As we have said many times before, without the generosity and support of our sponsors we wouldn’t be able to continue what we do week after week for our community.

So we want to thank ResumeBucket for their support. ResumeBucket is a site where jobseekers can post their resumes and employers can search the database for free. If you think you may be interested in what they do, check them out and you can thank them as well for their support of the ERE community.

That’s thanks to the generosity of our sponsor, iCIMS, who is graciously underwriting ERE.net this week. We’ve wrapped ERE.net in their brand — woven their ads and colors into our navigation, look and feel.

Why are we doing this?

It’s old news by now, but run-of-the-mill banner ads are getting less effective by the day. The team at ERE Media is always looking for good ideas that help our sponsors get the attention they deserve for their support, because without them we wouldn’t be able to bring you our recruiting goodness each day.  At the same time, we don’t want to interfere with or compromise your time on ERE.net with ads that interrupt your experience. The site wrap achieves both goals.

Most important of all, the high quality and independence that you expect from ERE.net will not change.

If you have feedback for us — kudos, complaints, whatever is on your mind — put them in the comments. And if you are interested in wrapping ERE.net in your brand next, email our ad sales team at sales(at)ere.net.

I’ve got a couple of new announcements about what’s happening here at ERE:

First, I’d like to welcome Lance Haun to the ERE team as our Community Director, with a mandate to reach out to the recruiting community and increase participation on ERE.net. Many of you may already know Lance. He has been an active and well-respected figure in the HR community for years, and he already has some great ideas about where to take our 50,000 member community next. Lance has a post up about how he landed the gig on his blog.

Second, I’m pleased to announce that ERE Media has acquired the Creative Excellence Awards from Landon Media.

The CEAs have been a fixture in the recruitment advertising world for decades, recognizing the best and most creative work in the field. They have a long and storied history. They were founded by the agencies themselves in an era when recruitment advertising revolved around the newspaper classified section. On a personal note, my first job in this industry was at TMP Worldwide. I remember the buzz and excitement around the CEAs every year, so I am excited at this new addition to the ERE portfolio!

Our first task as we put our stamp on the CEAs will be to make sure that they reflect that real work in recruitment communications today no longer just done in the newspapers, but across many media, and especially online.

The Creative Excellence Awards are going to be held in October at the upcoming ERE Expo 2010 Fall conference in Florida, and in the coming weeks we’ll provide more details on the CEAs and how to be considered.

2010 is looking like it’s going to be be a big year, and it’s only February!

SourceCon is unique. It brings together the best minds in the sourcing profession to focus on minute intricacies of the art like no other event in existence.

I was at the first SourceCon, and remember being impressed by the vibe. There was an excitement in the air of a community coming together face-to-face for the first time. Several people came up to me unsolicited and told me how amazing it felt to finally be in a place where there were other sourcers “just like me.”

Since the current recession began, there has been talk of the death of sourcing. I disagree, and now ERE is putting its money where its mouth is.

So what does this mean?

For sourcers, this means that SourceCon is back, plain and simple! I and the ERE team respect the grassroots nature of the Sourcing community, and as we grow the event, we will do it in a way that respects the distinct (and quirky) ethos of the community.

For Leslie, SourceCon’s Founder, this is the result of years of her hard work building SourceCon into an amazing event. I and the ERE team will do our best to run the event as she has done, and hope to have her continued involvement for a long, long time.

As for us, SourceCon represents what ERE is all about — extending deeper into the talent acquisition community with another event that helps us to educate the profession.

We’ll be announcing the dates for the next SourceCon shortly, but if you can’t wait for your SourceCon goodness, check out The Source newsletter!

• On Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. ET over on our sister site, FordyceLetter.com, Fordyce TV returns with the sixth episode of Next Level Live with Jeff Kaye. In this episode, Jeff and his special guest Darren McDougal will talk about their Top 5 E-Marketing Tips in a Challenging Economy. Jeff and Darren will share ideas and techniques that have propelled their company to a leader in recruiting training industry in less than two years.
• On Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. ET, sign up for this week’s free ERE webinar, Improving the Candidate’s Experience led by Elaine Orler from Knowledge Infusion. The webinar will discuss options for improving your online ‘front door’ to your applicant experience.
• On the events front, time is running out to sign up for the 3rd annual Fordyce Forum in Las Vegas from June 10-12. If you are on the search and placement side of the business you won’t want to miss this. And of course, ERE Expo 2009 Fall will be taking place at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa from September 9-11. I know this has been a difficult year for many of you, so if you are interested in getting a discount code for either of these events, drop me a line.
• While there are no longer tickets available for the first ever Social Recruiting Summit, we are finalizing plans to stream much of the event online for those unable to secure a spot. Also, stay tuned this week for an announcement about a very exciting addition to the agenda. We are keeping a waiting list, so email me if you are interested in being added.
• There is a lot going on this week on ERE.net including an article about 6 steps to an employer brand strategy. Check out this week’s podcast where we’ll cover which recruiting vendors are hot, which are not, what’s happening with Vurv and Taleo, whether you should use a “best in breed” vendor or a suite, and other vendor issues. And in another upcoming podcast: Angela Guidroz, from Sodexo, is talking about social media, as well as military recruiting.
• Activity is starting to heat up on ERE’s new community site. Check out the new blog posts, participate in the discussions and join one of the many member run groups.

