Thank you ACTE members for your support during 2002! This has been a year of momentous change, yet you have shown your commitment to our profession through your membership. At a time when local, state and federal budgets are more constrained than they have been in years, many of you showed your commitment to professional competency through your attendance at ACTE’s annual convention in Las Vegas.

What will 2003 bring? I believe ACTE has positioned itself for whatever challenges and opportunities that the New Year may bring, but we must remain Gung Ho! In my last article, I reviewed the first of the three principles in Ken Blanchard’s book Gung Ho—”The Spirit of the Squirrel, Worthwhile Work.” Now I’d like to talk about “The Way of the Beaver, In Control of Achieving the Goal.”

I have not personally seen beavers at work, but from the description in the book, it is easy to see why the phrase “busy as a beaver” has become a part of our language. What is important to remember is that beavers share a common goal and have the drive and energy to accomplish it. It is also important to understand that beavers do what they do because they decide to. The “way of the beaver” means team members control achieving their goal. It is doing the right work the right way!

Over the past year, ACTE has undergone a transformation that I like to refer to as the New ACTE. Your professional association has developed a strategic plan to help you, the ACTE member, advance your schools, your skills, your students and your career. Through member input, we have defined strategic goals that are the marker points for our future landscape and core values that sustain our efforts. We can achieve these goals if we work together.

We need YOU! As you know, 2003 brings us the reauthorization of the Perkins Act. Advocacy is entwined throughout our goals and values, but the whole team, all ACTE members, must be active on public policy issues. The current administration wants to know the impact of career and technical education. It is imperative that we all send the message to our policymakers that career and technical education is an invaluable investment!

As Will Rogers said, “Even if you are on the right track, you might get run over if you just sit there.”

We are on the right track, so let’s get this train moving full steam ahead. There are many ways to achieve this goal—membership, donations to the legislative support fund, and, of course, grassroots efforts by communicating to your policymakers. A key opportunity to participate directly is ACTE’s National Policy Seminar scheduled for March 16-18, 2003, in Washington, D.C. You can find more information about NPS in this issue of Techniques or on ACTE’s Web site: www.acteonline.org.


Gung Ho, Friends!