Hello Coaches!

I’m going to share with you our newest format for our two programs and some highlights from the monthly ICF Chapter Leader call.

Here comes March, our third month of 2006 and our lineup is exciting. If you remember, your 2006 Board of Directors met twice in 4-hour retreats and created a vision for the ICF-OC Chapter participants to live into this year. Good work 2006 Board! Thank you for your commitment to our profession.

Based on the 2006 Vision for the Chapter, we have created an updated program from 5:00 – 6:00 PM which will include the “Business Solutions Workshop” along with the goal of improving coaching skills, focusing on “putting in” what’s missing in our businesses, and assistance to those who are ready to begin or are in the middle of the process of becoming credentialed. We have upgraded the name of the new program to “Business and Coaching Excellence Program” or the “BCE.”

The BCE is also an opportunity for our member coaches to show their stuff! Do you have a business solution or a coaching skill or a program that you are showcasing or offering that you would like to share with your fellow ICF-OC participants? Have you been through the credentialing process and are willing to assist others in doing so? Please give us plenty of time to ensure that what you are offering is within the ICF Core Competencies, found on the www.coachfederation.org website under “Core Competencies” so we can offer coach training hours to our participants.

NOTE: If you have something to offer and would like a practice venue with wonderful participants who only wish for your success, send your ideas for your presentation to: publications@icforangecounty.org

In addition to our headliner speaker this month, Carly Anderson, MCC, we are including a coaching practicum to our headliner event. We will begin in March with an exercise made up of triads where we will continue to learn and grow and improve our skills with each other. What better way to tweak what we already use with our fellow coaches trained in different distinctions in our pursuit of excellence in our coaching abilities?

Some highlights from the monthly ICF Chapter Leader call are:
1) as of 1st April, 2006, the ICF will begin to have annual membership dues

a. If you have paid through some other month, the ICF is working on a sliding scale payment from that month to 1st April of next year, and will let you know that at your time of renewal

b. The ICF figured it would be easier for everyone if we all knew when our membership fees were due and we could budget for it

c. We may consider a similar renewal process for the ICF-OC too. If we managed our fees in the opposite month of the year, November, then we could offset paying dues to both organizations at once. More on this later.

2) At this point, there will be two membership categories to join ICF (global) as a new member

a. As a ‘Credentialed Coach’

b. As an ‘Associate Coach’ which you will have to do if you are not credentialed and you let your membership lapse without paying for it when it is due

3) Something exciting is that the Coach Referral Service that coaches now pay for in addition to their membership will be free to all credentialed coaches after April 1st.

4) Lastly, there are now 9500 ICF members in over 70 countries and the ICF is focusing on being inclusive and respectful of all our members.

Look for more news in the ICF newsletter Coaching World.

I look forward to seeing you at our ICF-OC Chapter meeting in March!

Respectfully,
Patricia Hirsch, MCC, MBA, RN
ICF-OC President, 2006