Have a great week, and feel free to leave any questions you have in the comments below.

Our community has evolved as well, expanding to include over 50,000 recruiting professionals, and growing more every day. Today, I’m proud to announce the next step in that evolution of the ERE community — community.ere.net.

When you check out the new community site, you’ll recognize many of the same discussion groups and people that you have followed for years, but you’ll also see lots of new features.

Some of the features that I have been using the most are:

• The new activity feed. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be exploring how to make this more visible on our home page, because it does a great job of showing just how much activity is happening in real time.
• Voting. Finding ways to separate the wheat from the chaff has always been one of the most challenging aspects of running a professional community like ERE.net, and the new voting system will let the community collectively decide which posts bubble to the top.
• Blogs. A select few have had blogs for a long time on ERE.net, but now every ERE member will be able to express themselves in their own personal space.  We will be featuring the best of the blog posts more prominently on the site.
• New discussion emails. We’re trying to cut down on the number of emails that you get from us, so we’ve consolidated our community emails into one community newsletter that will be easier to navigate and read.

Jim — who did a great job developing the site with Hunter — put together a video to introduce you to the features of the social network. Check it out, and then give the new features a try!

Jim, Hunter, & the rest of the ERE team will be spending the next couple of weeks responding to your feedback and making changes, so don’t be shy. Tell us what you think and how we can make this a better tool for you to share your ideas and connect with other recruiters!

It was great to see the social media world, especially Twitter, come to life from the many people ‘tweeting’ live, up-to-the-minute posts during the presentations. You can still access the twitter stream to see some of the insightful tidbits shared by all of you.

For some other follow-up thoughts, check out some of the blog posts here, here, and here.

Naturally, we’re not done talking about it either. John Sullivan is working on a further look at some of the award-winners. And Tuesday on ERE.net we’ll offer tips for your careers website in hopes you can win next year’s site award like Yahoo did this time around. Accenture (employee-referral winner) will be featured in the May Journal, and the American Cancer Society will speak this Fall.

Speaking of the Fall: If you weren’t able to make it to San Diego, our annual ERE Expo 2009 Fall conference is approaching. Still a few weeks to take advantage of our big early bird discounts as well so check it out soon.

Here is what is going on in the ERE world this week:

• On Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. ET, our sister site debuts its newest Fordyce TV show – Living the Dream with Jordan Rayborn. Jordan has taken working virtually to the next level. Often called the RV Recruiter, this big biller works wherever his heart and business take him, and typically some of the most beautiful places in the country. This episode will be coming from the hill country outside of Austin, TX. See more about the show and Jordan’s story here.
• Also, in The Fordyce Letter world, the third annual Fordyce Forum is returning to Las Vegas in just a few months. If you are in the search and placement side of the business you won’t want to miss this.
• On Wednesday, sign up for this week’s free ERE webinar — 2009 Sources of Hire: What is Different in Today’s Market and Why You Should Care, led by Gerry Crispin from CareerXroads.
• Did you see that last week we announced the launch of our newest event – Social Recruiting Summit? The agenda is still being completed, but see where we are now and register for the early bird discount. If you are on Twitter, make sure to join the discussion by following @socrecruiting.
• A few weeks ago, we asked for your help as we are getting closer to launching the new community side of ERE.net. The other day we added some new features and are getting even closer! Here is your chance to help us help you develop the most valuable community in the recruiting industry, so take a look and let us know what you think!

Have a great week! If you have any questions about any of this feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Hundreds of you are already in San Diego or en route for the ninth annual spring ERE Expo. However, there are still a lot of benefits to the entire ERE community around ERE Expo.

For starters, check regularly on the ERE.net article feed for posts from our editors and authors onsite in San Diego. If you use Twitter, make sure to follow @ereexpo and the hashtag #ereexpo for up-to-the minute updates from the show.

Also, several of the sessions will be live streamed right here on the ERE.net homepage. All you need to do is activate the Ustream box on the top of ERE.net during show hours to watch. Of course, we can’t recreate the entire experience of being there, but we still want to bring you a flavor of some of the valuable content being shared at the Expo.

