Join us as we celebrate the last conference of the Northwest Region and embrace the beginning of the new Western Region! The 2008 Northwest Region Conference will take place at The Grove Hotel in beautiful Boise, Idaho, May 18-21. We have three terrific keynote speakers lined up and an outstanding lineup of educational sessions.
Register by April 25 for the biggest savings. To reserve your hotel room, visit the Hotel and City Information page. Reservations must be made by April 25.
Margaret Morford
Sponsored by Fidelity Investments
Accomplishing the goals and objectives of any organization requires more than just smart employees who work hard. It requires savvy employees who know how to forge alliances and avoid animosities in order to be effective. Participants identify which of the rules of "positive politics" they are most likely to violate as well as obtain guidelines for being smart about their own conduct, about their business communication, about their relationships with co-workers and about their relationship with their supervisor. In addition, they learn numerous ways to recognize who really holds power and has influence and how to tap into the power structure within any organization.
Margaret Morford is president for The HR Edge, Inc., an international management consulting and training company. Prior to owning her own company, Morford was senior vice president of human resources consulting for a national consulting firm out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and a juris doctorate from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney, specializing in employment law , and has been vice president of human resources for three large companies. She is often quoted as a business expert in newspapers and magazines across the country including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today and Entrepreneur and appears regularly on local ABC, CBS and Fox television affiliates. She is the author of the videos Running With the Big Dogs: How to Make HR a Strategic Player and The Confident Supervisor, as well as the business book, Management Courage: Having the Heart of a Lion.
Dr. Patt Schwab
A firm believer in taking humor seriously, Dr. Patt Schwab combines years of hands-on management, teaching and training with over 15 years of working as a full time professional speaker in Europe, Canada and the USA. Her programs are packed with humor, insight, and practical tips for leaders interested in improving their skills at managing staff, managing change, and managing to have more fun.
Patt encourages her audiences to use humor to rise above workplace challenges, insisting that the fresh perspective humor provides helps to reaffirm competence and to identify what really matters.
Dr. Schwab has worked as an administrator and human resource manager at a variety of universities, including Penn State, the University of California and the University of Washington. She has supervised staffs from 1-150. Patt is currently the president of FUNdamentally Speaking, an international speaking firm. She holds academic degrees in history, student personnel, and administration. She also holds the highest earned designation awarded by the National Speakers Association, the CSP, or Certified Speaking Professional.
Michael A. Griffin
2008 has been an active year for the FMLA. The statute was amended to create new entitlements for employees and their family members in the military. And the Department of Labor published extensive proposed revisions to the already voluminous regulations. What is an HR professional to do? How can an organization ensure compliance with the new law and make sense of the proposed regulations that will, if approved, significantly change important aspects of FMLA compliance? Michael Griffin, an attorney with leading workplace law firm Jackson Lewis LLP, will help guide you through these changes and potential changes so that you have a better understanding of your organization’s rights and obligations regarding employee leave.
