by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

Yesterday afternoon the IECA Summer Training Institute turned the process around as the 94 attendees got to hear what life is like for those involved in recruiting and evaluating potential clients in a session titled, Inside the Admissions Office.

In the college session, three leaders came to share insights: Erin Finn, vice president for admissions at Drexel University, who explained the changing nature of admissions as offices look for ways to balance the entering class while filling campus needs. She noted the possibility of hearing from a band director that the harpist is graduating and admissions should be on the lookout for a new harpist. Conversely, she noted the school is not going to admit six amazing, accomplished harpists when space exists for only one. Likewise, she noted the role of admissions is to ensure that each department has interested students among those incoming.

Richard Floyd, director of admission at Ursinus College (one of the Colleges That Change Lives), returned for the second year as a panelist. Richard noted the outsize role U.S. News & World Report plays in their annual rankings in influencing students and parents. He shared that colleges, while being dismayed at the criteria used, often actively promote themselves to colleagues in an effort to raise their profile. Erin, from Drexel, added that colleges crow about better standings (Drexel named one of five colleges to watch) and downplay when the rankings or attention invariably declines.

Suzi Nam, director of admission at Swarthmore College also participated. She noted the importance of a student’s application demonstrating a match to the university’s mission. A school like Swarthmore, where they seek students that value the pursuit of knowledge above all else (even grades), admission reps should be able to tell in the application why a candidate suits that mission.

All three endorsed the role of educational consultants in general, with one noting that good advising is as necessary to the college search and application process as a realtor is to the home search/sale. The group also noted the admiration they have for IECA members as being particularly professional, ethical, and knowledgeable. Each indicated their willingness to take calls and in queries from IECA members, when the goal is gathering general information and not advocating on behalf of an applicant.

It was a great session and was duplicated for school and therapeutic specialists separately. More details will follow in a future blog.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consultants Association

The first full day of the IECA Summer Training Institute has been a whirlwind of activity—and it’s only 11:00 a.m.! This morning Lisa Bleich led a session on becoming an entrepreneur. Since most attendees have backgrounds as guidance counselors, university admission directors, LD advocates, or family therapists and such, the idea of using those skills to open and manage a successful small business was a scary topic. Lisa, however, made the topic understandable and manageable. She talked about “the 7 Ps,” an extension of the traditional “4 Ps” she presented as an assistant professor of marketing.

The “7 Ps”: Product (your consulting services), Price (what you will charge and how), Place (where you will deliver your services), Promotion (how you will get the word out about your services), Positioning (How you want others to see your services), Presence (online), and Personalization (how you will meet the unique needs of clients).

Yesterday afternoon attendees explored their own insights as to what the profession of educational consulting is all about. In the work they did an amazing job of noting the importance of communication, understanding the whole child, gaining the institutional knowledge necessary, building a network of experts, gaining business know-how, and the need for an ethical core underlying all else.

This morning in a “get acquainted” exercise with my mentor group (smaller sub-groups of attendees), participants grabbed a random item from a box. They had to explain how that item could be related to educational consulting. This was just a fast, fun exercise but their responses were so creative and clever, I wanted to share some:

Paperclip: consultants must be organized in order to help students achieve their goals.

Seashell: we must remember that each child is as unique as each seashell.

Rubber band: we must work to achieve a balance between bringing things together and being flexible in our approach.

Hot sauce: one of our challenges is helping students to try something new, the way hot sauce changes the flavor.

Clothespin: for consultants there is a laundry list of things we must do to accomplish our goals.

Flashlight: we help to illuminate the path of a good educational match.

Stone: with so much going on, we need to help students remain grounded and mindful.

A multicolored twist of plastic: we bring the different strands together into a unique whole.

Ball: like a ball we never really know where a student will bounce—where the process will take us.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

The very popular and well-respected IECA Summer Training Institute kicks off its 2010 program on the campus of Swarthmore College on Tuesday, July 27. The attendees themselves may demonstrate how the profession of educational consulting has changed over the last several years. They are a racially and culturally diverse group of nearly 90 participants, representing 25 states plus Puerto Rico, and five foreign countries. Within the U.S. they hail from Florida to Alaska, and California to Maine.

As they look ahead to careers in educational consulting, 91% see themselves in college advising, 24% in secondary school consulting, 19% working with teens with emotional and behavioral issues, and over 30% expect to be working in the area of learning disabilities. Simple math indicates that most attendees expect their consulting work to cover more than one specialty.

