This is a day-by-day review of exactly what it's like to attend the NEW PATHS conference.
I attended the NEW PATHS (National Eligibility Workers Professionals Associated Through Human Services) Annual Conference last week (1/21/20 – 1/24/2020) and boy what an experience! Year to year I would pass up the opportunity to attend, thinking I didn’t have enough time or my children were too small and I couldn't leave them...but this year, something was stronger than those thoughts: my desire and motivation to excel in life. I am fortunate for being selected to attend and want to share some of my experiences, so that next time you are given the opportunity to do something out of your comfort zone, you take it or at least consider it.
Janet Harrison from Lompoc Intake, Mayra Nateras from WRC Intake, Maria Ramos from Foster Care and I embarked on the six-hour trip to Rohnert Park on January 21st at 5:00 a.m. Talk about dedication. If you ever want to get to know your colleagues, a six-hour trip will do that for you. We had nice conversations there and back and had a great time socializing after the workshops. I did not know what to expect once we got there, but getting a warm chocolate chip cookie from the Double Tree hotel upon registration reassured me I was in a good place.
Read on to learn about each of our three days!
Day 1
The first line of business: to attend the opening ceremonies (where I won a door prize). Cookies and prizes!...by this point, I was happy. The keynote speaker was Dan Witherell, a UC Davis instructor. If you ever have an opportunity to take one of his courses or listen to him speak, do it. He is my type of trainer: informative, funny and passionate about the human services profession. With 35 years of experience in the training and administration of social service programs, he is a wealth of knowledge, having started his career as an EW himself.
Following opening ceremonies was the first workshop. I attended the Building Self-Confidence: Preparing Yourself for Success workshop with presenter Adrienne Lawson—a great workshop to start the conference. I consider myself a confident person, but this class made me realize I have a lot more to work on and also provided tips on how I can contribute to those around me in building their self-confidence. A self-help class I will never forget. “Wear that red suit girl!”
Day 2
After a good night’s rest, Day Two started with program updates from the state. They gave us just enough information about upcoming changes to get us ready for the program Q-and-A sessions that followed—also very informative.
After lunch was the third workshop, Professional Goal Setting for Success, again with presenter Adrienne Lawson. She inspired me so much in her first class that I was happy to be in another class with her. This workshop provided an overview for identifying and planning for professional development and behavior change by showing us the importance of setting goals. She is right when she says “An idea is just a dream until you write it down…then it becomes a goal.” This has motivated my colleague Lourdes Rodriguez and me to hold a vision board party at lunchtime. Perfect idea to start 2020, right?!
Next, on to official business with ABAWD and Work Registration in CalFresh Program with Dan Witherell. Boy was I happy to have Dan as the presenter for this topic. Kept me awake the whole time. This course provided some basic and not-so-basic information about ABAWD. (Is there even such a thing as basic information with ABAWD?!)
After a long day, we headed to dinner and returned to the hotel for a social gaming night. We played a DSS program trivia game with host Dan Witherell. See, I told you he was fun. Maria and Janet’s team got second place—yay! This night we met a group of EW’s from San Mateo County—or as they call themselves, Benefit Analysts. After the trivia game, we spent time in the lobby area playing Jenga and pool. Thank you to Sam and Norma Murguia from our county for teaching me how to play for the first time.
Day 3
Learning to play pool and the intensity of our Jenga game the night before left me worried that I would not be able to focus for the first workshop of the day on Thursday. I made it through Come on Down! Boost Your Training and Learning with Games workshop. I took this workshop to help me with different ways to help my unit retain information when I overload them with program and business process changes. This class was fun and I got ideas on a few program games I can use at unit meetings.
Second workshop was Knock Your Socks Off Service for Eligibility Workers presented by Terry Rapley. Terry is passionate about customer service. One saying that stuck with me that I feel is appropriate in any line of work is, "my service standards cannot be based on the client's attitude." We must have service standards based on ourselves. Starting a client interaction with “I know your time is valuable, thank you for waiting” or simply a heartfelt greeting when you first meet the client can drastically change the direction and tone of the interaction. As Terry said, government employees have a bad rap—it’s true that we are characterized as lazy, rude, and mean, that we do not care, or that we do not know what we are doing. The bar is low in regards to customer service from government employees. Each one of us has a role in changing this misconception. A smile goes a long way!
So far, Thursday morning was going very well and I was excited about the two afternoon workshops. After lunch, I attended CalWORKs Assistance Units—A New Perspective with Dan Witherell. As lively and funny as Dan is, this workshop was an overload of information regarding a clarification on a regulation.
The last workshop for the day was Taskmaster Magic—Taming Time and Task Saturation Once and For All! The presenter was John Tillison who captured my attention as soon as I met him. It turns out we sat next to each other and interacted earlier at the luncheon. It was not until the end of our conversation that he shared he was the presenter for the workshop and the closing keynote speaker. I felt like I had met a celebrity and was looking forward to seeing my “new friend” speak. What do you think is the top WMD (weapon of mass distraction), he asked? You guessed it, the cell phone. Do you ever feel like you need more time in your workday? Do you ever say, “If I had one more hour I could have gotten that done”? Examine your day to see what your time-wasters are. You will probably find an extra hour or two by being aware of your time-wasters. Whether it be for work or for personal time with our loved ones, who would not want an extra hour in their day? John had us do an exercise to check our cell phones to see how much screen time we had used on them. Let's just say there were a lot of "deer in the headlights" looks and "aha!" moments in the room that day.
Day 4
As much as I had enjoyed all the workshops, I was tired and ready to head home, but we had one last workshop to go and then the closing ceremony. What workshop would top the last three days? I chose High Error Rates and Trends: The Intersection between Eligibility and QC. There were three presenters there from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) State Quality Control team who spoke about CalFresh error trends and their impacts. This workshop turned out to be very informative and eye-opening for me. We were split up into groups with each group representing a county. We reviewed several case scenarios to find the errors. For every error we found we had to place a candy in a cup. Some counties had lots of candy and others not so many. Once we were done, for each candy the county had we had to pay fake money to the presenters (who were the Feds). Some counties ended up giving up all of their fake money. Turn this into real life—yikes!
Lastly, on to the closing keynote with John Tillison. His closing took us on a journey that will help us better negotiate today’s sometimes turbulent and unpredictable workplace from the perspective of a pilot. You see, John is also a licensed pilot. His speech has inspired me to keep focused and not give up on my goal even if it seems like a crazy one. Live your life now and do not waste any time.
Next year the conference will be in Ventura. If it is offered to you, I hope you will take the opportunity to attend. It might just change the way you see things.