This composite report provides a snapshot of current thinking about the needs and challenges of consumer education in the United States. The quotations were selected from responses of a small group of educators, legislators, and consumer leaders in business, government, labor, the media, and the community who were invited to write brief statements…

This publication is a guide with the necessary materials for leading a workshop session on defining and developing effective outcomes statements for use in Chapter 1 programs. Following a list of the transparencies and handouts used in the workshop as well as an outline of the 3-hour session, a section on presenter's background information…

This paper describes a minority leadership program, developed at Portland State University, Oregon, that is designed to increase the retention rate of minority and other underrepresented college students by helping them to adjust to the social and academic climate of the university. The program utilizes minority students who have successfully…

Communities with a flexible, open leadership structure may weather energy booms better than communities with old-guard leadership cliques, according to a study of community governance in two small Texas towns. Although similar in location, ethnic composition, population, access to transportation, economic base, and importance in the county,…

Intended as a teacher resource, the booklet contains a series of 10 short lessons about historical, annual, or cultural events related to the month of September. Information is presented on the following: September; Labor Day; the beginning of the academic year; the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; the birthdays of Puerto Rican…

The leaders of two local and regional organizations, Cooperative Extension Service (CES) and Workforce Development Board (WDB), were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the leadership skills of each other as an indicator of the social capital within the community. Results showed the majority of both groups did not know if their counterparts…

The 2006 Wingspread Conference on Engagement in Higher Education convened twenty-eight formal and informal affiliate organizations, all of which focus on advancing the scholarship and impact of higher education's engagement with communities, to explore acting strategically as a "guild" with common interests and diverse capacities for the…

This short paper surveys some of the key concepts concerning the behavior called "leadership" and explores the role of leadership in the management of further and higher education. It recounts briefly six hypotheses held about the nature of leadership (the trait theory, the situational theory, the social influence theory, the functional or…

This self-help manual contains advice for parents who want to improve the schools their children attend by influencing school planning, policy, and administrative practices. The first step in improving schools is deciding whether a new group is necessary. If it is, parents must connect with other parents and then hold a first meeting at which…

This manual describes four discussion techniques that may be used in an adult education setting following a presentation by one or more resource persons. These four techniques--the huddle group, the buzz group, the chain reaction forum, and the reaction symposium--are designed to help the learner acquire information, develop skills in problem…

The Nominal Group Technique (NGT), developed by Andre Delbecq and Andrew Van de Ven at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s, is used to enhance the generation, exploration, and communication of ideas relevant to problem-solving situations. The NGT is unlike other typical interacting group techniques in that individuals work in the presence of…

Local public officials may be confronted with the use of economic multipliers when asked to react to project proposals, to environmental impact statements, or to other studies containing economic impact analyses. Employment, income, and output multipliers are tools for estimating private sector economic impacts of a new development within a local…

This manual is part of a series of human relations programs designed to help individuals develop a sense of self worth and an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of human differences. The stress in these programs is on providing each individual with a model through which to evaluate his own actions and emotions. In this manual,…

A sequel to "A Portfolio of Outstanding Americans of Mexican Descent", this portfolio contains 24 portraits and biographical sketches in both English and Spanish of Mexican American personalities who have become familiar as emergent figures in various sectors of public life. Featured are several women who have made themselves audible as…