional development are in the fore here in Charlotte. As Mark said, the conference priorities have shifted from “a little education with a lot of networking to a lot of education with a little networking.”

Mark found that schools and consultants were looking for more content- more return on their conference experience.

The pre and post conference workshops now book-end the conference with intense detailed presentations covering serious topics and current research.

Check back soon to see video conversation recorded at the Speed Meetings. We’ll work hard to post them as soon as we can (we recorded 17 so it may take a bit, but be patient).

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

We are pleased to present a number of opportunities to stay connected during the IECA conference. Those planning to attend can get updates, schedule changes, and notice of special events and give-aways sent directly to their e-mail or cell phone, or through other options.

To get updates via Twitter: sign up to follow IECA at http://twitter.com/IECA. To send your own tweets about the conference, use #IECAconference.

To get updates via the IECA Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/IECA.IndependentEducationalCounsultantsAssn

And for updates via our Blog watch this space…and if you have not yet done so, use the link at the top of the page to have the Blog sent directly to your e-mail account.

If you are NOT going to Charlotte you can get in on much of the action. We, along with our technology partner, AdmissionsQuest, will be doing extensive blogging and webcasting, including sharing pictures and video!

Use the networking sites noted above and look for photos at www.flickr.com/groups/IECA (feel free to upload your own conference photos here, too), and video at www.youtube.com/user/IECAonline and look for special posting on the IECA Web site and on AdmissionQuest.com. Among other features, we’ll be webcasting from Conference Central and from the Speed Meetings.

I hope everyone will find the form of communication that is comfortable to them and make the most of their IECA experience, either from the conference in Charlotte, or from their own office or home.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

IECA has sought to be ahead of the curve (if only slightly) by embracing new social networking and communication tools to assist members in connecting with each other and sharing information, and have found many admission representatives and families paying attention.  We’ve been rewarded with nearly 3,000 of these blog postings read each week, hundreds of “friends” to our Facebook page and ample evidence that these efforts are accomplishing the goals we set out for them.

Now as we launch our conference registration and open our Summer Training Institute tomorrow, I wondered whether there remained an important place for face-to-face meetings or whether my preferred way to share had become passe.

A recent survey conducted by the social networking industry confirms that while adults are using Twitter, Facebook, and blogs more than ever (representing the fastest growing segment), their preference is for good, old-fashioned in-person gatherings.  And it wasn’t even close.

In sum, 87% of adults said they preferred to deal with other people in person rather than via computers, and for women it was over 90%! Additionally, two-thirds of respondents expressed dismay that they weren’t seeing their friends more.  And that’s real friends, not Facebook “friends.”

The bottom line for the Independent Educational Consultants Association and our colleagues: while new technologies and new networking tools, like the one you are reading right now serve a useful and important purpose, they cannot replace the environment created at a conference when you can look people in the eyes, introduce colleagues, shake hands, sit down and have a talk and hear the inflection in their voice, read their eyes and body language and gain more in a five-minute talk with a vendor or admission rep than you could learn in hours surfing the Web.

Let’s get to those face-to-face meetings.  I’ll see you there!

Putting faces with the names I see every day on the IECA Talklist is a wonderful experience! The IECA optional member’s dinner took place in Chinatown last night, and it was, as always, well-organized and fun (not to mention yummy!). This is my third IECA conference, and I am looking forward to every moment of it. Of course, the lure of this great city is powerful, especially when the hotel and room overlooks the bay. Wednesday looks busy, some of my table-mates were going “on tour”, others, myself included, are attending pre-conference workshops.
Conversation at dinner was lively and interesting, there is nothing like “comparing notes” with colleagues! It is a true learning experience, and it is great to meet your online “friends” face to face.
I love San Francisco!

Posted by Tam Warner Minton, IECA