NOTE: The following e-mail was sent to commission members on November 2, 2004.

To: Advising Administration Commission Members
From: Linda Chalmers, Chair

Hi Friends,

It was beautiful weather and equally grand company in Cincy! As usual, NACADA accomplished an excellent & jam-packed conference that left us all panting with delight. If you were unable to make it this year, consider next year as the conference is in Las Vegas!

I appreciate that many of you (about 50) made it to the Advising Administration Commission meeting, although it was late on Friday afternoon. Actually, we do have "method to our madness" and have asked for a late afternoon spot to allow us time to network and continue into the evening if wanted. I didn't get to meet everyone there but I could "feel" your support for me and each other within the room. THANK YOU!

After congratulating and introducing our members who won awards and/or were commission-sponsored presenters, we thanked our outgoing chair, Alice Reinarz, for her leadership with a robust round of applause. Alice may be "gone" but is not far away as I have her committed to my steering committee! I then introduced and thanked my steering committee members, without whose help I would sorely suffer. These dedicated friends in addition to Alice are Susan Campbell (U of So Maine), Jayne Drake (Temple U), Cindy Iten (U of KY), Rusty Fox (Tarrant Co Com College), Joyce Miller (Baylor U), and Shannon Williams (U of TX - Arlington), who was not able to join us at the conference this year. Contact information for the steering committee can be found at www.nacada.ksu.edu/Commissions/C05/leadership.htm.

Our commission will continue to operate under the same goals as cited in previous years and stated on the commission web page. I am being asked, along with the other chairs, to draft our 04-06 goals into the new NACADA strategic plan. As soon as that is done and up for viewing, I will let you know.

In keeping with our main goal to provide and encourage networking opportunities and professional development, I would like to hear from you about a suggestion raised at the commission meeting to "resurrect" either an Advising Administrators' Newsletter online or the portion that was in one of the past about Administrators' Best Practices or "What Worked For Me" Tips Sheet. My inclination is to K.I.S.S. (well, ha, that too!) and have the administrators' tips. I have a couple of members who have expressed willingness to work with me on this. Are you willing to provide "tips" about what has worked well for you as an administrator? Let me hear from you if you would be able to provide a tip or two every now and then. Would you prefer to see a newsletter with expanded information? Would you be willing to give us information to put in it by a certain deadline date?

I'll be generating, I hope, some discussion on the commission list serve about research in the field of advising. This, too, was addressed at the commission meeting by some members who are concerned that too little is being done. We need to know what others are doing to motivate advisors to do research; how you manage their time for this; and give us some topics for research to share among each other. Watch for this discussion soon (or e-mail me separately at linda.chalmers@utsa.edu).

If you are not yet subscribed to the commission list serve, you are encouraged to do so. For subscription and posting instructions, please visit www.nacada.ksu.edu/list serve/C05.htm on the NACADA web site.

Thanks for your attention, support, and above all, your dedication to advising!

Linda Chalmers
NACADA Advising Administration Commission Chair (2004-2006)
===================================================
Executive Director
Office of Transitional Student Advisement Services (OASIS)
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Phone 210-458-6325 or 4302; Fax 210-458-4303
linda.chalmers@utsa.edu