NACADA Commission & Interest Group Division Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, October 4, 2005      1:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.

Las Vegas , NV 

Attendees:

• Division Representatives: Casey Self, Maura Reynolds, Jill Johnson
• Executive Office Liaison: Julia Wolf
• Commission Chairs and Incoming Chairs: Lizette Bartholdi, Karen Boston, Lynne Carlson, Dianne Castor, Linda Chalmers, Kathy Davis, Karleen Edwards, Aura Erickson, Nancy Everson, Teri Farr, Les Hemphill, Beth Higgins, Troy Holaday, Virginia Hueske, Andrea Irby, Bill Johnson, Peggy Jordan, Lee Kem, Victor Macaruso, Kati Markowitz, Tina McNamara, Tim Moore, Jeanette Sorensen, Kathy Stockwell, Bill Van Dusen, Lauren Wass
• Interest Group Chairs: Dennis Bothel, Ben Chamberlain (late pm only), Mutlu Citim-Kepic, Julie Givans, Jodi Malmgren, Marion Schwartz, Bobbi Thomas, Adrienne Thunder, Sandra Voller
• Division Steering Committee: Glenn Kepic
• Absent: Cole Holmes, Cindy Pavlowski, Don Sebera, Karen Sullivan-Vance

www.nacada.ksu.edu/CandIGDivision/CIGDMeetingMinutes-Fall2004.htm

• Announcement - Casey Self clarified that tie votes are broken by the Elected Division Representative.

• NACADA Board of Directors and NACADA Council - Casey Self provided a brief summary of the association reorganization and how the Commission & Interest Group Division is represented on the Council and Board of Directors. Maura Reynolds shared information from the Division Representatives training held earlier that morning and some facts shared in a brief history given of NACADA. Included in these comments was the fact that, as a result of the reorganization, the Executive Office was expanded to take on the implementation of more responsibilities and activities of the association.
• Role of your Division Reps - Casey Self summarized the role and responsibilities of the Division Reps, highlights of which include convening the CIG Division, communication with Commission and Interest Group Chairs, planning meeting agendas, and taking issues to the Council and Board.
• Role of Executive Office and Liaison - Julia Wolf referred the chairs to the handout in the meeting folders that provided a detailed description of her role as the Executive Office Liaison to the CIG Division. She reiterated that they should contact her with any questions they may have or when they needed assistance.

• Goals of the CIGD - Maura Reynolds explained that the Division Reps were reviewing the overall goals of the division and would be updating them as needed after the meeting and conference. She mentioned that a primary goal was communication and networking with members of the commissions and interest groups, and she encouraged networking by the chairs.
• Division Marketing (Brochure & Steering Committee) - Julia Wolf pointed out the new design for the CIG Division brochure, and that it was the plan to send these brochures to all regional conferences to be included in the registration packets to ensure that each attendee received it. The point was made that there is little or no discussion of commissions and interest groups at the regional conferences, which led to a discussion of how we could better market these units regionally. This issue will be given to the CIGD Steering Committee to discuss. One possibility might be to submit a proposal for a generic "Commission and Interest Group" session at each regional conference to encourage involvement, which might be similar to the New Member Orientation sessions currently held at the national conference.

2:20 p.m. Break

Special Visit - Incoming President Jo Anne Huber and incoming Vice President Jane Jacobson stopped in for a short visit to thank the leaders for their time and efforts, and to explain the initiative they are implementing during their term for "New Advising Professionals". A handout explaining this initiative was included in the meeting folders.

• NACADA Web Pages and Online Resources - Maura Reynolds summarized the information available on the NACADA web pages and the CIGD web pages. She emphasized the use of the "search" function available to find resources. A redesign of the CIGD web pages was suggested to separate the "general user" information for members from the "leader" information to make it more user-friendly. Julia Wolf will work on this redesign over the next few months while also updating information as needed. The newly elected chairs would be encouraged to review the orientation information provided via the web first after being elected. It was also suggested that, besides sending an e-mail with this orientation information to these new chairs shortly after being elected, it should be sent again in July/August before the national conference.

• Chairperson Handbooks - Jill Johnson provided an overview of the online Commission Chair Handbook and mentioned that a handbook for Interest Group Chairs is being planned. The chairs requested that the entire handbook be provided as a pdf file so it could be printed out with just one click, and Julia Wolf said she would discuss this possibility with the Executive Office technology staff. She also explained that links to information already posted on the NACADA web site are often provided within the content of the handbook to eliminate the duplication of information.

