We’ve given our website a complete makeover.  Check it out at www.intratrain.com. Please, tell us what you think.   What features do you want to see more of?  Less of? How else can we improve?

November 16, 2011 Russell Associates recently launched a new blog to go along with our brand new website!  Our old blog will still be located on Posterous, as we will still be using that site to collectively submit new information in our social spaces.  However, this blog hosted on WordPress will be home base for our online content sharing needs. Russell Associates is a training and consulting firm serving Agribusiness and Food Processing industries with custom e-learning, instructor led, safety, and process training through a variety of delivery methods.

August 19, 2011 Here is a great article on the economics of e-learning classes versus instructor led classes from the former President of Caterpillar University!   http://blog.clomedia.com/2011/07/what-is-the-value-of-e-learning/

August 4, 2011 According to a recent article on CNN.com, there are 5 Billion Pounds of Turkey consumed in the United States each year. That averages out to about 16-18 pounds of Turkey for every man, woman, and child in the country! That is a lot of turkey – and a lot of people to consider when building HACCP plans, and general food safety regimen. Each company that processes food is, of course, required to have proper HACCP plans in place – taking special care of every critical control point along the way. This is an important example of why not only having plans and processes in place is important – but also training employees on how to properly carry them out! Whether you are a food processor, food preparer, or food server – training is always of the utmost importance. That is why Russell Associates carries a full line of HACCP manager, and employee training resources. We’re committed to helping the industries we care about, take care of the people they are serving. News Article: Cargill Recalls 36 Million Pounds of Ground Turkey http://bit.ly/qn7tdV

July 21, 2011 Latham Hi-Tech Seeds does a fantastic job of putting relevant content on their company blog, “The Field Position.” Today, I was intrigued by the topic, as I had actually been considering this myself. Much of the corn across the country is in the pollination phase. The recent heat wave has been relentless both day and night. Last year, USDA attributed a 10% decrease in corn yield to this same type of event. In today’s Field Position post, you get the low down on whether we can expect yield reduction or not. Link to full article:http://bit.ly/mU5ZNT

July 18, 2011 Russell Associates is excited to announce that Agribusiness Market Leader, Mark Jewell was recently selected by ASTD to speak at the Regional Conference in Minneapolis, MN, held on November 14 & 15, 2011. Mark recently completed his Master’s Degree program through Colorado State University – Global Campus. His degree program was Organizational Leadership, and his key focus was Change Management. During the ASTD Regional Conference, Mark will be presenting the topic of his Master’s Capstone Project which focuses on new ways to capture Informal Learning in the workplace. Mark’s words on the topic: “As I was choosing a topic for my Capstone Project, required to complete the Master’s program, I became enthralled by the statistic which states 70-80% of workplace learning happens informally. I was convinced that there must be something available with today’s technology that would help harness more of the informal knowledge transfer. What I came across were a number of communications services known as Social Business Solutions. Basically they are communications platforms that allow an organization to become more social, more connected, and more open across the organization. Take for instance the time knowledge workers spend looking for information. A knowledge worker spends 25% of their time just looking for info – and they find it successfully only 50% of the time. That means, if on average, employees earn $56,000 per year, an employer spends $14,000 per year having employees look for information that they only find half the time. Social Business Solutions enable the organization to improve that…

June 7, 2011 It is in our human nature to form groups, committees, teams, and the like. We are social creatures. Some of us are extremely social, while others are not as socially interactive – but in the end, we all need each other. I find this presents challenges in the workplace today. Email has done wonders for reducing paper consumption, but have you considered what it does for your time? How much time do you spend looking down at your blackberry, or closing a working window to look at our Outlook every time it chimes? buy zithromax 1g Probably more than you’d care to admit! The fact is, our social nature, as beautiful and useful a creation as it is, is amplified through technology. Each day, I am “courtesy copied” or “blind courtesy copied” on dozens of emails. How many of those conversations do I need to be involved with? Do I read each of the emails, or do I need to read each one? When I find out that I do need to read them, can I dig back into my email and find it? That might be a problem for those less organized! What happens if my email fails one day, and all those conversations are lost? BIG Loss! Today, there are many new software products on the market that enable our companies to leverage the social nature of our companies. Enterprise solutions – that allow us to engage with co-workers, or even clients, and help us to reduce the clutter. Sounds…