Re: professional associations

Michael R. Wolf wrote:
> What organizations have helped you as a trainer? That is, how have you
> advanced your training skills, as distinguished from your technical
> skills?

The most help I've gotten hasn't been from a formal organization, but 
from hanging out with Jerry Weinberg's groupies, sometimes joking 
referred to as "Weinborgs" because of the way people tend to get 
assimilated (willingly) into his community.

Jerry is a legendary pioneer in the software industry, though at least 
half of the software professionals I ask have never heard of him.  He's 
authored probably 30 books.

I'm attending his workshop on experiential training design next month, 
where I'm hoping to learn how to involve the participants much more in 
my courses.  (Sorry, the course is full, with a long waiting list.) 
Maybe I'll also learn how to rely less on PowerPoint - Jerry never uses 
PowerPoint.

I've learned a lot of soft skills from Jerry, especially communication 
skills.  I used them today teaching a kid who supposedly has a learning 
difficulty (I didn't see any difficulty - perhaps I'm blind to it 
because I have the same problem he does :-).

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that.  The easiest way to get 
introduced to Jerry, besides reading his books or meeting him in person, 
is to subscribe to the SHAPE forum - http://geraldmweinberg.com/shape.html.

BTW, thanks for the pointers.  I ought to look up some of those 
organizations.  I tried Toastmaster a few times.  My problem is that I 
don't get nervous enough in front of a crowd any more.
-- 
Danny R. Faught
Tejas Software Consulting
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    http://tejasconsulting.com/open-testware/