Piedmont Area Educational Consortium

PAEC

Technology changes faces of the Community College

About Us

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The Piedmont Area Educational Consortium (PAEC) is the premier professional development consortium among community colleges in the state.  It began in 1991 with a meeting of Deans and Vice Presidents of Instruction from area colleges hosted by Mike Taylor at Stanly Community College.  The purpose of the meeting was to devise strategies to increase the quantity and quality of staff/faculty development opportunities by sharing and coordinating activities among themselves.  The early members included Anson, Central Piedmont, Davidson, Guilford, Forsyth, Mitchell, Montgomery, Rowan-Cabarrus, and Stanly. To fund the joint efforts, dues were paid to the organization.

 

The first group-sponsored training session for administrators was held the next year on a Friday afternoon through mid-day Saturday at the Adams’ Mark Hotel in Charlotte.  Workshops were held in 1993 at Davidson Community College and the group, by then officially known as the PAEC, applied for and received a $50,000.00 grant from the State Board Reserve Fund to host the first English Faculty Institute held at the Atlantic Beach Sheraton in 1994 with over 110 English faculty from over 50 community colleges attending.

 

Another successful two-day conference on leadership (It’s a Jungle Out There) was held in Charlotte in 1995 at the Adams’ Mark Hotel. The organization at that point had a couple thousand dollars left in its treasury.  Dues were suspended soon afterwards and the organization underwent organizational and leadership changes. Due to a variety of factors no major conferences were held until the very successful November 1999 conference for mid-level administrators was held at the Blockade Runner Hotel in Wrightsville Beach.  The keynote speaker was Dr. William Purkey who helped to popularize the concepts of invitational education to the state community college leadership.  This conference attracted financial support for the state office of staff development, but the costs of the conference left the treasury virtually empty.  With assurances of continued financial support form the state, members agreed to host a major conference bi-annually –alternating with the Community College Faculty Conference.

 

The efforts of the PAEC, largely through this conference, led the state office of professional development to expand the PAEC concept and structure statewide by creating three additional community college consortia and added several new members to the existing group.  These four consortia received funding through the state office making dues unnecessary.  The state office also adopted the ideas of invitational education, began developing an introductory training module, and subsequently presented it statewide 2000-2001.

 

On March 31, 2000 the PAEC hosted a conference at GTCC on Assessment, The Leadership of Change, and Learning with Dr. Robert Lange and Dr. Betty Siegel, co-founder with Dr. Purkey of the International Alliance for Invitational Education.

 

On March 23, 2001 Montgomery Community College hosted a PAEC one-day Drive-in Symposium for community college educators.  This was followed in April 2001 with a workshop: What is Your Emotional Intelligence hosted by GTCC; and the presentation of a teleconference in November 2001 aired from CPCC on Teaching Multi-Cultural Students in the Traditional Classroom.  The PAEC also began to develop a reciprocal relationship with the Eastern Regional Competency Based Educational Consortium (ERCBEC) and our chair presented at their conference in Myrtle Beach, SC.  A number of PAEC college representatives also attended this conference.

 

In 2002 state budget deficits prevented the funding of the four state consortia and with the subsequent elimination of the state office of professional development the PAEC members decided to revive the assessment of annual dues at the reduced rate of $200.00 per year.  (The original member’s dues were $500.)  With the cancellation of the state teachers’ conference in Greensboro, and with no funds in the bank, the PAEC agreed to work with ERCBEC on their October 2003 conference by providing workshops on professional development topics. The conference in 2003 and 2004 were co-sponsored by the two groups.

 

Member colleges work hard to share their campus training opportunities with others, and to share their personal expertise by speaking and training on member campuses.  In January 2003 members were invited to participate in a one-day workshop at Davidson County Community College on Employability Skills for the 21^st Century.  On February 13-14, 2003, members were invited to participate in the spring conference Cooperative Leadership Towards Student Success sponsored by the NCACCIA/NCSDAN and hosted at GTCC.  The keynote by Dr. John Rouche was aired over the NCIH with sites at Pitt. AB Technical, Mitchell, CPCC, Fayetteville Technical, and GTCC community colleges enabling numerous others to participate electronically.

 

“Tides of Change: Challenges for the New Millennium” was the theme for the 2006 Biennial PAEC Conference. The keynote speaker was Dr. Mark Milliron whose presentation was entitled “Challenges for the New Millennium”. Topics included lateral entry teachers, SACS preparation, and the millennial student at the community college.

 

In 2008, PAEC met for its Fourth Biennial Leadership, Teaching and Learning Conference in Wrightsville, Beach, NC. The conference featured Dr. Terry Whisnant, President of Horizon Seminars, whose presentation was entitled “The Changing Face of Professional Development.”   Presentation topics included faculty and staff wellness, assessment, and active learning.

 

The organization continues its mission of promoting and providing quality training for member faculty, staff, and administrators in both good economic times and bad.  The collaboration and sharing of information and resources has enriched participants for over ten years and in the current economic climate it is more important than ever to support this premier association.

 

Piedmont Area Educational Consortium