While decades ago most entering the field of consulting were either admission directors or school-based counselors, today those categories account for only about half of new consultants. Among STI attendees are lawyers, small businessmen, school headmasters, college professors, and high school teachers, as well as mental health and allied professionals, among many others. Another change: while in the past virtually everyone entering the field was on their third, fourth, or terminal career, in recent years STI attendees have ranged in age from twenty-somethings examining a first career, to those further along the continuum. Such diversity in attendees and their backgrounds has opened the field of consulting and provided our gatherings with all the benefits that come from a diverse population. It has also meant a growth in the diversity of students we serve as a profession, another wonderful bonus as we seek to become more reflective of the U.S. population as a whole.

We have made changes to the educational content of the institute’s offerings, as well. We now commit about four hours to fully cover the entrepreneurial needs of attendees, to fully understand the demands on establishing, promoting, and running a small business. A new full group session on understanding new media and social networking has also been added as well an elective on graduate school advising.

Joining the faculty are a number of guest presenters and panelists: Suzi Nam, director of admissions at Swarthmore College; Erin Finn, assistant VP for admissions at Drexel University; Richard Floyd, director of admission at Ursinus College; Joyce Latimer, director of admission at Auldern Academy; Barry Sysler, IECA member and financial aid expert; and Carolyn Mulligan, IECA member and expert on LD issues.

We’ll blog through the week so you will be able to follow the Summer Training Institute and the Independent Educational Consultants Association.

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 H. Sklarow, Executive Director, Independent Educational Consulting Association

I spent the last few days attending the Potomac and Chesapeake Association for College Admission Counseling (PCACAC) Conference in Dover, Delaware with school counselors, college admission officials, and independent educational consultants from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, DC, and West Virginia. I heard a couple of themes emerge that deeply impacted me.

Shannon Gundy, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Maryland, College Park, served on a panel that I chaired, exploring school counselor/consultant relations. Shannon noted that in preparation for her presentation, she asked members of her staff how often they “heard from or worked with” an educational consultant. Their answer: about once a month. That led Shannon to conclude that the University of Maryland doesn’t really have much of a relationship with educational consultants and gets relatively few students applying to the state’s flagship school.

Of course recent independent studies would suggest otherwise. The Lipman Hearne study, aided by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions, showed that 26% of high achieving students—exactly the kind that would explore admission to the University of Maryland—used educational consultants. Yet educational consultants have worked so hard to keep their existence in the background that we may have led to the impression that we are of little consequence, hiding our significance (and growing numbers), and suggesting to colleges that we are an unimportant constituency. In reality, for many colleges we are their greatest source for out-of-region students. Shannon wondered why we didn’t make our numbers better known.

I was reminded of a panel at our Summer Training Institute a few years back. There, Corky Surbeck, dean of admission at Goucher College, was asked if he ‘minded’ if a consultant called him to discuss any special circumstances. He surprised everyone in the room when he stated flatly that he wished consultants called more. He noted that consultants—fully qualified and vetted consultants like those in IECA—have an interesting insight that he and his admission staff needed to hear. With students applying to Goucher for all sorts of reasons, he knew one thing: if a student working with a consultant was applying to Goucher, there was a good reason the consultant thought it was a good fit. He and his staff would welcome finding out why.

Consultants have been so wary about being seen publicly that many advise their students, when faced with the questions about “how they heard of the Common Application” or “Did you use an educational consultant in your application,” to leave the question blank—again, diluting the strength of our numbers, our work, and our efforts on behalf of students.

The other comment I have heard replaying in my head came from a twenty-something school counselor attending that session. She noted a strain of unacceptance: That school counselors resist cooperating with consultants, and consultants advise their students not to reveal to the school that they are involved. She found this absurd! “Aren’t we all working for the same goal: serving students?” she asked. When she was told what NACAC and other institutions were like 10-15 years ago when consultants were not well respected, she noted that this was ancient history and it was time we moved on.

Truer words were never spoken. It is time we moved on, taking our seat at the table, reflective of our professionalism and commitment to students. IECA introduced the phrase “good fit” into popular use more than 15 years ago. Our members have visited more campuses, hold a higher percentage of certifications, attend more professional training, and find great matches. It is time that every college, school, and parent know it. It is time for us to assert our knowledge and our leadership.

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

I admit to being a person who is rarely satisfied with the way things are. I believe in the need to change and that includes both personal change and actions to ensure that the Independent Educational Consultants Association continues to move forward, developing new approaches, new programs and new initiatives so that we are always meeting member needs. Allow me to illustrate using just one example. Following an IECA Summer Training Institute in Claremont, California, I sat down with Sue DePra and Steve Antonoff to review the participant evaluations. They were off the charts with virtually every attendee giving the Summer Institute nearly perfect scores, and comments from most attendees that it was among the best training sessions they had ever attended. The three of us then spent the next two hours re-writing the curriculum, developing new interactive elements, implementing ‘labs’ and strengthening the program further. The result was taking a great training program and making it remarkable.