Here is the rundown of what will be streamed live from the show. For more details on these sessions and speakers, view the agenda here. (Note: all times listed are PDT time):

TUESDAY, MARCH 31:

• 8:45 – 10:00 a.m. – Welcoming remarks & opening address from our conference chair, Michael McNeal from Intuit
• 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. – Trapped by Success w/ Scott Pitasky from Microsoft
• 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – Lessons learned from the 2009 Recruiting Excellence Awards (which are to be announced on Monday night!)
• 2:15 – 3:30 p.m. – How 20th Century Fox is using web-based onboarding for branding and retention w/ Garry Ellis from Fox Filmed Entertainment
• 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. – Integrating social media & web 2.0 into your strategy w/ Ben Gotkin from RSM McGladrey

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1

• 8:45 – 9:00 a.m. – opening remarks from Michael McNeal
• 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. – Morning Keynote Presentation: How the New President Will Affect the Outlook for the Economy, Financial Markets & Jobs w/ Dr. Robert Genetski, Sr. Management Director, Chicago Capital, Inc.
• 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. – Panel Discussion: Managing Change
• 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. – Social Media Marketing for Recruiting w/ Rob Humphrey from Veer Orange
• 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. – LEAN Recruiting w/ Cathy Henesey from Trane
• 4:15 – 5:00 p.m. - Closing session – the take-aways

On Monday night in San Diego, the winners of the 2009 Recruiting Excellence Awards will be announced, so watch the site to find out who won this year.

For those of you in the San Diego area who won’t be attending the full conference, make sure to try and come to the San Diego area recruiters meetup on Tuesday evening at the San Diego Convention Center.

A partial agenda is now available for ERE Expo 2009 Fall, which will be returning to south Florida in September. Book early to take advantage of the the big early bird discounts currently available.

Also stay tuned for more information about the first ever Social Recruiting Summit taking place on the Google Campus in June. There is already some healthy discussion around the topic taking place on Twitter so make sure to follow @socrecruiting to participate.

If you are in San Diego this week at ERE Expo and plan on providing updates to the community, please leave a note in the comments below with your blog address or Twitter account so others can follow as well.

• On Tuesday 2 pm ET, our sister site, FordyceLetter.com premieres a new Fordyce TV show, On The Rise with Kati Basso. If you have missed any of the previous shows, no need to worry, you can see them all here.
• On Wednesday at 2 pm ET, Dr. John Sullivan will be leading a free webinar, College Recruiting on a Shoestring Budget.

Our distinguished judging panel, who have been so gracious with their time, are wrapping up the judging for the 2009 Recruiting Excellence Awards. This year’s applicants represent a mix of some global behemoths and more obscure organizations you’ll likely be hearing more about in the months to come. Stay tuned as we announce the finalists in the next few weeks, and the awards will be presented in San Diego on March 30.

Our editor Todd is wrapping up the March issue of the Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership. He has a story that features some cool charts and graphs on “what you can learn from military recruiting.” His biggest challenge is making sure the resolution is just right for when it runs through the printers. There is an article on “hiring intact teams” — where you recruit a whole group of people. Also, Todd Noebel of McGuire Woods has an article about working better with third-party recruiters. We are pretty psyched about the March issue.

Have a great week, and feel free to ask me any questions about these in the comments below!

As you get settled in and plan out your calendar, here are a few things of note around the ERE world this week:

On Tuesday, our sister site FordyceLetter.com will be debuting it’s newest Fordyce TV show – Keen on Recruiting with Margaret Graziano.  No need to RSVP to this one, just stop by www.fordyceletter.com at 2:00 pm ET and join the fun.  If you missed the past ones from Jeff Kaye & Dave Nerz you can still view them here, here, and here.

On Wednesday at 2:00 pm ET, brand entrepreneur Frank Lane is presenting a free webinar on how to use the principles of killer branding to recruit real stars. Frank will take his years of branding experience with companies such as Neutrogena, S. C. Johnson Wax, and hundreds of others he has consulted for and apply them to the recruiting space.

Friday is the final day to take advantage of some early bird discounts for ERE’s upcoming events.  The $200 discount for ERE Expo 2009 Spring in San Diego from March 30 – April 1 and the $400 discount for Fordyce Forum 2009 in Las Vegas from June 10 – 12 both expire.

And if you haven’t already taken a few minutes to take our annual reader survey, I would appreciate if you can help us out!

Have a great week, and feel free to ask me any questions about these in the comments below!

As an exercise, I wrote up a draft of what I believe ERE.net is all about — our raison d’être.  Here’s what I came up with:

ERE’s mission: To facilitate dialogue and learning about talent acquisition.

ERE’s values:

• Sharing & Freedom of Expression. We built ERE.net to make it easy for all talent acquisition professionals to share their knowledge and learn from their peers. We encourage you to speak your mind because diversity of opinion makes the conversation richer for all. We don’t agree with every opinion on ERE.net, and we don’t expect you to either.
• Debate & Civility. We believe that the best ideas are arrived at through the crucible of questioning and debate. In order for this dialogue to flourish, there must be an atmosphere of mutual respect and assumption of good faith on the part of all the participants. Comment on the content, not the contributor.
• Transparency. In any dialogue, we believe in personal responsibility and accountability. If we are not willing to put your true names and reputations behind a statement, we believe that it should not be said.

It’s only a draft for now, and I’m putting it out there for feedback from the ERE community. Are there big picture values that I’m not including?

If you have suggestions, let me hear them in the comments!

Principles of Open Space: Graphic by deb roby on Flickr (cc)