• Budget - Overview and Process - Casey Self mentioned that this information had been posted to the meeting information web site for review by the chairs prior to the meeting. Casey explained that funds were appropriated each fall into the overall CIGD Central Fund account based on the total number of members for that membership year. Casey encouraged the Commission Chairs to submit proposals and budget requests because the division needed to demonstrate good use of the funds in order to continue receiving them. It was pointed out that, although these funds could only be requested by the Division Reps and Commission Chairs, Interest Group Chairs were encouraged to still propose ideas. If these ideas could result in benefit for the entire division, the Division Reps could submit a budget request for any funds needed for implementation.

• Steering Committee structure & purpose - Maura Reynolds summarized this information and referred the chairs to the web and to handout in the meeting folders for more detailed information.

• List serves and network etiquette - Julia Wolf discussed the list serves that are managed by NACADA. She explained that there are special leadership-related lists to which the leaders were automatically added after being elected. She mentioned that the NACADA policy is that members had to personally subscribe to any open list serves, and that NACADA could not add them automatically. Thus, when members choose to join a particular commission or interest group list serve, they have to subscribe themselves, after which they receive a "Welcome Message" with subscriber information and instructions for posting messages.

• Reports (Post-conference & Annual), Timelines, Strategic Plan - Casey Self explained that a primary intention of the online reporting system was to connect their goals and activities to the NACADA Strategic Plan. These reports should be completed by the continuing chairs and the incoming chairs (in collaboration with outgoing chairs). Chairs were again encouraged to set up steering committees for their respective units.
• CIGD Fair - Casey Self briefly explained this activity. Julia Wolf added that the Fair would be a great place for networking and to recruit volunteers for commission and interest group activities.

• Commission meeting during the conference (good place to find your replacement) - Casey Self briefly mentioned that the annual meetings were good places to find volunteers for activities, help set goals for the next year, solicit possible candidates for Chair replacements, and brainstorm ideas that might make good list serve discussion and topics.

• Newsletter articles and updates (Commission Issue Articles and CIG Updates) - Julia Wolf explained the difference between the topical content articles for the newsletter written by commission and interest group chairs and the activity updates provided by chairs for the newsletter. She then asked for additional volunteers to write content articles for a few issues of the Academic Advising Today newsletter.

• Service to Commission Awards - Julia Wolf reminded the Commission Chairs to include this award and a request for funds if they wanted to solicit nominations and offer it in 2006.

Linda Chalmers made a motion to approve the proposal to change the name of the commission to Faculty Advising Commission from Faculty Advisors Commission; seconded by Karen Boston. A verbal vote was conducted. Motion passed.

• Guidelines for Units Requesting a Name Change - Vote needed - Casey Self reminded chairs that this proposal was posted to the meeting information web site for review by the chairs prior to the meeting. Casey briefly summarized the proposal and explained that these guidelines resulted from a discussion about name changes at the mid-year Council meeting.

Kathy Stockwell made a motion to accept the guidelines for changing the name of a unit as outlined; seconded by Tim Moore. A verbal vote was conducted. Motion passed.

• Creating a New Interest Group - Maura Reynolds gave a brief summary of the rationale and new guidelines being proposed for establishing new Interest Groups.

Tina McNamara made a motion to accept the proposed guidelines for establishing new Interest Groups as outlined; seconded by Troy Holaday. A verbal vote was conducted. Motion passed.

• Interest Group Becoming a Commission - Casey Self gave a brief summary of the rationale and new guidelines being proposed for Interest Groups seeking Commission status. He explained the revised deadline dates also being proposed (initial indication in post-conference report due Nov. 15, March 1 is final notification, final proposal due May 1 to Division Reps).

Andrea Irby made a motion to accept the proposed guidelines and deadline dates for Interest Groups seeking Commission status as outlined; seconded by Lizette Bartholdi. A verbal vote was conducted. Motion passed.

• Commission Chairperson Responsibilities and Expectations - Maura Reynolds gave a brief overview of the rationale and content of this proposal, which further outlines the expectations and responsibilities of Commission Chairs.

Dianne Castor made a motion to accept the proposed guidelines for the expectations and responsibilities of Commission Chairs as outlined; seconded by Karen Boston. A verbal vote was conducted. Motion passed .

• Service to Commission Awards (Earlier Results Deadline, clarify 3-year existence criteria) - Vote needed - Julia Wolf briefly summarized the proposal intended to better clarify the criteria and help to facilitate a smoother, more efficient process. She noting that moving up the results reporting deadline by one month should not be a problem since the award decisions were reported prior to this earlier deadline last year.

Tim Moore made a motion to accept the proposed change to have an earlier award results deadline and the clarification of the 3-year existence criteria as outlined; seconded by Jeanette Sorensen. A verbal vote was conducted. Motion passed.

• New Advising Professionals (Ben Chamberlain/Nathan Vickers)

• Advising Urban Affairs Majors (Adam Sikula)

Unfortunately, Adam Sikula was not able to attend the meeting to provide any additional   information other than that in the proposal submitted.

