Greetings,
I hope you are all safe and thriving in this new COVID-19 world. We are all gearing up for a new school year of limitations to our norm and teaching in a digital setting.
WTSEA is making that adjustment as well, and I want to inform you about upcoming developments:
1)
2020 WTSEA Fall Conference- Your WTSEA Board, given present realities, has decided that we will scale back our fall conference, "Engaging Students for Success in a Digital World," to just one day,
Saturday October 10. It will be a virtual conference delivered through the ZOOM platform. There will be four 2-hour sessions for a total of 8 clock hours of professional development (PD). As usual, both OSPI and DOL will accept these clock hours to satisfy continuing education (CE) requirements. You will have the option of taking any, or all of the sessions. The complete agenda and registration are now available on our website at www.WTSEA.com. The registration will include your membership dues of $40 for the 2020-2021 school year, plus an administration fee of $10.00 per workshop session that you enroll in.
2) Another opportunity for PD/CE credits from ANSTSE/ADTSE- The Association of National Stakeholders in Traffic Safety Education (ANSTSE) and the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) are offering four 3-hour virtual professional development workshops (PDW) on August 24-27. Similar to our fall conference, you may register for each workshop separately or take all of them. (Commercial DTS members: To meet DOL's bi-annual PD requirement for 8 clock hours, you will need to register for three of the four classes, netting you 9 hours of PD credit; Public school certificated/conditional cert holders: If you enroll in both the conference and these four workshops, you will gain a total of 20 hours CE) These workshops are offered for free through a grant from NHTSA. According to the flyer announcing the details, a $15.00 administration fee will be charged by ADTSEA for a completion certificate per workshop. (That's $60 if you take all four) But, hold on! Because WTSEA is an official OSPI clock-hour provider and an affiliate member of the ADTSEA network, we are able to reduce the admin fee and provide you the completion certificate/clock-hour form for $10.00 to current members of WTSEA. That's a nice return on Investment (ROI) for membership in WTSEA. ANSTSE/ADTSEA is considering offering more such workshops in the 2020-2021 school year. So be sure to renew your WTSEA membership with your fall conference registration in order to take advantage of more PD opportunities at a very reasonable rate.
3) DOL Proposed WAC change: Feedback Requested - Most of you are members of the DOL Listserv and receive the DOL Bulletins. If not, please review the latest Bulletin regarding creating permanent language to address "emergencies" that may require suspension of face-to-face training and allowing for temporary digital training during the emergency period. This is necessary because the current emergency WAC expires in November. Rather than drafting another temporary WAC, the DOL is proposing the attached language to be permanently adopted. The DOL is seeking feedback and your questions before the proposed language is made official. Please respond to their survey questions so that WTSEA can provide the DOL with the opinions of our members. You are encouraged to send DOL your specific questions directly. Some questions I drafted are attached. What others might you have? We will forward them to the DOL. The due-date for submission of feedback is August 19. Don't delay. Note: These rules only pertain to commercial driver training schools. We have not heard if OSPI is considering drafting similar permanent rules for emergency suspension of face-to-face instruction and consequential allowance of digital classroom delivery in the public schools.
4) The future of WTSEA? Last spring, we called for nominations for the President-Elect position which will become vacant on September 1, 2020. On that date, my term as president expires and Mike Hahn, the current President-Elect, takes the helm. As we received no nominations for President-Elect, we are forced to function without this important position. We also received no new nominations for the vacant representative Areas (ESD 105 and ESD 112). Further, resignations have been tendered for Board members currently representing the ESD 113 and ESD 121 areas; ESD 114 and ESD 123 are currently filled by appointment from Board members who do not live or work in those areas. Our board, and consequently our association, is heading toward a crash course of potentially having to dissolve in the near future if members do not come forward to serve. In the meantime, we are committed to offering a conference in 2021, either on-site in Renton, or virtually if COVID-19 persists. In July of 2022, we will host the national ADTSEA conference in Vancouver, Washington in lieu of our fall conference. After that time, when Mike Hahn's term as president expires, we will not have the necessary leadership to carry us forward. Please consider joining us. Let me or Mike Hahn know if you are interested in serving on the WTSEA Board.
It has been my pleasure serving as your president/president-elect for the past four years. Thank you for all you do in the service of young drivers and helping to keep our roads safe. Take care of yourselves and your families. Be well.
