This month, the ASTD-Cascadia Chapter is fortunate enough to recognize two core volunteers of the Senior Forum group as “Co-volunteers of the Month” – Lisa Harnisch and Melinda Laubscher.

Lisa Harnisch works with the State of Oregon – Department of Human Services (DHS) and has been affiliated with the Cascadia chapter for the last 2 ½ years. In her day job, Lisa is the DHS Core Values Initiatives Manager and provides training around the values of the DHS to State employees. With close to 10 years experience in the Training & Development field, Lisa brings great insight and passion to her volunteer work with ASTD.

In 2007, Lisa was the Event Lead or Co-Lead for four of the seven Senior Forum programs - something which the Director of Senior Forums - Margaret Jennings is greatly appreciative of. According to Margaret, “Lisa put a great deal of time and energy into the Senior Forum this year. She took a significant role in programs, and I knew I could depend on her for whatever I asked.”

From the Events Lead perspective, the best thing for Lisa about working with the Senior Forum group is the energy in the group. “In creating programs, there’s a lot of energy and synergy in working with a co-planner and the Senior Committee,” Lisa states. “Everything just comes together – everyone is very committed and dedicated to learning themselves – and everyone jumps in to help make it happen. It’s never been a lot of work for me – it may take time, but I’ve not ever felt like it’s been a big chore because of the energy level of the group.” This year, Lisa also enjoyed working closely with Melinda (her co-volunteer of the month) on programs. “Melinda is very connected in the training world and it was fun working with her.”

Being a part of the Senior Forum provides great exposure for Lisa – it allows her to connect and stay abreast of what’s going on in the training world. Mostly, Lisa appreciates meeting other peers in our profession to find out how they do things – and to learn different approaches.

Outside of work and ASTD, Lisa is a consummate learner and giver. She has worked on PSU’s Training & Development Certificate Program, and tries to take advantage of ASTD forums whenever possible. She has a wonderful family – a husband and two children in middle and elementary school. Lisa lives in Salem, likes to contribute and give back, and does so in various ways in her life as a member of a Foundation Board for her local school district. Mostly, Lisa enjoys hanging out with her kids.

Thank you Lisa for the wonderful work you do with ASTD Cascadia – we surely wouldn’t be as successful without you!

The second and just as important Volunteer of the Month that the Cascadia chapter would like to recognize is Melinda Laubscher. Melinda has worked at The Standard for 2.5 years now as their Director of Training and Quality Assurance for the Claims division. Most of Melinda’s Training & Development experience lies in the High Tech sector around Training & Executive Development – and she was excited to transfer that industry knowledge into the work that she’s currently doing. Prior to moving into our industry, Melinda was a University Professor at several universities across the country.

Melinda originally got involved with Cascadia during a job transition. She’d always been well connected in the industry, but decided that getting involved in the Cascadia chapter would only enhance her “career and networking karma”. She immediately jumped into volunteering with the Sr. Forum Group and found it a good fit for her. Similar to Lisa’s message above, Melinda loves being involved in the Sr. Forum group because it’s, “…a good, fun group of people that work on fun things. It doesn’t take much time – in the Sr. group, many hands make light work.”

Melinda helped to Chair or Co-Chair three different Sr. Forum programs this year, Performance Consulting, Mentoring and a Sr. Director’s event with Rita Bailey. Her volunteer words to the wise: “Keep your volunteer time simple – don’t overwork or over think ideas. Put yourself in other people’s shoes and ask yourself what they’d want to see or learn…then deliver to it. Most importantly…do what you say you’re going to do.”

When Melinda isn’t busy leading Development work at The Standard or volunteering with the Cascadia Chapter, she and her husband are quite busy with two champion Labrador Retrievers that compete in Field Trials. Both dogs went to Nationals this year - theirs were 2 out of only 90 dogs across the country competing! The Laubscher’s are involved in breeding, and raising money for Canine Cancer. Melinda’s other love (besides her husband of course…) is Fly Fishing. This year they spent 2 weeks in Yellowstone trout fishing – and she had a wonderful time!

The Cascadia Chapter Board of Directors can’t express enough our deep appreciation for the work that Melinda, Lisa, Margaret Jennings (the director of the Sr. Forum Group)….and the dozens of other volunteers do to keep our chapter viable and adding value to our professional membership. Thank you both for your time and contributions!

In case you’d like to get more involved as a volunteer with the Cascadia Chapter, the Senior Training Directors' Forum is targeted for training and development professionals who have a minimum of 10 years of training and development (or equivalent) experience and are responsible for developing training and development strategy. Director level professionals are also responsible for decision making in their organizations. These programs are designed to offer strategic insight and time for round table interaction with peers. For more information, contact the Director of the Senior Forum, Margaret Jennings, at mj@jenningscompany.com

Return to Top