Now as I reflect back on 2009, I feel great about the excellent work of staff, Board and committee leadership, and volunteer members who combined to make it a great year. We advanced dramatically in our efforts to use social networking to promote IECA and the profession, and to improve communications. We initiated new program in learning disabilities and adopted our new Standards of Excellence. We implemented significant changes during our conference: from Speed Meetings to Conference Central and from point/counterpoint sessions to master classes. Participation among colleges has never been higher, and despite the economic downturn our membership is up, conference participation is up, and our training workshops were larger than ever.

But as I look ahead, I know what I want to achieve in the coming year for IECA and for my own work as Executive Director: to take IECA from a great organization to a remarkable one. Looking at the success of America’s most lauded associations, I hope we use their example to become an exceptional force for our members. To become ‘remarkable,’ I think Board, staff and volunteers need to meet these expectations:

• Member Service—we exist as an association for one reason: to meet the needs of our membership. That commitment to member service should always be the top priority.

• Align all services, conferences, and activities with IECA’s mission. That mission, unchanged in 30 years, is to help professional consultants to serve the interests of students and families in their educational decision-making.

• Seek feedback and input from members and our related constituencies. In the next several weeks, members will be asked to complete a strategic planning survey and a survey from the Education & Training Committee. These will set our priorities over the next several years. We have now begun to involve schools, colleges, and programs in conference planning and regularly seek their advice on programming.

• Be willing to fail. As we look to be innovative, creative, and dynamic, we must be willing to accept that success require risk-taking and that means we will fail from time to time. Such failure is inevitable and will lead to new successes.

• A nimble, flexible, national office that is able to meet changes in the marketplace and ensure that such changes are quickly and capably brought to our members to help them succeed in their own work.

• Building alliances with not-for-profit and for-profit companies, institutions, and organizations that will help us further our mission and better serve clients and students.

I look forward to hearing ideas from our members, colleagues, and families on how we can best serve each to make 2010 and IECA remarkable in the year ahead. Join us in this effort: volunteer, get involved in committees, affinity groups, or other efforts, and above all, offer your ideas on what IECA should be doing.

by Mark H. Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

I attended several meetings yesterday in Washington DC which provided the opportunity to hear how our fellow associations—educational and otherwise—are faring. The two general areas of concern include how the economy has impacted membership and programming, and how social networking has resulted in membership losses, sometimes in significant numbers.

IECA’s experience has been quite different. While maintaining our significant requirements, our membership has been increasing at 20% a year with no significant loss due to the economy. As the profession becomes better known and the field more established, serious professionals continue to come to IECA for a sense of professional community, mentoring and education, and the assurance membership gives to families of an ethical, knowledgeable, professional source during an anxious time.

I also recognize the tremendous difference the IECA staff makes in our ability to attract and retain members. We have six full-time professionals working in our office outside of Washington, DC, all of whom work longer hours with greater intensity than anyone knows. Our ability to introduce new member services monthly, maintain a current listing of campus tour invitations, and assist those seeking membership is a tribute to Janice Berger, our manager of member services.

While many associations are losing members who have found they can associate through online resources, IECA’s manager of communications, Sarah Brachman, has made sure that IECA is in the forefront of using new media to engage our members, invite new members, and extend our reach into tens of thousands of families who find us through our Web site, blog, Facebook page and more.

At a time when most associations are reporting declines in conference attendance of as much as 40%, Rachel Diamond, our conference manager, has helped create a dynamic program with enhanced opportunities for learning and networking, so that our attendance at next month’s Charlotte Conference will be higher than either our fall or spring conferences last year. That she has been able to accomplish this while planning for her wedding—next week—is remarkable.

In the midst of all this planning, of course we are still mailing out SAT materials (an exclusive arrangement with College Board), Common App materials (another exclusive arrangement with The Common Application), marketing materials, STI certificates and all the other things that make our office operate smoothly, and our administrative assistant, Sheila Kirk, does so while remaining helpful, upbeat, and positive, with the scores of inquiries she gets from schools, parents, and consultants.

Behind the scenes but at the core of everything we do is Sue DePra, who may hold the title of director of education but whose role is far in excess of this: re-designing our data management system, coordinating all education and training initiatives, heading up the Summer Training Institute and Transitioning to Private Practice workshop—our two flagship programs for new consultants—and so much more. With incredible organization skills, she literally and figuratively puts her stamp on everything we do.

I also want to acknowledge the tremendous work that our volunteer board members, committee members and chairs, conference host committees, and others do to develop new ideas, new initiatives, and new approaches. They are truly the source of so much and the staff alone could not do this without them. Those starting our new affinity groups will be key to keeping our members feel connected as our growth continues.

