Earlier this month, ATE Central sat down with Mike Lesiecki, Executive Director and PI of MATEC NetWorks National Resource Center II and PI on the ATE Collaborative Impact Project to discuss the 2014 ATE Centers Impact book.

ATE Central: ATECenters recently released the 2014 Impact book. Can you tell us a little about this project?

Mike Lesiecki: This is the book’s 5^th edition; the first edition was published in 2004. The idea came about as a way of bringing together this community of ATE centers, essentially a way to advocate for ourselves and show the impact the centers have had as a group. Using short snippets, we’ve used real data backed up by individual nuggets of information to show policy makers and others what the impact of federal support for these community college programs has been. The book portrays the centers’ accomplishments, but more importantly the students and how these programs serve a broad spectrum of people and demographics. We designed the publication to feature two main groups of people: students and working technicians. That theme has been consistent across the editions.

ATE Central: I know the companion Centers website is going through a redesign too – when will that be done and what are some of the features that you are most excited about?

Lesiecki: The website debuted with the 4th edition in 2011; now, it’s going to be revised for the 2014 edition. What we find exciting is the substantially increased interactive features of the site. For example, we will have maps of all the centers with roll-over, automatic links back to the centers to make it easy to access information from a variety of approaches. We’ve also added the most current web-enabled technologies, for responsive customization – we will know who is asking for the information, are they using a mobile device, etc. – and we also have built-in analytics to better understand how people will use the information they find. We want to demonstrate the latest advances in technology. Finally, we’ve also made it easier to accommodate new centers and those centers that have completed their NSF funding period, as NSF has previously said only active centers can be featured.

ATE Central: The book and corresponding website sound like pretty big endeavors. What was the process like for creating them?

Lesiecki: A project like this has to be collaborative. With 42 of anything working together, you have to work collaboratively on tight timelines. The book has themes that run throughout it, and that’s where Madeline Patton came in. She worked with all contributors to ensure the same language was used and to create a sense of individualism, yet commonality, between all contributors. It was a long process; it took almost six months from the start to when we got to hold the print in hand. We started with templates for centers to use and asked them to select high quality graphics for the book. This was one of the biggest challenges, as all centers operate differently with their photo collections; some have photos and others need to go get them. This was especially important this year as the design and layout of this year’s book is unique. The cover is an overlay of all the photos used in the publication as a way to display the collaborative nature of the book. We were also very fortunate to have a letter from President Obama in this year’s book. What this conveys is the broad base of support for the program from politicians, policymakers, and legislators. Going forward we hope to look at new ways to do things. You might also be asking “Why do print in a web based world?” Print has impact and hitting people from different types of media influences people in different ways. Whether or not it gets shorter in the future, we want to maintain some physical presence.

ATE Central: How do you suggest people use the Impact book to promote ATE? Have you heard of any exceptional or innovative uses?

Lesiecki: There are many different approaches people have used over the years. (1) Use it first in your organization to paint your center within the larger context. This book helps illustrate the larger impact of your work within your college, institution, community, region, and even nationally. (2) As a tool to engage and inform industry it is especially effective. The book demonstrates to industry a depth of connections that they expect to see; they expect educators to work together for industry needs and this book highlights that. (3) In terms of advocacy, there are several sides. It’s a good door opener. For example, it can be used as a way to inform your state legislators and senators of your work. It’s a great way to say thanks for the support you and your colleagues have given us over the years, let us show you some of the impact. (4) It is a tremendous resource for those developing new proposals for submission to NSF as it overtly exposes leverage into existing work. The book has instigated many new projects and proposals. The book is primarily used for that.

ATE Central: While projects don’t have pages in the book, there are lots of ways they could also use the book to promote their work. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for projects and how they can use the book for outreach?

Lesiecki: For the first time in this edition we really tried to indicate the breadth of projects, as seen in the maps between sections. The centers and physical locations of projects are indicated; nothing specific, but it indicates the broader impact of the program. This book is really key for helping projects connect with centers. They should use it when developing proposals or when working collaboratively with centers.

ATE Central: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about the latest center book or the website?

Lesiecki: You probably won’t be surprised to hear that we who had the privilege of receiving funding and working on the project gained the most from this experience. It deepened our connection with all of the centers, which was not only a privilege but a huge benefit for us. Other centers have acknowledged this linkage, too. Also, through the website we hope to not only acknowledge the impact of these projects and centers but to highlight new technology.

ATE Central: I’m sure our readers will be interested in receiving copies of the book- what’s the best way to get copies?

Lesiecki: The publication can be downloaded at www.atecenters.org/impact2014 or you may contact MATEC for paper copies of the book:

Address: 4110 E. Wood Street, Suite 1, Phoenix, AZ 85040
Email: Impact@atecenters.org
Phone: 480-731-8050