A small group of committee members and one guest attended the October 19, 2006, meeting. The members included outgoing chair Karen Sullivan-Vance, incoming chair Katie Davis, Brett McFarlane, and Alison Hoff. Brad Cunningham, from the NACADA Executive Office also attended. Our guest was Patrick Toney from Bowie State.

Karen introduced Katie as the new chair who would be completing the last year of Karen’s term.
Karen pointed out it was time for the committee to seriously decide if it needed to remain a committee because she felt that very little was being accomplished. The recent online survey indicated that very few members were aware of MCS or familiar with the services offered on the NACADA website. She also mentioned that the only people that even get to use the services were the ones that attend annual conference and stop by the booth. Some of the questions raised and discussed were

• What is the direction of the committee?
• Is there a need for it
• How are we really helping the membership?

No one stepped up and said yes or no to the continuation of the committee, but the members brainstormed ideas to make MCS more accessible to the membership. Ideas presented were:

1. Create several web pages on the NACADA website that would show samples of some exemplary cover letters/vitae/resumes.
2. Offer a Webinar on career services for members. Specific content could include information on best practices and trends in the profession for administrators, information on the types of advising positions for mid-career changers, and tips for graduate students wanting to work in this profession. This was a goal the attendees thought could be developed and offered a couple of years from now.
3. Search function on the NACADA website relating to job title. Brad mentioned that not everyone calls the position the same thing and that sorting by region seemed to be the best way, but people want some kind of search function for jobs/keywords.
4. Pod-casting links to the NACADA website.
5. Increase visibility on the NACADA website by creating a link from the main page. This would be after other pages are created as there is already a link to position announcements.
6. Explore different ways to help members wanting a new job to connect with employers who have openings. The committee did not feel the MCS booth was the best method. One suggestion was to have a raffle, but nothing further was discussed.
7. The committee thought that taking a smaller version of MCS to the regional meetings would be a good way to introduce it to the membership. A template needs to be developed that could be replicated and modified as needed.