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The Minnesota Career Development Association was first organized in 1920 as a branch of the National Vocational Guidance Association, and was known as the Minneapolis Vocational Guidance Association. It later became the Twin Cities Vocational Guidance Association and then the Minnesota Vocational Guidance Association. The organization was formally incorporated in 1944 and received its state charter in 1971.

Among MCDA's notable practices and trends over the years:

  • Each year, MCDA sponsored an annual conference, and sometimes a fall conference as well. During the early years, professional development was provided as a series of seminars throughout the year on one or two main topics.
  • Board meetings were held concurrently with all-member meetings and a program each month. Perhaps this was viable due to total membership being in the twenties and thirties in number.
  • MCDA has gone from an almost exclusively male organization to one with a balance of men and women.

Marty Dockman, a longtime leader and pioneer of vocational guidance in Minnesota, recounted that the purpose of MCDA and its predecessors was to:

  • "Unite persons engaged or interested in any phase of vocational guidance."
  • "Encourage experimentation of services. "
  • "Formulate standards and principles."
  • "Gather and disseminate information."
  • "Stimulate, initiate, and carry on research."
  • "Sponsor educational fellowships."
  • Promote the "advancement of vocational guidance."

Marty also summarized some workshop/conference titles, such as "Causes of Failure in Business," "New Developments in the Kuder," and "Testing and Counseling: Part of the Communist Conspiracy?"

Please help us update the MCDA archives. As a member, we would especially like you to focus on the following areas:

  • Conference information and brochures (conference committee people, we need your old files/copies!).
  • Financial information (lots of budgets were not available).
  • Annual reports and minutes of meetings.

Missing years: 1949-1959, 1965-1974, 1976-1977, 1981-1988.

Please provide any helpful information to MCDA Historian Dean DeGroot (612-789-9696 or deand@visi.com).

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Minnesota Career Development Association (MCDA)
2400 Ivy Lane
Bloomington, MN 55431-2830
Phone: 952-217-7711
Fax: 952-884-7234
Email: lois@careerplanningresources.com (Lois Vogt)