Minding Your Business; 341; Meg Haines

Minding your business is provided by support from CCS. The Elevatingo of Emeric Realtors, proud to be associated with the quality programs and community service projects of PBS and KRWG TV. By Camino Real Builders, a committed partner with KRWG Broadcasting, providing educational, informative and entertaining programs to our region. And by the New Mexico Humanities Council, working with local groups to bring programs about culture and the human experience to all communities in New Mexico. KRWG TV presents Minding Your Business, a look at the people, places, events and issues

that impact the business and economy of Southwest New Mexico. Hello and welcome to Minding Your Business to show where we explore business politics and issues that impact our region. This week on Minding Your Business, a key element of economic growth for any community is having a well-trained workforce. That's where the customized training and workforce development department at Doniana Community College comes in. Meg Haynes is the director there and joins us now to talk more about it. Meg, thanks so much for being here. Thank you for inviting me, good afternoon. And I have to say, I loved your signature on your email because I know this may be a generational thing, but it's straight from my generation. You signed your name MS, Ms, without a period, Meg Haynes. And I have talked and talked to people. I said, Ms is a word in and of itself.

It was created as a word and it has no punctuation, but any more of these days, they still put a period after it. But let's find out a little more about yourself before we go into what you do and what your department does, where you grew up, where you went to school, how you ended up working for the community college. Great. I am actually a native of Las Cruces. I have been here pretty much my whole life. I went to school here in Las Cruces, Mayfield High School. I graduated from there. I have also attended and missed you in many capacities. I have an associate degree in secretarial administration, a bachelor's degree in business administration, and a master's degree in educational administration. I have also worked for the university for many years. Previously I worked in human resources for seven and a half years. And currently I am now the director of customized training and workforce development with Doniana Community College.

So I am a local and I love living here. And it's so interesting what you just described is almost identical to my wife. She got a degree from the community college and secretarial administration and associates. Got a degree in education from here. She's just about to finish up her master's in the spring of next year. Wonderful. But great to have someone so local and so qualified in your position, especially in summer as important to community development as the community college. So you work for the customized training and workforce development program. What's its mission? Our mission, we are under the continuing education division and there's three departments under that. There is the customized training and workforce development program. We also have community education and we also have the Small Business Development Center. Our mission is to provide developed workforces to make sure of economic development within our community.

Really to make sure that small businesses succeed as well as have skilled workforce available to them. Because certainly one thing businesses that are looking to locate in Las Cruces look at is the level of the workforce, what are these people know, what's their level of education and that's directly what you work with? Definitely. We're constantly meeting with companies that are looking to relocate into Las Cruces are actually the Doniana County and any surrounding area. We meet with them to let them know what services we do offer. A lot of companies looking to relocate or expand really want to make sure that their needs are going to be met in terms of having an adequate pool of skilled workers available and training available to their current workforce. So we go out there. We meet the businesses wherever we need to and we discuss what we can offer them. We also will do training at our center which is on 2345 East Nevada and we will also go to the employer's place of business too.

Whether it be here in town, deming, white sands, missile range, hollamin air force base. So we do travel. We have a location at Summon Park and we've also done extensive training in Santa Teresa. So we are there for the community. And when you call yourself Doniana Community College, you really, now this wasn't the case when I first moved to Las Cruces. They're pretty much was the main branch here at the main campus of NMSU and now we have East Mesa just all over the county and that's really great because that's what a community college needs to be is accessible. It gives a grocery list of classes associated with the program, obviously it'll take too long to list them all off, but maybe some of your favorites some highlights. Oh, definitely. We have a lot of computer training classes. We find that's very popular within the community, especially the NMSU community. Basically we train on any type of Microsoft office suite from beginning to intermediate.

We also do specialized training in like Adobe Photoshop, any type of computer training. We have expertise on staff and part-time instructors who can do that. We do soft skill training such as supervisory skills, interviewing skills, fun stuff, training tips for trainers. I'd never heard that term soft skills. Yes, yes, definitely. We've got your computer skills and then your soft skills, management, supervisory, team building. To me, I look at it as the fun stuff. People stuff. Yes, exactly. When you're dealing with a person and not a machine, okay, that makes sense. You offer a number of seminars based on the teachings of the author who wrote seven habits of highly effective people. Tell us about them. Sure. We offer a variety of Franklin Covey seminars. We have building trust, we have the Covey habits, seven habits for effective managers.

