Congratulations
on becoming a member of the NACADA Leadership!
In your new role as an Interest Group (IG) Chair, there is information
on our web site that will help you with your new responsibilities.
This information supplements (and perhaps duplicates) information
you may have already received from your Commission and Interest
Group Division (CIGD) Representatives, the outgoing Interest Group
Chair, or Executive Office staff.
Leadership
Expectations
You
should review the resource below to become familiar with the
specific role and responsibilities of an Interest Group Chair.
Commission &
Interest Group Division Information
For
information on the organization of the CIG Division itself and
details on interest groups in general and the responsibilities
of Interest Group chairs, please review the information at the
following links. The CIG Division Representatives and the CIGD
Executive Office liaison together are responsible for facilitating
the work of this division and for carrying division concerns to
the NACADA Council for discussion and resolution.
For a comparison
of the similarities and differences between Commissions and
IGs, please refer to the chart at www.nacada.ksu.edu/CandIGDivision/CIGDComparisonChart.htm.
Leadership Meetings and Activities
Interest
Group Chairs are encouraged to attend the Fall Leadership meetings
for the Commission and Interest Group Division, held just prior
to the annual conference -- although their participation is optional.
NOTE—If an Interest Group is applying for
Commission status, the Interest Group Chair should plan to attend
the fall division meeting to present the proposal to the division
members.
Details
about this Division meeting will be e-mailed to you in early summer
from the Executive Office. The General Leadership Handbook explains
more about these meetings — click
here for a schedule of the Leadership-related meetings.
Please note that Interest Group Chairs
are not eligible for reimbursement for any expenses incurred
in attending these meetings.
Annual
Conference Activities for Interest Group Chairs:
-
Moderate
the Annual Interest Group Meeting—A
meeting time slot is provided for each commission and interest
group at the annual Conference each year for members to meet
to discuss topics and critical issues regarding their respective
constituencies. These annual meetings are listed in the conference
program to promote member participation, and Commission and
Interest Group Chairs are responsible for conducting their
respective meetings. Click
HERE
for tips and ideas for facilitating successful annual meetings.
-
CIGD
Fair — Interest Group Chairs are
also expected to participate in the annual Commission and
Interest Group Fair held during the annual Conference by hosting
information tables for their respective units and talking
with members interested in joining. If a Chair is unable to
attend this CIG Fair, it is his/her responsibility to arrange
for another Interest Group member to participate and represent
the unit.
-
Hot Topics sessions
— Interest Group Chairs may be given an opportunity
to moderate a "Hot Topics" session (or find a colleague to
do so), scheduled on the last morning of the conference. These
sessions are optional, but encouraged, to provide members
another opportunity to discuss a critical issue facing that
particular interest group.
Web
sites
Each
interest group has its own web pages on the NACADA web site. A
link to your interest group's home web page can be found in the
list of interest groups.
Please note that these web pages are continually in development.
You are encouraged to review your interest group's web site and
begin formulating ideas for information to be added to these pages,
especially for the "News and Updates",
"Resources", and "Goals
and Objectives" pages. Click
here for guidelines to help with the development of your interest
group's web pages. You should also familiarize yourself with the
entire NACADA web site and how to navigate within it.
Reports,
Meeting Minutes and E-mails
Both
the annual fall report
and post-conference report
(required of Commission Chairs) are optional for Interest Group
Chairs, although IG chairs are encouraged to submit them as they
are excellent tools for goal setting, follow-up and documentation.
These reports are also very helpful for training purposes when
IG leadership changes occur. The reports are explained in more
detail in the Division Guidelines and are submitted electronically
via an online leadership report system. Instructions and a link
to this online report tool are e-mailed to the Chairs several
weeks prior to the report submission deadline.
If applicable,
a direct "live" link to the online leadership report
submitted is posted to your interest group's "News and
Updates" and "Leadership" web pages.
Past interest group reports submitted and/or e-mails sent by previous
IG Chairs may also be posted to your group's "News
and Updates" web page. We recommend reviewing this
information. Perhaps the outgoing Interest Group Chair has already
provided this information to you. Reviewing reports and e-mails
sent by chairs to their members that are posted on other commission
and IG web pages may also provide you with some helpful information
and ideas.
Additional
information and ideas can be found by reviewing the minutes from
past CIG Division meetings and previous e-mails sent to the entire
CIG Division by the Division Reps and/or Executive Office liaison.
These reports and communications can be reviewed on the CIGD web
site at www.nacada.ksu.edu/CandIGDivision/CIGDMeetingMinutes.htm.
Another helpful activity
might be to read past issues of
the Academic Advising Today e-publication, particularly
those articles for your interest group or by members of your interest
group. Don't hesitate to e-mail and/or call the current Interest
Group Chair, Division Reps or Executive Office Liaison whenever
you have questions (click here
for CIGD directory).
Budget requests
Interest Groups are
not eligible for budgeted funds. However, each interest group
is allocated up to $50 to purchase supplies for the interest group
table display at the CIGD Fair held during the NACADA annual conference.
Chairs then submit receipts for reimbursement after the conference.
Communication
and list serves
NACADA primarily communicates
electronically with its Leadership. Interest Group Chairs are
added to special e-mail lists used only for members of the NACADA
Leadership called "NACADALEADERS" and "CIGDIVISION".
The makeup of these lists is explained at www.nacada.ksu.edu/Leadership/Leadership-listserveDescriptions.htm.
After being added to each list serve, you will receive a "welcome
message" that provides instructions for posting messages
to it. These list serves are periodically used to distribute Leadership
information and to hold discussions and solicit ideas on various
Leadership-related issues throughout the year. If not already
subscribed, Chairs are also added to their respective interest
group list serves, if one exists. NOTE: The communications sent
via these leadership list serves are periodic and should not overload
your mailbox.
Electronic communication
is also used to communicate with the members of the various commissions
and interest groups. Procedures have been set up for sending bulk
e-mail messages to all members of a particular commission or interest
group directly from the NACADA Executive Office. The Executive
Office is happy to help you in communicating with your interest
group members when it is important to reach all of them. A special
e-mail list is used by our office into which the current e-mails
for all current members of your interest group are downloaded
each time a message is sent. The Chair provides the text for the
message to the Executive Office liaison and then the message is
sent it out under the chair's name.
A primary reason for
sending them from the Executive Office is so e-mail bounce-backs
that occur (due to incorrect or invalid e-mail addresses) can
be followed-up on to get the correct addresses and member records
can be updated. Secondly, since the membership changes daily,
the members in a group or e-mail addresses may also be constantly
changing. So, to be confident that all current members are contacted,
it is most efficient for the message to be sent directly from
the Executive Office so the most up-to-date member e-mail addresses
can be used each time.
Commissions and IGs
have their own individual list serves, which are excellent tools
for discussions among each unit's members on special topics or
areas of interest. However, only a small percentage of your unit's
members are subscribed to its list serve. Thus, if you want to
send a message to all members of your group, having the Executive
Office send it is the only way to reach them all. Examples
of e-mail messages that should be sent to all members
of your interest group includes requests for feedback on IG issues
and activities, and requests for volunteers to serve on various
IG committees.
Association
Information
NACADA's
by-laws, an organizational chart, leadership directories, and
a general leadership handbook can be reviewed at:
Welcome
once again to the NACADA Leadership! You may already
be familiar with some of the information above, but we wanted
to be sure it was at your fingertips! Please contact us if you
have any questions at all. We look forward to working with you!
Julia
Wolf, NACADA Executive Office Liaison to the Commission
& Interest Group Division
CIG
Division Representatives
