Charlie Nutt, NACADA Executive Director
I am beyond excited that our membership has passed 10,000 and is moving closer to the 11,000 mark! Our growth is due not only to the increased emphasis on academic advising on our college and university campuses, but also due to the highest quality programs, events, resources, and publications that are developed through our strong collaborations between you, our phenomenal members, our NACADA Leadership, and our outstanding Executive Office staff.
As our NACADA continues to grow, it is essential that each of us takes a personal responsibility for our Association’s focus on diversity in our membership and in our leadership, as outlined in our Board of Directors’ strategic goals for the Association. The Diversity Committee has implemented an exciting Emerging Leader Program that has identified the first class of nine future Leaders from underrepresented populations who are being mentored by nine NACADA Association leaders. The next class of Emerging Leaders and Mentors will be selected in May; I encourage you to both apply to be a Leader or Mentor and to nominate other members for Leader or Mentor positions. Our Association’s membership and leadership can grow in diversity only if each of us makes it our personal goal to become involved!
Therefore, I challenge each of us to introduce NACADA to a potential member from an ethnicity, gender identity, institutional type, or advising role that is different from our own. I further challenge each of us to encourage a fellow NACADA member from an ethnicity, gender identity, institutional type, or advising role that is different from our own to become more involved in our Association. Members can do this by volunteering at the regional or commission level, serving on a committee or advisory board, running for an elected position in our association, or writing for Academic Advising Today , the NACADA Journal, the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources, or other NACADA publication. If you are not sure of all the opportunities for involvement, please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time.
As you read this issue of Academic Advising Today, our Regional Conference season is beginning. I hope that many of you are registered for one of the 10 Regional Conferences. Our Regional Conferences are an outstanding way to connect with fellow advising professionals in your area. They are also a great opportunity to make presentations on your programs as well as your own research in the field of advising. My very first NACADA conference was the 1992 Region IV Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, chaired by our immediate past Vice President Nancy Walburn. I still remember how welcoming and inviting everyone was to the group of newcomers from Brunswick College in Georgia and how much our team learned about academic advising at the Conference. I hope all of you will have the exact same experience at a 2008 Regional Conference! Visit the Conference Web page for more information on our Regional Conferences.
In addition to the spring Regional Conferences, many of you have been participating in our continuing Webinar broadcasts. Well over 1,000 participants internationally have taken part in each Webinar since we began offering presentations in this medium. Webinars are an excellent professional development event that you can host on your campus to reach many advisors, both professional and faculty, who have not had the opportunity to be involved in one of our conferences or institutes. I encourage more of you to take advantage of these unique opportunities to bring focused academic professional development to your campus. Also, just a reminder, if you have not been able to take advantage of the live Webinars, all of them are available on CD so that you can utilize the Webinar experience with groups or teams on your campus. For more information, visit the Recordings site.
This summer NACADA will host the 22nd annual Summer Institutes in Portsmouth, Virginia, and Austin, Texas. The NACADA Summer Institute on Academic Advising is a highly interactive and focused week-long opportunity that will help you gain valuable knowledge and advising skills, as well as develop an Action Plan to solve a problem or improve the advising experiences of your students. Many institutions have found that NACADA Summer Institutes are a great opportunity to bring together a campus-wide team, representing a variety of constituencies, to both learn together and to develop together an Action Plan for their campus. Learn more about on the Summer Institutes on the Web.
I look forward to seeing many of you at a Regional Conference or at one of our Summer Institutes. If I can ever be of assistance to you in any way, don’t hesitate to call or e-mail me any time!
Charlie Nutt, Executive Director NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising (785) 532-5717 cnutt@ksu.edu