What those are geared towards is really building up your existing workforce, making them more effective, efficient, and also adding that motivational piece into it. Make sure your employees are motivated and want to work there. Just in scent of type training, we find that businesses having retreats invite us, you know, if they're having a two or three day retreat, even a day retreat, we come in there and sometimes do Franklin Covey training as well as other soft skills training. So very interesting series. We have those available as part of our regular curriculum or our regular seminars, but we will also do customized training, meaning if you contact us and say we have a need on November 15th and we'd like you to do building trust, you know, Franklin Covey seminar, then we will go out there and we will do that for you.

Pretty reasonable cost, I'm imagining. Definitely. On all our courses, we're always looking at the market, whether there's our charging for whatever training they're offering and we are offering also. And we make sure that we're very competitive because we do need to be here for the community. We need to make sure that it's affordable and reasonable and accessible. That's one thing I've told friends of mine who had some doubts about trying out school. I said, try a couple classes at the community college are very reasonably priced. If you decide you don't like it, you're not out a lot of money and you're walking out a little bit smarter than you were before. Exactly. Now, what's been the response from people who've been to some of these seminars? Oh, we do evaluations after each seminar or each class to make sure. You can answer this question precisely. Definitely. And we do pay attention to those. We read them after each one to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our participants. We have a lot of repeat customers, so that in itself tells us that we're doing a good job, too. But people are pleased.

We have smaller classes, they're more personalized. We have expertise on staff and also in our part-time instructor pool. So people are really getting a good quality seminar or training for a reasonable price. Its local employers don't have to send people out of town, so that's appreciated, too. But we've had very positive results. We're also getting ready to, or we are in the process of remodeling our building. And it's going to be wonderful. And we're going to have a grand opening when that's done. It'll be probably spring of 2008, so it's coming up soon. We really want to make sure that people know about us. We tend to be a best kept secret, and we don't want to be that anymore. We want to make sure that everybody knows that we are available for the university community and the business community in general. No. Since you mentioned it, and you're remodeling, where are your offices? Where is your department? Is it here at the main campus and MSU? Is it one of the branch campuses?

No, actually, we are off campus. We are on Nevada Street, located across from Lynn Middle School and Young Park in between Walnut and Trevis. So very accessible. We're in the center of town. And like I said, we will go out to area businesses, you know, and do training there, too. So of course, you can find information about us at the Doniana Community College administrative building, the main campus, or just give us a call. We have a regular number, you know, local number, and an 800 number. Our regular number is 527-776, and our 800 number is 827-776, as well as we're available online. Go to the Doniana Community College website, and there's a link for customized training. Yeah. I'm sure you can find a no problem through the role, or you know, or one of those. You know, search engines.

And I just pictured it in my head, I know exactly where you are, you're right behind Hastings. Exactly, yeah. Across the street, behind Hastings, and it used to be an industrial education center or something like that. Oh, yeah. It was a property affiliated with the NMSU for quite a while, and so it's been repurposed for you folks, and it sounds like you're putting it to good use. Yes, definitely. Right in the center of town, too. And people may have noticed in the past, too, we've had tractor trailers out and back that had, you know, the DACC logo. We have a truck driving academy that we offer through customized training, and currently we have a contract with MCA Valley Training Institute. So we offer that as well, and so people may have seen the tractor trailers out there and wondered, what are they doing there? But that's why it's because we do offer, you know, the truck driving academy. So that's also another one of our many offerings, so. Have a friend who's actually working toward his CDL right now, commercial drivers' license.

