Roberta 'Bobbie' Flaherty, NACADA Executive Director
The world of NACADA continues to revolve and spin! We are working diligently to continue to expand, enhance, and improve the services we provide to our members, their institutions and students.
First, the number of NACADA participants at our professional development opportunities, as well as our membership, continues to grow. At the 2002 NACADA Academic Advising Summer Institute, we had 283 participants and faculty take advantage of the intensive week-long institute. An exciting part of this year’s institute was the number of teams from institutions across the country and internationally who took advantage of this opportunity to learn and develop an action plan to help improve advising on their campuses. Special thanks to Diane Matteson and Bev Martin from the Executive Office for the planning and organization prior to the institute and their hard work at the institute! Also a special thanks to Wes Habley, SI Director, and the great faculty Nancy King, Peggy King, Alice Reinarz, Eric White, Susan Campbell, John Burton, Jerry Ford, Tom Kerr, Charlie Nutt, Buddy Ramos, Tom Brown, Rusty Fox, Randy Jedele, Kim Roufs, Faye Vowell, Mike McCauley, Gary Kramer, and Betsy McCalla-Wriggins.
With this huge enrollment, we are presently exploring with the Summer Institute Advisory Board the possibility of hosting two institutes next summer.
Our membership to date is 6737, which is over 100 more members than our final count for 2001—our growth continues to demonstrate the importance of academic advising to student success in higher education. Additionally, registrations for the national conference in Salt Lake City are rolling in! John Mortenson and his committees have done a wonderful job in planning our 26th Annual Conference—we look forward to seeing many of you there!
There are several new initiatives that are in the works to be initiated for our membership in the upcoming months:
We are continuing with these initiatives and many more to provide the highest quality services to our members. I encourage you to watch for the implementation of these initiatives and to contact me at any time if we can assist you or provide additional support and services.
Roberta “Bobbie” Flaherty NACADA Executive Director
February 12-14, 2003 San Antonio, TX
The First Annual Academic Advising Administrators' Institute will be an intensive institute focused on the knowledge base for advising administrators. The institute will also provide extensive opportunities for seeking solutions for current administrative concerns, expanding your network of colleagues, and providing hands-on strategies for improving the advising program on your campus.
Topics:
Who Should Attend
To assist our membership in learning as much as possible about NACADA and to grow in leadership within the organization, NACADA has in place the NACADA Leadership Program. This program is for members who wish to become more actively involved in their professional organization and move toward assuming leadership positions at all levels, state, regional, and/or national. Participants in the program are assigned to a NACADA leader, either past or present, who has a clear understanding of the organization, has been involved in various capacities as a leader in the organization, and who has a genuine interest in working with new members in cultivating their leadership skills and in assisting them in the goal of leadership within the organization.
If you are interested in learning more about NACADA and becoming more involved as a leader in any capacity, then becoming a part of this important leadership program is a must for you!
For more information please contact:the NACADA Executive Office, nacada@ksu.edu or 785-532-5717.
The close of the national conference in Salt Lake City will see the beginning of the new governance structure for NACADA. Two years ago, then President Buddy Ramos charged a Task Force with reviewing and making recommendations for a more efficient governing structure that would provide opportunities for more members to be involved, relieve the volunteers of work that could be done by the executive office staff, provide for the continued growth of the organization, and shorten the response and development time for programs to meet member needs. First a task force worked to determine the framework for such a governing structure and then a second task force worked on the details of its implementation. Now it is time to see it in action!
Grassroots involvement is a basis of the new organization so the new structure allows for many options for first time and continued involvement. Members may get involved on the Region level by serving on a regional conference or other regional committee, by serving on a committee within a Commission, or by serving on a National Committee. All Regions, Commissions, and Committees will elect chairpersons who will represent them within three respective Divisions (Regional, Commission, Administrative).
Members who have served as Region, Commission, or Committee Chairs are eligible to be elected to serve as Division Representatives who convene and lead their respective Divisions. There is also a second Division Representative who will be appointed to assist with Division leadership. These two Division Representatives from each Division then represent the Divisions on, and constitute, the NACADA Council along with the Vice President and the Executive Director. The Council reviews all proposals from the Divisions, integrates ideas among Divisions, and prioritizes recommendations to be forwarded to the NACADA Board of Directors.
Nine elected Board members and the Executive Director comprise the NACADA Board of Directors. They will act on recommendations from the NACADA Council based on the Strategic Plan that the Board is responsible for developing and maintaining and the financial implications of each proposal for the Association. The Association’s President and Vice President will be elected from among the Board of Director members.
So, it sounds like all the details are covered, but I’m sure we will run into some rough spots, some obvious and embarrassing omissions, and some joyous revelations as we begin to implement this plan for taking NACADA to new heights. Please volunteer to get involved and bear with us as we smooth the bumps! Your first step could be completing the volunteer form on our web site under “Association Information” at www.nacada.ksu.edu. We need you!
Cite this article using APA style as: Flaherty, R. (2002, September). From the executive office. Academic Advising Today, 25(3). [insert url here]
