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Commission & Interest Group Division (CIGD)

Interest Group Chair Orientation Information


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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Note: Due to updates being made to the online reporting system, the 2007 post-conference reports were submitted via e-mail in Word format, and are posted at www.nacada.ksu.edu/CandIGDivision/Post-ConfReports/CIGDPost-ConfReports-2007.htm.

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

 


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