Warmly,
Alex Hansen
WTSEA President
I hope you are all safe and thriving in this new COVID-19 world. We are all gearing up for a new school year of limitations to our norm and teaching in a digital setting.
WTSEA is making that adjustment as well, and I want to inform you about upcoming developments:
1)
2020 WTSEA Fall Conference- Your WTSEA Board, given present realities, has decided that we will scale back our fall conference, "Engaging Students for Success in a Digital World," to just one day,
Saturday October 10. It will be a virtual conference delivered through the ZOOM platform. There will be four 2-hour sessions for a total of 8 clock hours of professional development (PD). As usual, both OSPI and DOL will accept these clock hours to satisfy continuing education (CE) requirements. You will have the option of taking any, or all of the sessions. The complete agenda and registration are now available on our website at www.WTSEA.com. The registration will include your membership dues of $40 for the 2020-2021 school year, plus an administration fee of $10.00 per workshop session that you enroll in.
2) Another opportunity for PD/CE credits from ANSTSE/ADTSE- The Association of National Stakeholders in Traffic Safety Education (ANSTSE) and the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) are offering four 3-hour virtual professional development workshops (PDW) on August 24-27. Similar to our fall conference, you may register for each workshop separately or take all of them. (Commercial DTS members: To meet DOL's bi-annual PD requirement for 8 clock hours, you will need to register for three of the four classes, netting you 9 hours of PD credit; Public school certificated/conditional cert holders: If you enroll in both the conference and these four workshops, you will gain a total of 20 hours CE) These workshops are offered for free through a grant from NHTSA. According to the flyer announcing the details, a $15.00 administration fee will be charged by ADTSEA for a completion certificate per workshop. (That's $60 if you take all four) But, hold on! Because WTSEA is an official OSPI clock-hour provider and an affiliate member of the ADTSEA network, we are able to reduce the admin fee and provide you the completion certificate/clock-hour form for $10.00 to current members of WTSEA. That's a nice return on Investment (ROI) for membership in WTSEA. ANSTSE/ADTSEA is considering offering more such workshops in the 2020-2021 school year. So be sure to renew your WTSEA membership with your fall conference registration in order to take advantage of more PD opportunities at a very reasonable rate.
3) DOL Proposed WAC change: Feedback Requested - Most of you are members of the DOL Listserv and receive the DOL Bulletins. If not, please review the latest Bulletin regarding creating permanent language to address "emergencies" that may require suspension of face-to-face training and allowing for temporary digital training during the emergency period. This is necessary because the current emergency WAC expires in November. Rather than drafting another temporary WAC, the DOL is proposing the attached language to be permanently adopted. The DOL is seeking feedback and your questions before the proposed language is made official. Please respond to their survey questions so that WTSEA can provide the DOL with the opinions of our members. You are encouraged to send DOL your specific questions directly. Some questions I drafted are attached. What others might you have? We will forward them to the DOL. The due-date for submission of feedback is August 19. Don't delay. Note: These rules only pertain to commercial driver training schools. We have not heard if OSPI is considering drafting similar permanent rules for emergency suspension of face-to-face instruction and consequential allowance of digital classroom delivery in the public schools.
4) The future of WTSEA? Last spring, we called for nominations for the President-Elect position which will become vacant on September 1, 2020. On that date, my term as president expires and Mike Hahn, the current President-Elect, takes the helm. As we received no nominations for President-Elect, we are forced to function without this important position. We also received no new nominations for the vacant representative Areas (ESD 105 and ESD 112). Further, resignations have been tendered for Board members currently representing the ESD 113 and ESD 121 areas; ESD 114 and ESD 123 are currently filled by appointment from Board members who do not live or work in those areas. Our board, and consequently our association, is heading toward a crash course of potentially having to dissolve in the near future if members do not come forward to serve. In the meantime, we are committed to offering a conference in 2021, either on-site in Renton, or virtually if COVID-19 persists. In July of 2022, we will host the national ADTSEA conference in Vancouver, Washington in lieu of our fall conference. After that time, when Mike Hahn's term as president expires, we will not have the necessary leadership to carry us forward. Please consider joining us. Let me or Mike Hahn know if you are interested in serving on the WTSEA Board.
It has been my pleasure serving as your president/president-elect for the past four years. Thank you for all you do in the service of young drivers and helping to keep our roads safe. Take care of yourselves and your families. Be well.
Warmly,
Alex Hansen
WTSEA President
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