Holiday Greetings to everyone!  As the Membership Director, I wanted to share all some of the valuable benefits of being a member of ICF-OC.  Aside from meeting some outrageously fabulous people, membership offers you the opportunity to post your coaching business on the website, find a mentor that can help you move from great to outstanding, hear some amazing presentations by highly successful coaches, earn Coach Continuing Education Units (CCEU’s), and participate in the ICF-OC Give back program. 

If you are wondering what that is just click here.  Along with all of these great member benefits you also get sponsorship and advertising opportunities, you are welcome to submit articles for our monthly Insights newsletter, you can also present during our monthly BCE and annual International Coach Week event.  But wait, there’s more, you can post your events on the website under Events/Member events - click here.   You also have access to ICF and affiliate teleclasses accessible on the website under affiliates events and meetings - click here.   These are just some of the great membership benefits available to you.

So, my question is, what are you waiting for?  Take advantage of your membership benefits today!  If you are not a member, become a member and be part of an amazing organization that is all about providing community, continuing education and resources to practicing professional coaches in building thriving and impactful businesses.

Organizational Upgrade program update

“Divine Choices” and “The Child Abuse Prevention Center” were selected for the ICF OC Chapter's, "Organizational Upgrade" program.  Just to refresh everyone, the Organizational Upgrade program was created to offer coaching support and resources for free to a couple of charitable organization's within the local OC community for a period of up to nine months.  Rita Conley has been working with Claire Heath, President of Divine Choices since March of 2010.  Divine Choices is dedicated to transforming lives of sexual abuse survivors and educating against victimization by increasing awareness and prevention.  Rita has learned quite a bit about how non -profit organization’s run.   It has been an amazing journey for Rita to coach Claire Heath.  She is so grateful there are people like Claire who really want to make a difference in the world.  Claire commented on her coaching experience by saying, “It’s been wonderful to work with Rita.  She skillfully makes you drill down to specifics that are measureable, realistic and attainable.”

Mina Watkins has been working with Scott Trotter, Executive Director of The Child Abuse Prevention Center since May of 2010. The Child Abuse Prevention Center directly serves at-risk children and families in crisis to prevent and break the generational cycle of child abuse.  Mina coached Scott for three months and they both agree that a lot was accomplished in a short period. During this time they focused on Scott's individual influence from a leadership role and how that related to the organization's purpose as a whole. From there, Scott had the ability to develop a strong foundation to implement the most effective approaches to handling the common challenges that non-profit organizations face. The results were truly impressive and Mina was amazed and grateful to be a part of Scott's process.  Scott commented on his coaching experience by saying,  “At the Child Abuse Prevention Center, we are thankful for Mina Watkins, who gave energetic, thoughtful insight that helped me focus on my leadership strengths and build on them. She was a consistent, calm support and introduced me to practical concepts that applied to my team. We are a stronger organization because of her. Thanks Mina and ICF! “

If anyone is interested in doing volunteer work or making a donation please feel free to log on to the following websites:  www.divinechoices.org or www.brightfutures4kids.org

If you are interested in being part of the ICF-OC organization upgrade program, click here.

Our monthly meetings are every second Thursday of the month.

When

December 9, 2010 meeting:
5:30-6:30 – Guest Registration / check in
5:45 -6:45 – Cocktail Reception  – walk around Magic & Puzzle Bar
6:45 -7:45 – Dinner & Announcements
7:45 – 8:30 - Game Show
8:30 – 9:00 – Mix & Mingle/ Group Photos

Location

The Sports Club – Irvine
1980 Main Street
Irvine, CA 92614

Holiday Party

Please join us at the ICF OC Annual Holiday Party for fun, food, and games
Plus our special guest performer,

Barryn Vaughn, Professional Magician / Corporate & Family Entertainer.

He will absolutely amaze us with close-up magical miracles! Barryn is a ‘Master’ in the art of ‘Engaging People.’ He will begin with strolling table magic during the cocktail hour and a Puzzle Bar area with some interesting brainteasers. He hands out tickets for puzzles and other things during the cocktail hour which is later used to create teams and win prizes.   After dinner, he will facilitate an interactive Game Show with lots of audience participation.

Click HERE to register.

Did you miss the ICF Global Conference?

There is a way to get a taste of this year’s conference. 

