For the last several years, the attendance at the Career Development School (CDS) at the University of Illinois in Champaign has been in decline.  The costs, the location, the availability of potential students from our members, and the time commitments all worked against increasing attendance. 

This year we are taking a new approach for Career Development.  There are three major changes:

          1.  A NEW Location
          2.  A NEW Format at a lower price
          3.  A NEW Curriculum

The New Location will be at the Naperville campus of the Northern Illinois University (NIU).  NIU was selected based on their experience with and support of trade associations and membership training and development.  Additionally, a review of the distribution of ILFI members throughout the State indicated that a suburban campus might be a good fit.

The New Format calls for a 1 1/2 day experience rather than a 3 day event which will in turn enable the League to lower the cost of this training.  The CDS Committee additionally felt strongly that mid-level staff of our members needed a seminar dedicated to them and their development but that CEO's and alumni of the CDS needed to have their own event to discuss current trends and management ideas.  For that reason, the mid-level staff CDS will be held May 20-21 in Naperville while a NEW CEO/Alumni CDS will be held at a date to be determined in October.

The New Curriculum for the mid-level CDS will contain a combination of thrift/banking basics together with coursework that will benefit any staff person in their development as an up-and-coming member of the staff.

We are excited to offer this New Approach to Career Development and hope you will send individuals to participate in these training opportunities.