EDUCATION REPORT SUMMER 2008

This past year has been a very busy and productive time for our Association’s educational programs.  We had record attendance at each of the three major conference sites, Potsdam, Tarrytown and New York City and we also offered the largest number of subject choices for the clerks to date.  The feedback from each of these training events was positive and enthusiastic.  The clerks liked having the opportunity to attend the elective classes without having to miss the core subjects.  Offering the core subjects on Monday and Tuesday made this possible.  In Tarrytown and New York we experimented with scheduling a class on Wednesday morning in addition to the traditional Question and Answer discussion.  We weren’t sure if enough clerks would attend to make it worthwhile, but they did.  More and more we are finding that the clerks are at the conferences to LEARN -- not just for social and/or shopping opportunities.  Since Potsdam is only a 2 day training, we won’t have the opportunity to offer a Wednesday morning class.  However, last summer some of the clerks asked if we could schedule an evening class or run classes later than 5:00 o’clock.  We’re discussing this with OCA and the University to see if we can have the Monday classes run until 5:30 or 6:00.  OCA is planning a Monday evening barbecue again so a class after dinner wouldn’t be feasible.  But it’s refreshing to know that the clerks are willing to put in more time in order to learn the things we all need to know to do our jobs properly.

The District Trainings have also seen an increase in the number of attendees – in some districts the numbers have almost doubled over last year’s attendance.  It’s becoming quite evident that the Court Clerks around the state WANT to learn, they WANT mandatory training because they WANT to be certified by New York State as being highly qualified to perform their responsibilities.  A new option that OCA and OCS are working on is on-line classes.  The comptroller’s office sent flyers to every town and village court in the state to make the judges and the clerks aware of the opportunity of taking the Fiscal Responsibility class on-line.  There will be an article in The Docket  from Rhonda Latz of OCS with more information and the schedule for these on-line classes for the remainder of the year.

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