The Small Business Development Center presents “Survive and Thrive: Essentials for Starting Your Own Business,” a workshop covering all the essential information needed to start a business, on Tuesday, August 18, from 8:30 a.m. to noon in the Burchfield Penney Art Center (second floor). Specific topics will include creating a business plan; competition analysis; and tax, legal, and insurance issues. The workshop is free for Buffalo State College faculty, staff, students, and alumni and U.S. military veterans and $20 for all others.

Registration will take place immediately before the workshop, from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. To register in advance, please call the SBDC at 878-4030.

Faculty-student interaction outside the classroom is essential to student retention and success. Mentoring a first-year student affords faculty members a wonderful opportunity to experience such interactions. If you are someone who enjoys talking with students and helping them navigate their life at college, someone who enjoys helping students explore and challenge their intellectual curiosity in more informal settings, please consider mentoring an incoming student in the COMPASS Program.

We know you can do it—you are already a role model. Now we invite you to be a mentor. To learn more, please contact the Student Success Office at 878-3506 or studentsuccess@buffalostate.edu. Thank you.

Blackboard Learn will be off-line Wednesday, August 12, from midnight to 7:00 a.m. for a scheduled maintenance update that will fix the YouTube Mashup and Video Anywhere issues. This update will also provide additional functionality of Ensemble in Blackboard.

If you experience any technical difficulties with Blackboard after this maintenance, please contact the Open SUNY HelpDesk at (800) 875-6269, by submitting a ticket request through Footprints at our HelpDesk webpage, or by sending an e-mail to OpenSUNYHelp@suny.edu.

The NYS & CSEA Partnership for Education and Training is pleased to announce the fall 2015 Skills for Success courses. These courses provide CSEA-represented employees with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to accomplish job assignments more effectively.

The Skills for Success catalog containing course descriptions, dates, and locations is available online or in the Human Resource Management Office, Cleveland Hall 410.  Nearly 100 classes in 46 course topic areas are scheduled statewide from September through December 2015. To increase participation in courses while limiting time away from the office and eliminating travel expenses, the partnership is offering 13 classes using the webinar format.

CSEA-represented employees are urged to take advantage of these valuable training opportunities. Employees may enroll through the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS) or by completing the partnership's course application form located on page 27 of the catalog.

For further information, please call the partnership at (800) 253-4332 or e-mail learning@nyscseapartnership.org.

Join Dr. Katherine Conway-Turner as Buffalo State participates in Bengals Dare to Care Day, a morning of service in the community, on Saturday, September 19, from 9:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Lunch will immediately follow. Students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate and be a part of the Buffalo State tradition. Projects will include sorting donations at a city homeless shelter, creating sculptures out of recycled tires, and assisting in local community gardens.

Service projects are identified in collaboration with community organizations across the city of Buffalo, and transportation is provided. All you have to do is register! Volunteers will sign up for a project on the day of the event, so don't be late. Check-in starts at 9:15 a.m. and buses will depart at 9:45 a.m.

Registration for the second annual Western New York Blackboard User Group (WNYBUG) eLearning Day is now open. This free event will be held on Friday, September 18, at Hilbert College in Hamburg, New York. Please register online.

If you are interested in presenting at the event, please complete the Abstract Proposal Form.

Thank you to all who attended last year and made the event such a success. We can’t wait to see you all again and to welcome some new faces.

Please share this information with others in your department so that they can join us as well.

The Open SUNY Center for Online Teaching Excellence (COTE) is pleased to announce the August issue of the Online Teaching Gazette. Topics in this monthly publication include the cost of college textbooks and a collaborative approach to online student retention.

Did you know there are eight Open SUNY textbooks available now and 20 forthcoming? View upcoming titles and find out how to get involved. Did you know you can join COTE as a fellow? Visit the Open SUNY website for more information.

As your FACT² representative, I encourage you to subscribe to the Online Teaching Gazette to stay informed on topics of interest to the community of online practitioners. You can receive updates and future issues to your inbox by subscribing to the publication; enter your e-mail address in the "Subscribe to updates" field.

Open SUNY COTE celebrates, connects, and fosters effective online practitioners across the SUNY system while furthering our knowledge of the most effective teaching and learning practices in online education. The SUNY Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology (FACT²) is an advisory body to the SUNY provost, acting as an advocate and resource for university stakeholders at the nexus of technology, pedagogy, and research.

Join President Katherine Conway-Turner as Buffalo State participates in Bengals Dare to Care Day, a morning of service in the community, on Saturday, September 19, from 9:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with lunch immediately following. Bengals Dare to Care Day combines two past successful events, United Way Day of Caring in August and Buffalo State Community Service Day in October, into one meaningful day of service and partnership in our local community. Students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate and be a part of the Buffalo State tradition. Projects will include sorting donations at a city homeless shelter, creating sculptures out of recycled tires, and assisting in local community gardens.

Service projects are identified in collaboration with community organizations across the city of Buffalo, and transportation will be provided—all you have to do is register! Volunteers will sign up for a project on the day of the event, so don't be late. Check-in starts at 9:15 a.m., and buses will depart at 9:45 a.m.

An orientation session for new college senators will be held on Thursday, September 10, during Bengal Pause (12:15–1:30 p.m.) in Cleveland Hall 418. All newly elected incoming senators are encouraged to attend.

The College Senate Office thanks everyone who expressed an interest in serving on a College Senate standing committee. Your information has been forwarded to the appropriate committee chair(s). Committee membership is at the discretion of committee chairs, and not all committees have vacancies.