Events - Event View

8:45 AM Registration
 9:00 AM Chapter Meeting
 9:55 AM Break
10:00 AM Presentation: Critical Thinking - A Critical Skill 
12:00 PM Lunch
 1:00 PM Presentation: Surely We Can Trust The Boss, Can't We? 



Session Descriptions: 

Title: “Critical Thinking - A Critical Skill”

We’ve been told that our ability to think is what separates us from the animals. “I think, therefore I am,” proclaimed Rene’ Descartes in the 17^th century. Situations, problems and opportunities confront us on a daily basis. How we handle them and move on is fundamental to long-term success in any endeavor. Simply reacting is not a sound strategy. We each have our own experiences and points of view from which we make assumptions. To that we add facts, opinions and observations to try and arrive at a course of action. We must analyze each situation on its own merits and develop a plan to attack it. This requires the skill set of critical thinking, which examines assumptions, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions. This workshop will examine many of the facets of critical thinking and provide some useful tools for its proper application.

Title: “Surely We Can Trust the Boss: Can't We?”

He was the Town Administrator for a small community is south Florida - smart, charismatic and admired by both the public and his employees. However, over a period of months he came up with a scheme to defraud his agency of thousands of dollars in public funds through the creation of dummy companies and fraudulent approvals of work that was never performed. His machinations were eventually revealed and reported to the police by an intrepid procurement manager who bore the brunt of the resulting criticism from not only the town’s elected officials, but his own supervisor. In this workshop, participants will learn how the whole plan unfolded, how it was uncovered and the impact it had on how procurements were handled in the agency for several years afterwards.