Casey Self, NACADA President
The NACADA Board of Directors and Council convened in San Antonio March 21-22 for our mid-year business meetings. I thought it would be appropriate to use this column to give my fellow NACADA members an update on two of the more timely topics the Board and Council are addressing at this time.
NACADA and Kansas State University Sign Agreement
The most exciting news that affects the sustainability of our Association is that the Board of Directors and Kansas State University have signed a ten-year agreement which continues the outstanding support of our Executive Office that K-State has provided for the past 19 years.
The Executive Office has been located within the Kansas State University College of Education since 1990; the K-State College of Education has provided outstanding support to the Association since this time. The original agreement, while modified minimally over the years, was a year-to-year agreement. With the impending retirements of key K-State administrators, then-President Jo Anne Huber appointed a Sustainability Task Force, chaired by Past President Eric White, to study the benefits of the Executive Office being located at K-State. This group found that the K-State connection has been extremely beneficial financially to the Association. After review of this report during Past President Susan Campbell's tenure, then-President Jennifer Bloom reappointed the Sustainability Task Force under Eric White's leadership to study the benefits to Kansas State University of their continued support of the NACADA Executive Office. Based upon these two reports, Michael Holen, Kansas State University Dean of the College of Education, and the Association's officers met last fall to discuss the feasibility of a long-term agreement that would ensure that both NACADA and K-State continue to benefit from the partnership.Dean Holen and the Board have worked during the past six months to develop a ten-year agreement, and at the Board of Directors' mid-year meeting on March 21, 2009, the agreement was approved by the Board.
As you can see in the photo at right, I had the honor of officially signing the agreement on behalf of the Board of Directors in my role as President of the Association.
In these very challenging financial times, this is an extremely exciting agreement, as it will allow our Association to continue to provide high quality professional development to our members without significantly raising membership or registration fees.
I want to officially thank Jo Anne Huber, Susan Campbell, Jenny Bloom, Eric White, and the members of the Sustainability Task Force for their vision and dedication which resulted in this awesome opportunity for our future. I also want to thank Roberta Flaherty (Executive Director Emeritus), Charlie Nutt (Executive Director) and the Executive Office staff for their outstanding work, both past and present, that makes NACADA run smoothly and efficiently.
NACADA Strategic Plan
The Board of Directors is primarily focused on creation, implementation, and evaluation of the NACADA strategic plan. In recent years, the following five strategic initiatives have been developed to provide direction for the commissions and interest groups, regions, committees, advisory boards, task forces, etc. in planning their activities.
I am happy to report that while efforts are continuing to implement additional strategies, progress has been made on all five strategic goals. Examples of progress include the NACADA Research Symposium recently conducted in conjunction with the Region 4 Conference in Mississippi, an International Task Force to explore specific objectives in NACADA becoming a global association, and the release of the NACADA Scenes for Learning & Reflection - An Academic Advising Professional Development DVD. I would ask any NACADA member who might have additional ways to meet these strategic goals to contact me.
Finally, congratulations to the new class of elected NACADA leaders who will begin their terms in October 2009. I am extremely confident our Association will continue to be in good hands under the leadership of President-elect Jayne Drake and Vice President-elect Kathy Stockwell.
Have a terrific summer!
Casey Self, President National Academic Advising Association Casey.Self@asu.edu
Cite this article using APA style as: Self, C. (2009, June). From the president: Ensuring the future of NACADA. Academic Advising Today, 32(2). Retrieved from [insert url here]
