CIGD Leadership Orientation

Congratulations on your recent election to the NACADA Leadership! In your new role as Commission 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 (CIG) Division Representatives, the current Commission Chair, or Executive Office staff.

Leadership Handbooks

You should review the resources below to become familiar with the specific role and responsibilities of a Commission Chair.

Commission & Interest Group Division Information

For information on the organization of the CIG Division itself and details on commissions in general and the responsibilities of commission chairs, please review the leadership 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 Conference Activities

Commission Chairs and incoming (newly elected) Commission Chairs are expected to attend the Fall Leadership meetings for the Commission and Interest Group Division, held just prior to the annual conference. Details about this meeting will be e-mailed to you in early summer from the Executive Office. The General Leadership Handbook explains more about this meeting and those expenses for which you would be reimbursed. Click here for a schedule of the Leadership-related meetings.

Conference Activities for Commission Chairs:

Moderate the Commission Annual 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—Commission Chairs are 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 commission member to participate and represent the unit.
Hot Topics sessions—Commission Chairs have the opportunity to moderate (or finding a colleague to do so) a "Hot Topics" session, 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 commission.
Distribution of Certificates for Commission-Sponsored Sessions—Each Commission Chair is responsible for distributing special certificates to the presenters of the sessions selected as "commission-sponsored" by his/her respective commission. These certificates are given to the Chairs at the CIG Division meeting held just prior to the beginning of the conference.

Web sites

Each commission has its own home page on the NACADA web site. A link to your commission's home web page can be found in the list of commissions. Please note that these web pages are continually in development. You are encouraged to review your commission'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 commission'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 are required to be submitted electronically by Commission Chairs each year, by August 15 and November 15, respectively. These reports are excellent tools for goal setting, follow-up and documentation, and are also very helpful for training purposes when commission leadership changes occur. The reports are explained in more detail in the Division Guidelines and are submitted for review by the CIGD Division Representatives and Executive Office. Instructions and a link to the report template are e-mailed to the Chairs several weeks prior to the report submission deadline.

Note: Current Commission Chairs are responsible for submitting the annual fall report (due August 15). Newly elected Commission Chairs who take office at the end of the annual conference are responsible for submitting the post-conference report (due November 15), after consulting with the outgoing Chair during the annual conference.

Links to the leadership reports submitted for your commission are posted to your commission's web site. Past reports submitted prior to the implementation of the online reporting system are also posted to the commission's web site. The outgoing Commission Chair may also provide 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 past few reports were submitted via e-mail in Word format, and are posted at http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/CandIGDivision/CIGDReports.htm on the CIG Division web site.

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 suggestion would be to read past issues of the Academic Advising Today e-publication, particularly those articles for your commission or by members of your commission. Don't hesitate to e-mail and/or call the current Commission Chair, Division Reps or Executive Office Liaison whenever you have questions (click here for CIGD directory).

Budget requests

Budget requests for projects and activities planned during the next year, including funds for the Service to Commission Award, should be included in Section 2 of the post-conference report submitted in November. More information on these budget requests can be found at www.nacada.ksu.edu/CandIGDivision/CIGDBudgetGuidelines.htm. Supplemental budget requests may be submitted later in the year if the need arises.

Each Commission is allocated up to $50 to purchase supplies for the commission table display at the CIGD Fair held during the annual conference. These Fair funds do not have to be requested by Chairs in their reports. Chairs then submit receipts for reimbursement after the conference.

Communication and list serves

NACADA primarily communicates electronically with its Leadership. Commission 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 commission list serves shortly after being elected. 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 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 commission members when it is important to reach all of them. A special e-mail list is used by our office into which the e-mails for all current commission members 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 particular commission or interest group or their e-mail addresses may also be constantly changing. 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 commission members includes requests for feedback on commission issues and activities, requests for volunteers for commission committees, and the solicitation of commission award nominations or leadership nominations.

Association Information

NACADA's by-laws, an organizational chart, leadership directories, and a general leadership handbook can be reviewed at:

Bylaws: www.nacada.ksu.edu/PolicyProc/bylaws.htm
Chart: www.nacada.ksu.edu/AboutNACADA/orgstr.htm
Directory: www.nacada.ksu.edu/AboutNACADA/orgdir.htm
General Leadership Handbook

Welcome once again to the NACADA Leadership! You may already be familiar with 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