Great. We'll talk more about the program if we have some time at the end of the show, but let's shift gears to a huge event that you have coming up next week, and we're going to be taped away just a week, so it doesn't confuse you for me to say just a week from now. The 2007 workforce summit tells us the history of the summit, how did it even come to be? Oh, great. Wonderful. Our workforce summit has been around for about four years. This is the fourth year that we are doing it. It is an annual event. It is on October 11th, Thursday, October 11th. It is held at the Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces. And basically, this year's theme is business needs, workforce solutions. And what that means is what we're doing is we're inviting businesses. We're also inviting different types of solutions, businesses, entities, state entities that could be solutions to business needs. So what we're doing is we're looking at what the business needs are, what their wants

are, what their problems, their issues, what they really need from the community, the region. We bring a business panel in with business leaders, local business leaders, even regional, regionally within our area. And then we also have a solutions panel, and we have some local solutions available. Even customized training, the Continuing Education Division is a solution to area businesses. But we also have workforce solutions, previously known as Department of Labor, available on the panel. We have different people representing different initiatives. There's the two plus, two plus, two program. And where that's really reaching the children in middle school and high school to really become interested in different areas at an early age. And so then they move on. While they're in high school, they start taking classes at the community college. Then we want them to move on to a four-year college.

We have the REI, one of the REI executive board members who will be serving on the solutions panel. What's REI? REI is the Regional Educational Initiative. And so there's a couple of people co-chairing that initiative. And basically what it is is looking for solutions and working with area businesses and educational professionals to really make sure that the educational needs are met and that everybody's working together towards a common goal. So this year we've got wonderful panelists. Yeah, Tim, I'll talk some about them. I see you've got a list there, maybe some things, why don't you run down some of those words? Okay. We have a full agenda this year. The summit is from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. I bet a lot of people are going to like that isn't, it's not 8 to 5, huh? You're going to pack all this info and all before or just through and barely pass a lunch.

Right. And we are including a continental breakfast and a buffet lunch throw in there. But yes, we have a wonderful agenda this year and two, it's a little bit shorter than usual because based off of feedback from previous summits. A lot of business people have a hard time leaving the office for a full day. So we decided to try this year to see, you know, how it would go. But we have some key speakers. We have Betty Sparrow Doris, who is the secretary for the New Mexico Workforce Solutions. She will be speaking over lunch. We also have Mr. Len Mallory. He is the executive director of Workforce Education for New Mexico HD. We have Bob Grassberger, he's a teacher and entrepreneur, a journalist, wonderful gentleman. He's going to speak on what he's seen in talking to businesses and as a business owner. He serves kind of a dual role.

He knows the business side and he knows the education side. So that should be exciting. That's nice people who understand both sides of the coin. Who else? I see some names I recognize are next on the list. Well we have Pat Hines, I think you've met her before. She's recently been on the show. She's the director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium for Animists You. She's going to give us an overview of what to expect. I mean, the space issues, the space, you know, everything that's coming into our area is just really exciting right now and there's a lot of potential. So she's going to come and talk to us about what to expect in the future. And she certainly is a local expert on all of what's going on, what's to come, those kind of things. Definitely. Anybody else? Yes, we have Steve Varick, Mr. Steve Varick from, he's the CEO and president of Mavida. Mavida. He was on the show last season. Yes, and he is key to this workforce summit. He has always put a lot of effort into this. He has served on our committee.

He has really come through and just, you know, helping us develop such great panels and a great agenda. So he will be giving us an update, an area update. Yeah, and no one's more plugged into workforce needs really than state. Oh, I know. Yes, just a dynamic personality and just the most chill, nice guy. He's just really, really nice. He really is. So, we've got a full day, we've got many great speakers. We also have the two panels. And so it'll be a great day, a great environment and we're hoping as many people as possible can join us. It's only $50 to attend and that includes lunch and a continental breakfast. You know, you can hardly have lunch and breakfast for 50 bucks and then add in all that great information. I also see Dean of our College of Business, Dr. Gary Careathers, former governor of New Mexico. You know, he's actually going to be on the show later on in the season. So not only are they finding about this summit, they've also had a list of

guests to come and pass guests on the show. Now we've talked about the theme. Anything returning, anything like this business panel, anything coming back and anything new that really stands out, so I'm you're proud of. Oh, sure. This event pretty much always focuses on what the business needs are and what education and can return for that. But what we're planning to do in years to come is the issues that we're addressing this year, next year we give an update and say these were the needs, the issues and these were the solutions and let us tell you where we're at at this point. So we're really trying to build on this year after year, but Dr. Wertha, Dr. Margi Wertha, the CEO of Doniana Community College has always been a great supporter of this event. And so I'm proud to say she will be back again this year to definitely moderate the whole event and really give us a wonderful welcome and send off after it.

