Study Group Coordinator

Responsibility/Job Description

This person is a volunteer or recommended by the Board of Directors, to organize study groups for the CPP/FPC exams. He/She must be a CPP and a member in good standing with the APA (or at least SEPA). Keys to a successful study group are:

  • Start early
  • Email all members
  • Find out who is interested in studying for the exam
  • Can they provide a location?
  • Explain to the students that the CPP’s do not have a teaching degree, they are not teaching the class, and they are just facilitating the class and are there to answer questions. The CPP’s are volunteering their time; they don’t get paid to do this.
  • Find out who is interested in helping run a class
  • Explain this is the easiest and cheapest way to earn Recertification Credit Hours so that you never have to take this exam again.
  • The more CPP’s you have, the easier it will be to get more people involved because they will more likely be able to volunteer one or two weeks rather than 14-16 weeks.
  • Explain to the CPP’s that they are not “teachers”; they are not expected to “teach” the class, but to facilitate it. To keep it moving.
  • Once you have a location and CPP’s to run the class, promote it
  • Notify the APA to put on website. Check within a week and it should be posted, if not, call to find out, or send another notice
  • Post it on the local chapter website
  • Email the chapter members again, once you have the day of the week, the start date, and CPP’s to run the class you will be surprised how much more interest you get from both potential students and CPP’s.
  • Find out what version of the payroll source your CPP’s have. The free books from the APA should go to the CPP’s as loaners. Distribute the books as necessary.
  • Be organized
  • Have lesson plans in computer file format
  • Keep each chapter in a separate file
  • To build your files, share what you have with other study groups
  • Find other study groups through APA’s website. It lists all current study groups and the contact person’s emails address.
  • Every study group runs a little different, but everyone has some type of material they work with, why not share the files?
  • Collect files from websites, APA and other government websites are perfect for finding information. And of course, other study groups.
  • Ask students to bring relevant information with them to class. Keep this information to build on the material you already have.
  • Collect files and build on your material year after year, but make sure you keep them updated.
  • When you start your files, and you know that a piece of information changes year after year, follow that change by putting in parentheses (in 2003). Then when updating, you can use the document search under the “Edit” button and search for 2003, and it will stop at all the places that need to be updated.

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  • So now you have the students, the CPP’s, the day of the week, the start date, and you promoted it. Now what?
  • Split up the chapters for the CPP’s
  • Ask them what chapter they are comfortable with
  • Ask them to rate them 1 being the chapter they are most comfortable with, and 14 being the least. Then work with them assigning chapters.
  • Don’t scare them off by assigning chapters that they are not comfortable with. Some people will want the challenge of unfamiliar material just so they can understand it better, others will be scared off.
  • Have two CPP’s for each chapter
  • Incase one cant make it to class, you don’t have to cancel it
  • Split up the chapter
  • One makes up an outlined lesson plan with the key points that should be studied for the exam
  • The other person can coordinate with other CPP’s to come up with a few questions and answers then combine them to make a quiz. Keep the answer sheet as a separate file.
  • Facilitating the class
  • The first class should be used as a “get to know everyone”.
  • Go around the room and have everyone explain how they started in payroll (some stories are hysterical)
  • What type of payroll are they doing now?
  • How long have they been doing payroll?
  • Use the name tags provided by APA
  • Get the students involved – Make it fun and interesting
  • Ask them to come to class prepared to answer two questions
  • What was, in their opinion, the most important lesson in this chapter?
  • Was there anything they learned in this chapter that they didn’t know before?
  • Review the homework (questions in the back of the chapter)
  • Anyone can read from the book, this can be done on their own time, so don’t do that. Give them an incentive to come to class
  • Play games
  • Payroll trivia
  • Who wants to be a CPP?
  • Jeopardy
  • Tips and Tricks give them an incentive to come to class; do not give these to anyone who does not attend. But make them worth it.
  • Ask students how they remember certain items, write it down and share with the next study group. Before you know it, you have a ton of tips and tricks for those who show up to class.
  • Why are Study Groups successful? The learning curve - we remember……
  • 10% of what we read
  • 20% of what we write
  • 30% of what we study
  • 50% of what we discuss
  • 70% of what we actually do
  • 90% of what we teach
  • The last part of a successful study group is motivational speeches
  • Occasionally you will find students start to doubt themselves. They start to realize how much they really DON’T know about payroll. This is when you need to give a motivational speech.
  • Track your successes, let them know how many passed from your last group and that they had doubts too. (If this is your first study group, reference APA’s sources)
  • Lay the foundation to recruit them as CPPs for future study groups.
  • Start the process all over again as soon as this study group ends, but now you have a track record to reference. It only gets easier from here.
  • Request RCH’s from President for all CPP facilitators.
  • Request CPP/FPC pins from President to be awarded to those that have successfully passed the exams.
  • Recognize the CPP facilitators by presenting their RCH’s at the next meeting.