Christine Martell
VisualsSpeak
Volunteer, Impact Awards
Volunteer, Conference
Volunteer, Board Retreat

This month's spotlight is on a volunteer that has volunteered in a number of areas.

The Cascadia Chapter works because of volunteers like Christine. Christine has been an active volunteer with the Cascadia Chapter after attending a member orientation in early 2005. She worked with the Impact Award team throughout the year in 2005 and will continue to lead the team this year. Her input, energy and professionalism really assisted the team especially with all of the extra effort she put in at the conference last November. If you stopped by the 'IMPACT Awards' booth at the Conference, you probably met Christine as she was there spreading the word about the awards program and tapping into member feedback on how to make the program effective in 2006. (FYI -- the 2006 Impact Awards application and details will be on the website by March . . . come back to check it out).

Christine has also stepped up to offer her sharp facilitation skills and dynamic image work with the ASTD-Cascadia Chapterboard. As if it wasn't enough to be a busy volunteer at the conference, she then spent a whole Saturday (the day following the conference!) with the new board facilitating our annual board retreat. Utilizing her VisualsSpeak process was incredibly useful for the board to do some big picture planning as well as really focus on our values and mission for the coming year. The board has continued to tap into Christine and her dynamic work as the board progresses through the year as well as utilizing her approach on several of the committees within the chapter. The energy, effort and passion that Christine has put into all that she has done with the chapter has really helped us keep rolling with momentum in 2006.

“The best part of volunteering with ASTD is the opportunity to get to know other members. I value the informal learning opportunities that arise from the conversations that happen around the organizational work. Katherine Stevens, Glen Fahs, Dan Vetter, and Chris Cartwright introduced me to ASTD through the T&D program at PSU, and I was inspired by their stories of how much they have benefited through their long term service in the organization. I am particularly excited about the suggestions and feedback I am getting through my work with the ASTD-Cascadia Board. As an outside contractor, the conversations with colleagues are especially valuable.”

Christine’s background is in the arts, and she has been using creative methods in training and facilitation with non-profit organizations and small businesses for over fifteen years. After earning her masters at PSU in 2004, she started VisualsSpeak, an image-based training and consulting company. VisualsSpeak creates training tools to make it easy to utilize the power of visuals in retreats, meetings, and sessions. Using visuals as a stimulus for conversation gets to the heart of the matter faster and accesses core group and individual values. Christine is passionate about creating bridges between different types of learners using engaging experiential processes. She seeks to help other trainers, consultants, coaches, and counselors use visuals to get to their performance goals faster and more effectively.

In high school, a favorite art teacher mentioned that artists should save photographs for reference material. When she was earning her BFA at Rhode Island School of Design she worked in the clipping library, and began to organize her growing collection. Many years later, she has over 75,000 photographs which she has hauled through multiple moves around the country. This collection has provided the images she uses in facilitation. Now in order to produce her tools commercially, she is working on creating images and photographs in digital format.

You can contact Christine through www.VisualsSpeak.com.

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