Simply click on the ICF link and you will find the following:

• Session audio recordings
• Photos
• Video segments
• Conference program
• and much more
  

How aware of professional coaching is the general public? What do people think of coaching?

Results of the new ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study* are available!  The results imply professional coaching can be that innovative tool to help many companies and individuals recover from the recent global recession—great news for you to share with your clients!

A Few Highlights:

The study found that 51% of participants are aware of the coaching profession. Of the 48% respondents who were unaware of coaching, one-third indicated they would consider participating in a coaching relationship in the future.

The ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study, which surveyed 15,000 participants aged 25 and older in 20 countries, was conducted independently by the International Survey Unit of PwC.

Look for more information at Coachfederation.org/works

Las Vegas here we come!

The 2011 ICF Conference is within driving distance!  It is a great opportunity for us to attend and for some of you to present.

The official call for conference presentations is now open.

Both ICF members and non-members are invited to submit a proposal to one of the following four areas of focus:

• Art of Coaching
• Science of Coaching
• Practice of Coaching
• Marketing & Business Building

A link(s) to a video stream demonstrating your skill as a presenter as well as connection to and engagement with an audience is required (via YouTube or other site). The video does not have to be professionally produced and should be five to 10 minutes in length.

The deadline to submit a proposal is Monday, January 31, 2011 by 12 p.m. (New York), 6 p.m. (Paris); Tuesday, February 1: 1 a.m. (Hong Kong).

Potential speakers may visit Coachfederation.org/Conference for information and instructions on how to apply for this opportunity.

Go ICF-OC!

Have you heard about the I CARE FOR campaign?

The I CARE FOR campaign offers every ICF member the chance to share with the membership and the world at-large what they care for and what they're doing to support the causes they are concerned about.    

Click here to share with the members around the world what you care about and find out what other members care for!

You will even discover there is an I Care For Contest.

Thanks for sharing!

Happy 15th Anniversary ICF!

Want to know how you can be part of the celebration?

ICF members are encouraged to take a moment to share their reflections on ICF's past and their thoughts around our future in professional coaching together.  Those who share through the e-capsule will have their name displayed on the Contributors page.

Collected comments and items will be showcased during the celebration of the ICF's 15th anniversary.

Need ideas on what to share?
The following are just a few suggestions for items you can share and questions you may want to respond to:

• Photos from ICF Chapter events and/or conferences
• What you think the ICF's biggest accomplishment in its first 15 years has been?
• Where you think the ICF will be in another 15 years (at its 30th anniversary)?
• Where do you see professional coaching in 15 years?

Click here to find out how you can be part of the celebration. 

If you ready to share just simply, send your comments, photos and more to the ICF via e-mail here

For the past several months the ICF Credentialing & Program Accreditation Committee has been working to develop recommendations to meet the objective determined by the Board to enhance our credentialing program to best protect and serve consumers of coaching services, measure and certify competence of individuals, and inspire pursuit of continuous development.

Four work groups have been formed so far and have been meeting to discuss various topics.

Some recent activities include:

• Client log accuracy survey had successful second Beta test. The next step is to draft a proposal for the policy as a recommendation to the Credentialing & Program Accreditation Committee.

• Discussion is underway regarding an Operational Definition of a Mentor Coach and Best Practices for Mentor Coaching, which is an interim measure until Workgroup seven gets underway to fully develop all relevant issues around this work.

• Work continues to progress on the MCC exam process improvement recommendation. This work will continue in 2011.

Look for more credentialing updates in future issues of ICF Coaching World and other communication channels.

Customer Centric Selling
by Michael Bosworth

Author’s big thought: The most difficult task in selling – and the number one key to success – is to get inside the head of your buyer. Customer Centric Selling presents a dynamic process for first understanding and shaping your buyers’ concerns, then helping those same buyers visualize your offering to achieve goals, solve problems, or satisfy needs.

Click here for Frumi’s Book Summary.

Click here to view additional book reports by Frumi. To find out more about Frumi Barr, MBA, Ph.D.  click here

Don't Miss CTI's Co-active Summit!

This is a transformational event for the coaching community that you don't want to miss! Discover all that the CTI Co-active Summit has to offer by attending a webinar hosted by Karen and Henry Kimsey-House Co-founders of CTI.

Register now for “Why the Co-active Summit?”, a 30-minute webinar starting at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET on December 2, 2010.

You’ll learn why the Summit is not just an event, but the beginning of something new.

www.CoActiveSummit.com