MFLN Personal Finance Webinars
Founded in 2012, Military Families Learning Network (MFLN) Personal Finance aims to build the financial management capability and educational background of Personal Financial Management (PFM) Program Managers. PFMs are employed by the military to provide educational and counseling to active duty military, their family members, and retirees. Many PFMs hold the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) certification.
Held monthly, MFLN webinars offer AFC professionals the opportunity to earn continuing education credits on topics that are tailored for and specific to the work they are doing in the field. The online format accommodates the unique needs of PFMs located on military installations anywhere in the world. Recordings of the webinars and online social media spaces can also be utilized at the convenience of these professionals, without regard to the impact of location or time zones.
The MFLN team includes two long-time AFCPE® leaders and personal finance and resource management experts, Dr. Michael Gutter, PhD and Dr. Barbara O’Neill, PhD, CFP®, AFC®, CHC®. Dr. Gutter and Dr. O’Neill act as webinar speakers or reviewers of outside speakers’ content, including presentation PowerPoint slides and any resources or web links shared with participants. Their social media specialist, Molly Herndon, MS, works with the team to develop new and innovative ways to engage our network online, including the use of blogs, videos, and Twitter chats. The MFLNPF team frequently interacts with DoD staff to assure that planned programs meet audience needs.
MFLN is a leader in professional development opportunities for financial professionals who work directly with our servicemembers, veterans and military families.
MFLN programming is a collaborative of Cooperative Extension, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the US Department of Agriculture, and the MFLNPF team frequently interacts with the DoD to assure that planned programs meet audience needs. They also meet the needs of Extension professionals and others working in a financial education or counseling capacity with military Service Members.
MFLN team strives to address the unique financial concerns of the military by applying current research and feedback from their audience on these topics. Throughout the webinars, moderators keep content engaging through the use of interactive polls and questions directed to participants. Speakers also select engaging resources for participants, which supplement materials and topics covered in web conferences. These include relevant journal article, topical news articles and links, web resources, case studies, and videos.
For those new to MFLN webinars, all webinars and related resources are recorded and archived so that they may be accessed at no cost by anyone at any time. This allows practitioners to, not only review slides, but to put the content shared into context and to review the content as often as needed. PFM staff is also encouraged to replicate programs, and program resources are shared with participants who are interested in presenting, replicating, or adapting MFLN programs to best meet the needs of their audiences.
MFLN is a leader in professional development opportunities for financial professionals who work directly with our servicemembers, veterans and military families and the results of their educational efforts can be seen through the positive feedback received from program attendees, as well as the work of our military’s PFMs. In a recent anonymous survey, 95% of respondents found the content of MFLN webinars to be directly relevant to their work, 68% reported an increase in their knowledge due to the subject matter presented, 94% intended to directly apply knowledge gained to their jobs and 89% of respondents indicated they felt better prepared to teach clients about subject areas covered in MFLN programming.
Click here to learn more about the annual AFCPE Awards and 2014 award winners. Nominations for the 2015 AFCPE Awards opens in June.
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