• List serves - Casey Self explained that feedback was being requested on the list serves managed by NACADA from the standpoint of whether an individual should have to be a NACADA member to be able to subscribe to them. The NACADA web site is currently being reviewed to assess what sections might become available to NACADA members only. Since many list serves managed by NACADA are for the commissions and interest groups, consideration is being given as to whether these list serves should be open to anyone as they are now, or whether they should be open to only current NACADA members, and considered part of a member's benefits. The point was made that, if the web site and associated resources and services remain open to the public as they are now, why would someone pay membership dues to become a NACADA member when they could already access all available information on the web site for free.

• The ACADV list serve is already open to anyone in advising, so perhaps the commission and interest group list serves should be for NACADA members only.
• A chair could ask for a special exception to be made to add a non-NACADA member to a list serve if that individual's participation would benefit the members.
• Perhaps NACADA could implement a "guest membership" option similar to a "trial" membership.
• Leave the list serves (and possibly the entire web site) open to encourage NACADA membership and as a service to the academic advising profession.
• Perhaps a review committee could be set up to determine whether non-members would be allowed to subscribe based on an application or questionnaire they complete.

• Commission and Interest Group committees - Casey Self reminded chairs of the current policy that required members of any association committee to be current NACADA members, and asked them to keep this in mind when appointing committee members. A couple of situations were cited in which commission committee members were not NACADA members, but were prominent in their areas of expertise, and thus a benefit to the committee. In such cases, these individuals could perhaps serve as "ex officio" members, but would not be able to make decisions, especially regarding the use of NACADA funds. The point was made that this type of situation should be avoided if it took away an opportunity for a NACADA member to serve on that committee. Another point made was that opportunity for committee service within a commission or interest group should be considered another benefit of NACADA membership.

• Commission and Interest Group Fair - Chairs can pick up display boards and push pins at the leadership dinner or in the exhibits area tomorrow. After the Fair was over, they could leave the display boards on the tables, but should take anything with them that they wanted to keep.
• Annual Meeting Feedback Forms/Procedures - Packets containing special feedback forms were distributed to the chairs to be handed out to attendees at their annual meetings. Julia explained that these forms were different from those used for the concurrent sessions, and asked them to use only these special forms for their meetings. Room monitors would be collecting the completed forms and turning them in at the Evaluations booth in the exhibits area. Chairs could pick up their copies of the evaluations about two hours after their meetings ended.
• Certificates for Presenters of Commission-Sponsored sessions - Packets containing printed certificates for the presenters of commission-sponsored sessions were distributed to Commission Chairs. Chairs were asked to either give these certificates to the presenters during their annual commission meetings or at the actual session prior to the beginning of the presentation.

• Elections in Spring 2006 - Julia pointed out the leadership recommendation forms in the meeting folders, and asked the chairs to nominate members for the positions being elected, especially those Commission Chair positions.
• Guidelines for Surveys Sponsored by Commissions and Interest Groups - Julia remarked that these guidelines were posted to the meeting information web site for review by the chairs prior to the meeting. If anyone had any questions, they could contact Julia or Marsha Miller in the Executive Office at any time.
• Commission Chair Signatures - Julia asked the incoming Commission Chairs to sign a sheet of blank white cover stock. Their signatures would be scanned and saved in files to be printed on the commission-sponsored session certificates next fall.
• Conflict of Interest Statements - Julia handed out copies of the Conflict of Interest Statements for the chairs to sign who had not yet done so, as requested earlier by Bobbie Flaherty for association files.
• One-on-One Meetings - Julia offered to set up individual meetings during the conference with any incoming or continuing Chairs who might want to meet to discuss any questions they may have. She would be available in the conference registration area for those who wanted to stop by.

• Division Meeting Evaluation - Casey Self and Maura Reynolds asked chairs to take out a piece of paper. On one side of the paper, chairs were asked to write down one thing they liked about the Division meeting, and on the other side, one thing they did not like about it. Below is a summary of the responses:

What I LIKED about the CIGD meeting:

• Wealth of information (10)
• Well organized/structured (8)
• Just enough discussion - thanks for allowing many views (5)
• Phenomenal leadership (3)
• Interaction (2)
• Informality (2)
• Handouts (2)
• Keeping on task (2)
• Energy
• Self-introductions
• Explanation of chair responsibilities
• Attention given to Interest Groups  

Suggestions/Dislikes:

• Too long (7)
• Discussion should have been limited to agenda items only (5)
• Rambling of some members (3)
• A little too long, but needed the time (3)
• Keep as is (3)
• Not enough time for discussion- felt rushed at some points (2)
• Some members not prepared
• Materials distributed that we'd been told to print and read
• Temperature of room too cold
• Start on time!
• Arrange room so we're physically closer

• Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.