Community Resource Guide For Helena VISTAS Volume 1. July. 2014 | Page 18

Phase 4 Performing Your Best: 6-10 months in When you have arrived in phase four you will be engaged in meaningful work, and contributing to the mission of your organization. You will know your work is meaningful because you will get positive feedback from your supervisor and possibly even your co-workers. However, also during this phase you may start to feel a little overwhelmed by the excitement and pressure that comes with being a contributing member of a team. If you feel uncomfortable in this way it is probably a good thing, so embrace it! But be sure to make some time to decompress. Professional Development Areas Do your midyear evaluation- revisit goals: Set aside some time to review your VAD with your supervisor. Discuss the progress you have made, what you hope to accomplish before your year of service ends, and how it aligns with the VAD. If you feel your VAD needs to be adjusted work with your supervisor and Jon Stephani to make the necessary changes. Example-- MCAN Gap Analysis:  Progress: o  Research, surveys, and interviews completed. Hope to accomplish: o Write Gap Analysis. o Create distribution plan o  Complete analysis of data o Evaluate effectiveness of MCAN Gap Analysis Alignment with VAD: o MILESTONE 2- help to develop a comprehensive assessment of college access efforts to provide a common understanding of successes and needs when it comes to improving Montana students’ participation and success in post-secondary education.  o MILESTONE 3- Develop a plan to provide professional development opportunities for MCAN membership.  o Research, surveys and interviews have provided insights into the needs of students and educators. We have a better understanding of how the services our Network provides are being used, and how effective they are. This analysis has given us comprehensive data on college access programming in Montana. We would like to include the findings from this analysis in the professional development opportunities for our members. MILESTONE 4- Expand availability of college access programming and resources statewide through collaborative programming among MCAN membership.  In order to expand programming effectively we need to know what is working now, and what is not. The Gap Analysis will help us discover the strengths and weaknesses of different programs. From this information we can collaborate to make the programs more effective and efficient. 18