But we're really pleased to say that are the businesses that have attended in the past have really walked out of there with a lot of useful solutions and to it, it really provides a great networking opportunity for everybody to stay in touch afterwards to continue working on the needs, to find out what the needs are and then working on the solutions. So yes, we're pretty proud of that because we have been able to make a difference in the community with this event. Now, obviously the panel is going to be something interactive for attendees, they'll be able to ask questions, responses and a lot of interaction, are there any other interactive things for attendees? Yes. With the panels, yes, there will be time for the audience to ask questions. So that's great and there will be some preset questions that we've received from area business leaders ahead of time. But also we have the opportunity for businesses to exhibit while we're there.

And so that way other businesses can see what services they offer and hopefully walk away with more information than they knew before. Maybe a small business doesn't realize what workforce solutions offers and there's the local workforce solutions office and they're going to have, they will have all their information there. And there's many programs available to businesses. We will have hopefully some temporary agencies there. So that way that's an immediate solution to a lot of business needs here in the area. So and of course there'll be breaks and networking possibilities too. So it is a very interactive event. It's not just sitting there all day listening to some speaker but it's very interactive. Like the like the Charlie Brown voice walk, walk, walk, yeah exactly the teacher voice. You know we've got just a little bit more than a minute we're right at a minute left. Remind us again if someone wants to attend and they're not signed up, what can they do

after they see this show? What do they do to sign up? The easiest way is to call our office at 527776 or go online and visit our website. There is a registration form online. My staff is very helpful and they can be registered within a couple of minutes of calling us. They can also go down to our office on Nevada Street and register too. So. So there's a lunch buffet. What's for lunch? Italian. Italian? That always makes a good buffet and one of my one of my earliest jobs was at the Hilton. What it was before the EnCanto. Make thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you. I've really enjoyed it. Appreciate it. It's time again for a weekly piece here on Mindy Your Business that showcases some of the hardworking entrepreneurs and business people in our area. You can call it the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, Local Business Feature. It's a small little environment, kind of give it an Italian, Tuscan environment, good

ambiance, good food, breakfast and lunch. There's the Friday and Saturdays. We will be opening for our dinner and we'll be open until 9. We do caterings. Wherever you have a catering event, we could do it because anything from a wedding to just a little picnic get together, we can make it happen to you. If you guys would like it during the days that we aren't opening for business in the evenings, we can open up just for a private party and you guys the whole restaurant to yourselves. Many consist of basically, you know, we have our egg platters, you can have your fried eggs, with your bacon, your sides, your turkey sausage, regular pork sausage, hash browns, then we also have Belgian waffles which are delicious and tell you what's the best thing I have here. The first chance of vegans are, you know, we do make food for them. There are veggie wraps.

We could do anything they would like for more health conscious on like some other restaurants that just want to make it fried foods or whatever and have a limited thing. We want to have it completely open to the public in this area. All you got, blue cheese for cons, all the good on right here, you got some raspberries, bacon, tomatoes, some blue cheese. My favorite meal here? Mmm. What do I like? Chicken Portobello sandwich. It's my best. What makes us better is definitely our, it's a combination of all things that make the restaurant the best. We have an outstanding ambience. I try to play music customers who enjoy that keeps them relaxed so when they're coming through on their work day for a quick lunch, they kind of come here, have a cup of coffee, calm down. I have an outstanding servers, outstanding servers, some of the best servers in the last years, as I can say, and our food is top notch, I have a lot of compliments on our food, we have a lot of regulars to come in just for that. I love the customers that come in, they keep me on my toes, they keep me busy, and the people I work with, they're my employees and servers that I work with, the cooks in the

back, a pastry chef, it's like a big family, you know, and you have a bunch of guests coming into your home every day, I want to sit down and have a piece of what you can offer your family, you know, we offer them our little house here, it's perfect. That just about does it for this week, if you have a question or comment about the show, you can call the mind in your business hotline at 646-7350 or email me at Charles Comer at Yahoo.com for information on upcoming shows and an archive of past shows, log on to www.krwgtv.org and follow the mind in your business links, again, I'd like to thank my guest, Director of Customized Training and Workforce Development at Doniana Community College, Meg Haines for coming on the show, and thank you so much for watching, I'm Charles

Comer, here's hoping you have a great one.