Trending
Two public-facing positions are open in Marietta with organizations that impact the greater community at large.
The first: Development Director at Buckeye Hills Regional Council.
The second: Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Washington State Community College.
Buckeye Hills Regional Council's former development director announced his exit from the position around Thanksgiving via social media to pursue consulting, while the former marketing director for the public community college returned to work for Offenberger and White in Marietta.
But what happens to those positions and their subsequent responsibilities?
Drew Tanner, communications director for the regional council, explained that the development specialists and Geographic Information System specialists within the department will carry forward the office through its next rounds of grant administration and the disbursement of CARES Act dollars.
"We've got a couple of development specialists, we have our GIS team, also our transportation planning team; those are all folks that are seasoned in there and know their roles and know their programs and so in a way it's really well-oiled machine in terms of just the ability of that team to carry on in the interim," said Tanner. "They're also managing the various CARES Act programs that we're administering for Morgan County and for Washington County and city of Marietta so all those things are still moving forward and in good shape right now."
Tanner said Melissa Zoller will take over again as interim director while candidate resumes are gathered, with a closure of the job posting slated for Dec. 31.
Amanda Herb, vice president of institutional advancement at WSCC, explained that she is leading the marketing and public contact with the institution in the interim, delaying plans to post the position until early 2021.
"She left everything in a really good place in terms of setting our ad schedule on our press release schedule and all of that for the rest of this month and the first part of January so I'm just working with the team to execute that plan and then we'll reevaluate and move forward after the start of the year," said Herb.
The college is scheduled to convene a board of trustees meeting Monday at 4 p.m. and like other public institutions of learning is still weighing the risks of bringing students back to campus in January in the midst of a pandemic.
"We did take another look at our spring semester schedule, and we were able to move some additional courses from face-to-face, to virtual learning. Those courses will still continue to meet at their scheduled days and times," explained Herb. "Then the plan is for those courses to resume face-to-face course delivery starting in mid-March. So for the first half of the semester, they'll be virtual/remote and then they'll move back to that person."
Not all of the courses can be taught remotely, she emphasized.
"Because some of our coursework cannot be done remotely," she continued. "The hands-on technical courses that need that hands-on experience will continue (and) we will continue to keep our labs and library open so the students that need to use our internet or our computers to do any coursework, they'll have that support. Our campus will remain open."