Charlie Nutt, NACADA Executive Director

This is NACADA's 30th Birthday! In "association years," we are still in our adolescence, growing and expanding, reaching for new horizons, and finding innovative ways to connect with each of you and provide the highest quality support and professional development opportunities to enhance the success of your students.

In these very difficult financial times, NACADA continues to explore a variety of ways to bring NACADA Near You. We recognize that travel budgets are being cut and traditional professional development opportunities might not be available to many of you. Therefore, our vision is to work together with our members to provide as many opportunities as possible so you can continue to grow professionally and find new and innovative ways to enhance the academic advising experiences of your students and thus increase their persistence to graduation.

Here are a few of the ways that we plan to bring NACADA Near You:

• The NACADA Web site is an outstanding source of high quality professional development that you and your campus colleagues can use without leaving home. Some of the elements you can employ are:
  • The NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources and the Academic Advising Today archives include over 500 articles on a multitude of topics and issues revolving around academic advising and student success, retention, and persistence. Bring NACADA to your desktop by searching for articles dealing with campus key issues; contact the author of the article for additional information or ideas. Share articles with your colleagues on campus; start a "NACADA article club" where you get colleagues together once a month to read and discuss a key article or issue that can improve advising on your campus as well as provide you with professional growth.
  • Subscribe to the new, free NACADA Podcast series and/or join in the discussion of the Executive Director Blog. These are wonderful ways to gain valuable information on key issues in the field of academic advising and student success without leaving your office or iPod!

• Take advantage of one of the NACADA Academic Advising Summer Institutes. Both of the institutes this summer will be held in cities that have low airfares. We held the registration fees to the 2008 rate to assist campuses financially.
• Develop a plan for utilizing the NACADA Webcast Series each year. The theme for the 2009-2010 series will be Reaching and Retaining Students. The Webinars and Workinars offer a cost effective way to host a mini-conference or seminar on your campus. Make use of the materials that accompany each webcast or webcast CD in planning pre- and post- activities that will bring your advising community together for a quality professional development experience.
• Utilize the NACADA Pocket Guides for a quality low-cost curriculum for your professional development programming for advising colleagues and staff. The short and comprehensive pocket guides will enable you to develop an on-going professional development series by providing the curriculum you need.
• The Scenes for Learning and Reflection: An Academic Advising Professional Development DVD is an outstanding and cost-effective way to bring NACADA Near You. If you are looking for an effective strategy for involving faculty advisors in the conversations on quality academic advising, the DVD is excellent!
• Each spring NACADA hosts10 Regional Conferences that are low cost in both travel and registration. Plan to attend a Regional Conference or one of the many state or allied member conferences - connect with colleagues near you in a quality way about our common key issue: STUDENT SUCCESS! These are outstanding and, once again, cost-effective ways to bringNACADA Near You!
• In this difficult budget year, the NACADA Board of Directors recently voted to keep our Annual Conference fee at the 2008 rate to better assist our members in these trying times! Bring NACADA Near You this fall in San Antonio, Texas!
• And one last idea, two of the many benefits of your membership are your subscription to the NACADA Journal and discounted member costs for NACADA publications. Bring NACADA Near You by hosting a Common Reading program on your campus by sharing an article from the Journal or a chapter from a monograph. This is great way to also create a culture of scholarship and inquiry around the field of academic advising on your campus.

The Board of Directors and the Executive Office Staff are committed to each of you. We encourage you to continue to find ways that NACADA can benefit you, your institutions, and your students.

Charlie Nutt, Executive Director
NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising
(785) 532-5717
[email protected]

Cite this article using APA style as: Nutt, C. (2009, June). From the executive director: NACADA near you. Academic Advising Today, 32(2). Retrieved from [insert url here]