Note: The following information was e-mailed to commission members on October 27, 2005.

To: Advising Graduate and Professional Students Commission members

From: Kati Markowitz, Chair

Dear Advising Graduate and Professional Students Commission Members,

My name is Kati Markowitz, and I am honored to serve as your Commission Chair for the 2005-2007 period.

On a personal note, I work in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UC Berkeley, an interdisciplinary program with campus-wide impact. I am very lucky in having a very supportive and encouraging manager and colleagues who have enabled me to take on the position of representing you for the next two year within the NACADA organization.

With the short caveat asking for your forbearance (I will make sure that future e-mails are much shorter), please take the time to read about our commission’s business:

1. Please subscribe to our commission listserve. For information on logistics, go to www.nacada.ksu.edu/Commissions/C06/listserve.htm. We will start to communicate actively starting right now, and being on the listserve will help you share information all along the way.
2. We decided to follow up on NACADA’s goal for this year, integrating and helping develop new advisors, by opening up a mentoring new advisors opportunity. If you are a new advisor (3 years or less) or a veteran advisor (over 3 years), and you are interested in connecting with colleagues either as a mentee or a mentor, please send me (ksmarkow@berkeley.edu) the following information:
• Full name
• E-mail address
• Institution/Department
• How big is the student population you advise?
• You would like to be a mentor/mentee?

A full list of volunteers will be published on our Web site (and you will all get an announcement about it).

3. Our main goal for the year is to have representation at ALL regional conferences. As a means of keeping track, please let me know (ksmarkow@berkeley.edu) about what presentation(s) and which regional conference(s) you make the presentation(s). This information will be posted on our Web site (you can send me the materials, too), and emailed to the general membership.
4. If you have any questions, suggestions, or general ideas about our commission, please do not hesitate to contact me at ksmarkow@berkeley.edu.

Advising Graduate/Professional Students Commission Meeting Notes,
Thursday, October 6, 2005, Las Vegas, NV

1. Recognition of commission award winners: Jennifer Bloom, UIUC, Outstanding Advising Administrator; Janet Nardolillo, Excelsior College, Outstanding Advisor Certificate of Merit
2. Recognition of commission-sponsored presentations/presenters at the National Conference (5 sessions)
3. Steering Committee for 2005-2007:
   Cathe Thomas, University of Texas at Austin; Judith Goetz, Penn State; Tharien "Karim" Arnold, Rutgers University; Kimberly McKinney, University of California Irvine; Maggie Fitch, University of Texas at Austin; Philip Guerrero, University of Texas at Austin; Sara Miceli, University of California San Diego; Stephanie Ritrievi, University of Utah; and, Virginia Hueske, University of Texas at Austin
4. Improving Communications:

   a. For 2-3 months, Chair will send out information to entire commission via e-mail.
   b. Starting January 2006, e-mails go out on listserve.
   c. Each month there will be a posting of a topical question to the listserve, and members will be invited to answer.
   d. Members are encouraged to post their own questions as they arise.
   e. A collated list of Q&A’s will be posted on the Web

5. Web page enhancements/improvements:

   a. Web page of shared best practices, Q&A’s
   b. List of mentors/mentees (chair will send out Q and collate responses) — this item aligns with NACADA-wide goal for this year of integrating new advisors and preparing for the future.
   c. Presentations at regional conferences

6. Presentations at regional meetings
   a. Ideas become available from survey questions on issues of topical interest; critical campus issues; etc. and the already compiled list of interests disseminated at the meeting.
   b. Regional presentations also become available for the national conference thus widening the choices.
   c. Presentation posted on our commission web site
7. Task forces:
   a. Survey the commission membership (there are 3 members interested in working on this project with the steering committee) -- Q include:
   

   i) Areas of topical interest for presentations, discussion, research projects, etc.
   ii) What are the critical issues facing them on their campus?
   iii) How do they see commission helping them out with these issues?
   iv) How do they see commission helping them in professional development in general (what are their expectations from the commission)?
   v) What way of communication do they prefer and how often?
   vi) Are they organized on campus?
   vii) Can NACADA help them organize on campus? In what ways?
   viii) If you have other survey questions, e-mail them to me at
   ksmarkow@berkeley.edu.

   b. Exploring professional/faculty advising in grad affairs together with the faculty advisors commission - 8 members interested in addition to steering committee
   c. Training availability for advisors in graduate affairs (professional and faculty) 11 interested (out of 22 responses – obviously hot topic)
   d. Helping graduate students balance academic and life responsibilities – 10 interested in topic (out of 22 respondents – another hot topic)

8. Steering committee has to decide on which of the task force projects we will embark on for 2005-2006 (commission chair would like to have the survey done, and at least one more project started)
9. June 2007: promised content article for Academic Advising Today (the projects we work on should provide the meat for the article); members are encouraged to write whenever they have an appropriate subject.
10. Content discussion:
    a. Disseminated list of 9 topics identified as of interest, with option for write ins of additional topics
    b. Intent: collate list of questions for publications, research, presentations, Q&A, etc.
11. Conference and Commission statistics/information:

a. the commission has 326 members at the moment and growing!
b. 10 presentations (out of a pool of 17 proposals) at National Conference of which 5 were commission-sponsored sessions, and 2 were poster presentations

Thank you for your patience!

Kati Markowitz

Kati Markowitz
Mailing Address:
Neuroscience Graduate Program
132 Barker Hall, MC#3190
Berkeley, CA 94720
Office Location: 134B Barker Hall
ksmarkow@berkeley.edu
(510) 642-8915; fax : (510) 642-3192