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Memorandum

To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

As a member of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce (FCCNA) Nonprofit


Alliance and a president of a nonprofit, I would like to propose an initiative to support our
community nonprofit businesses. Currently, there are three major academic institutions within
Frederick County, none of which offer specific nonprofit business training. Mendel (2014)
explains that general business and administration courses are not meeting the needs of nonprofit
leaders. There are many nonprofit specific issues that need to be addressed, such as community
organizing and working with volunteers. In addition, Mendel (2014) explains that many scholars
are urging nonprofit-centric (p. 62) education. To address the specific training needs of our
local nonprofit leaders, I would like to propose that FCCNA partner with Frederick Community
College (FCC) to develop an online training curriculum. Additionally, I propose that FCCNA
independently establish a community of practice to offer ongoing learning once students have
finished the training program.

The advantages to a partnership between FCCNA and FCC are many. Due to FCCNAs
strong ties to the business community, FCCNA can raise public awareness about the program
and obtain funding to support its development and ongoing maintenance. Businesses understand
the importance of a stable society and feel a social responsibility to supporting those
organizations that help keep society stable (Berman, 2010). Consequently, I am optimistic that
the local business community would be willing to help financially support a nonprofit leadership
training program. The FCCNA can also provide subject matter experts to assist with course

Memorandum
To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

content development and instruction. FCC, on the other hand, can provide the learning
environment with the requisite administrative, technological, and student support services. FCC
already has an established online learning program, so they are equipped to deploy and
implement this curriculum. Specifically, FCC has a customized training division that would work
with the FCCNA to develop and teach this program. This division of the college produces
courses designed specifically to meet the needs of businesses
(http://www.frederick.edu/workforce-continuing-education/customized-training.aspx).

Online Training

Our intended audience of nonprofit leaders are adults who typically work full time.
Online training offers many advantages to students who work full time. Online training allows
students to learn anytime, anywhere, and at their own pace. Students do not have to attend a class
at a given day and time on a regular basis. Online training also lends itself to different forms of
learning that give the student more control over what and how they are learning. For this
proposal, I suggest that we utilize the Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) theory as defined by
Harasim (2012) to inform our training courses.

The emphasis of OCL is to develop critical thinking skills through discourse,


collaboration, and knowledge building (Harasim, 2012, p. 90). Critical thinking is defined as the
ability to interpret, analyze, evaluate, infer, explain, and self-regulate to reach a judicious,

Memorandum
To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

purposeful judgment (Facione, 1990; Facione & Facione, 1994, para. 1). Harasim (2012) says
group collaboration and discourse is essential to stimulating critical thinking and building
knowledge. Finally, OCL allows the instructor to step back and act as facilitator, moderator, and
mediator so the students can construct their own knowledge within the boundaries set by the
teacher.

Since online learning is the basis of OCL, this theory facilitates the use of online
technologies to collaborate asynchronously or synchronously. I suggest we use Web 2.0
technological tools that Lee and McLoughlin (2010) say promote collaboration and sharing of
knowledge and content among users (p. 61). Specifically, I propose two technologies: (a) a
group discussion board that provides a shared space within which the students can
asynchronously discuss topics with other students; and (b) a video conferencing tool that allows
students to synchronously collaborate face-to-face. FCC uses Blackboard to support their online
courses with functionality, such as asynchronous discussion boards and synchronous virtual
classroom for collaboration (http://www.frederick.edu/blackboard/index.aspx).

A Community of Practice

In addition to training, I propose that FCCNA create a community of practice for


nonprofit leaders to share relevant knowledge and cultivate their professional practice. A
community of practice is a social network that encourages its members to share and acquire

Memorandum
To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

knowledge. Siemens (2005) says members of a community of practice gain new knowledge,
identify relevant information, and remain current in their field. The community of practice
proposed here is informed by the Connectivism theory. The principles of Connectivism are:

To gain knowledge through the diverse opinions of ones peers.

To establish and nurture connections with members of ones community of interest.

To recognize relationships between facts, ideas, and concepts.

To connect information from various sources.

To trust that the knowledge one gains is up to date and true.

To distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. (Siemens, 2005).

I suggest a senior member of the FCCNA facilitate and manage the community of
practice. Harasim (2012) explains that this individual can introduce new topics, facilitate and
motivate the discussion, and help members reach a conclusion. According to Wenger,
McDermott, and Snyder (2002), our goal should be to design the community of practice to
evoke aliveness (p. 2) and grow organically.

To implement our community of practice for nonprofit leaders, I suggest we use the Ning
Glam Media environment, which allows users to construct communities and web sites
(http://www.ning.com/about-us/). Members will have their own login and be able to create their

Memorandum
To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

own webpage with a detailed profile. In addition to asynchronous discussion forums, the Ning
Glam Media environment will allow us to host synchronous online webinars, chats, and face-toface conferences. Ning Glam Media archives webinars for future viewing, and provides a feature
called LiveBinder that includes links to additional sources of information provided by the
featured speaker and participants.

In Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to present a plan for how we should proceed. Assuming both
parties agree to this partnership, I suggest that representatives from both FCCNA and FCC meet
to begin to develop a strategic plan that includes:

a definition of the goals, objectives, and intended audience of the program;

the course topics that should be taught;

the cost to fund the development, and an estimated amount to be contributed by each
partner; and

an estimated timeline for program launch.

As of 2012, there were 950 nonprofit organizations in Frederick County (Austell, Rogers,
& Wrightson, 2013). As nonprofits are such a significant part of our community, I hope you will
agree that every effort must be made to ensure their continued success and growth. Both FCCNA

Memorandum
To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

and FCC are in the unique position of offering that level of support. Thank you for considering
this proposal, and I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

References

Austell, J., Rogers, C., & Wrightson, M. (2013). 2013 Nonprofits by the numbers. Retrieved
from Maryland Nonprofits website: http://marylandnonprofits.org/dnn/Portals/0/2013MD-Nonprofits-By-The-Numbers-web.pdf

Berman, H. (2010). Meeting community needs. Inquiry (00469580), 47(3), 186-198.


doi:10.5034/inquiryjrnl_47.03.186

Facione, P.A. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of
educational assessment and instruction. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED315423

Facione, P. A., & Facione, N. C. (1994). Holistic critical thinking scoring rubric. Millbrae, CA:
California Academic Press.

Harasim, L. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Lee, M. & McLoughlin, C. (2010). Beyond distance and time constraints. Applying social
networking tools and Web 2.0 approaches in distance education. In G. Veletstianos

Memorandum
To:

From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:

Wendy Errera, Executive Assistant, Frederick County Chamber of Commerce


Nonprofit Alliance
Jurgen Hilke, Director, Office of Distance Learning, Frederick Community College
Gail Wingate
Steve Kerby, Cynthia Whitesel, Nancy Wooten
April 24, 2014
Partnership to Develop and Implement Nonprofit Management Online Training

(Ed.), Emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 61-87). Edmunton, AB:


Athabasca University Press.

Mendel, S. C. (2014). A field of its own. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 12(1), 61-62.
Retrieved from http://www.ssireview.org/

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W.M. (2002, March 25). Seven principles for cultivating
communities of practice. HBS Working Knowledge. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/

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