So why this reflection right here, right now? Easy. Yesterday when I heard the stories, one after another, of associations shrinking and declining I pondered how fortunate I am to be working with the amazing professional staff and volunteers who have made the Independent Educational Consultants Association a national model of what to do, even during difficult times, to be a successful, thriving, growing organization. I am grateful!

by Mark Sklarow, Executive Director, IECA

Three quotes made it to my desk in the days since returning from the NACAC conference in Baltimore. Two are from chief college admission representatives and the other from a national talk radio program.

Following the lunch for IECA members and college admission reps, a director of admission approached me and said “From now on, the FIRST question I’ll ask when I get a call from an educational consultant will be, ‘Are you a member of IECA?‘” While there has been a sea change in acceptance of independent educational consultants at NACAC and among college administrators in the last ten years, the enthusiasm for working in a team with consultants is certainly most pronounced among those who work directly with IECA Members. As indicated by this director’s comments, there’s particular reason: While many consultants do not join IECA for a variety of reasons, and some simply don’t join ANY organization, there is something unique about our members that is significant for families and admission directors. ONLY IECA requires a master’s degree or higher in a related field. ONLY IECA requires a minimum of 50 evaluative visits to campuses. ONLY IECA requires significant independent educational consulting experience, and reference checks to ensure an ethical and professional practice. ONLY IECA checks online and print marketing materials to guarantee honesty and integrity. When we say those joining must pass rigorous standards with a detailed commitment to our Principles of Good Practice, we mean it, and that makes all the difference inside admission offices and households across the world.

The second quote I got came from a vice president of enrollment management at a North Carolina university: “You did a fantastic job. Great ambassadors for the profession.” These words came in an e-mail following his participation in a day-long training program for those transitioning from an institutional position to independent educational consulting. IECA prides itself in our efforts to make our training the absolute best in the field—whether half-day workshops, full-day seminars, or our four-day Summer Training Institute—and I know we succeed. Our educational efforts are a source of continuing pride.

Which brings me to our third quote. The producers of the “Answers for the Family” program on L.A. Talk Radio described our upcoming conference in North Carolina with these words: “one of the most advanced and prestigious educational conferences in the country.“

by Janice Berger, Manager of Member Services, IECA

Excitement is brewing as everyone looks forward to the pre-conference college, school, and program tours. The response to registration has been exceptional—we were thrilled to have been able to set up a second set of college tours.

We thank each institution that has graciously opened their campuses to IECA consultants in the pursuit of direct knowledge not only at pre-conference time, but also for providing tours throughout the year! These tours provide IECA members with invaluable insight into the school or college, which they can then share with their clients.

On another note, I have been getting quite a few calls from those who attended the IECA Summer Training Institute (STI)—they tell me how energized they have been from the week at Swarthmore and are asking lots of questions about membership.

One thing that struck me is how some of the STI participants mentioned that they have already been in touch with IECA members and how gracious and generous our members have been in offering their time to someone making the transition to private practice. Some of this mentoring comes so naturally to our members that they may not even realize how much of a difference they make. We’re here to tell you, you bet it does! Offering your time to someone can set those newer to the field off to a solid start, create confidence and a feeling of connectedness to IECA colleagues and IECA as an association. We know that our members are collegial, but it is always nice for you to hear how much you are appreciated. You as a mentor play a large part in perpetuating ethics in the field and a lot more. Wait, this is probably a great moment to plug the IECA Mentoring Program, don’t forget to ask me about it…

by Sue DePra, Director of Education, IECA

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that IECA is firmly committed to providing on-going professional development and training through our annual Spring and Fall Conferences, our annual Summer Training Institute for new consultants, and through the many resources and services that are available to IECA member consultants, to name just a few of our current initiatives!

This commitment to excellence in the profession is also evidenced in a one-day workshop we offer each September for those who may be several years from opening a practice: Transitioning to Independent College Consulting, to be held September 23, 2009 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Held one day prior to the annual NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) conference, IECA has created this workshop specifically for those who are currently employed in a school or college setting and are contemplating a move to independent college consulting in the coming year(s). (This workshop is not designed for those already working as educational consultants.) The curriculum covers a variety of topics: how to assess and build on your expertise; how to market yourself as an independent professional; how to set up a small home- or office-based business; how ethics, counseling services, and credibility issues change; and how to write a “Transition Plan” to guide you through the process. Sessions are led by some of our most experienced college consultants, each of whom has successfully made the transition from an institutional setting to private practice.

Now in its fifth year, the 2009 Transitioning workshop will be held in Baltimore on Wednesday, September 23rd from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. NACAC supports our efforts by offering this as one of their official pre-conference workshops, and partners with us by managing registration and the logistical aspects of the event. Registration is limited to approximately 65 participants.

To learn more about the workshop and link to the registration system, please visit the IECA Web site. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me directly: 703-591-4850 ext. 15 or Sue@IECAonline.com