FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear colleagues,

It is with gratitude that I write my last column as president of EACUBO: gratitude for the many volunteers with whom I have had the privilege to work this year; gratitude for the advice of our members who took the time to provide input and feedback on what is important to them; and gratitude for the financial support of our sponsors and vendors. All parties were responsible for the accomplishments of the year.

EACUBO’s 2004-2005 goals and objectives were described in detail in the January 2005 newsletter. In this parting column I will highlight some achievements. The full annual report of all our association’s accomplishments will be posted on the web by the time of the Annual Meeting.

A major thrust this year was in member services. The Member Services Committee, energetically led by Greg Rumsey, produced a new brochure that provides an excellent synopsis of our mission and activities. We also devoted a lot of energy to analyzing the case for changing our constituent groups from EACUBO’s three (Two-year College, Small Colleges and Large Institutions) to NACUBO’s four categories, derived from the Carnegie classifications: Community Colleges, Small Institutions, Comprehensive/Doctoral Institutions and Research Universities. Our analysis showed that moving to the four categories would transfer a number of our members from the overly large “Small Colleges” group to the Comprehensive and Doctoral Institutions group. Our hope is that this change will enable both groups to be better served. This change requires an amendment of our by-laws, and if that is approved by the general membership at the Annual Meeting in Chicago, we will have a year to effect the transition.

Another topic to which we devoted considerable attention was how to optimize the time of our volunteers. The thinking behind this objective was that we should try to protect our volunteers’ time from logistical and administrative tasks that can be outsourced inexpensively, and instead try to derive greatest benefit from our volunteer resources by focusing their attention on programmatic content in their fields of expertise. An ad hoc group, led by Terry Sampson, evaluated outsourcing opportunities to ensure best utilization of volunteers’ efforts and to provide continuity and cost-effectiveness. Terry presented a final report with a much-admired graphic presentation of the complexity of our activities. You will see some of the recommendations implemented over the next year in EACUBO’s programming.

There was a concerted effort to use registration and survey data that we had collected over the last two years to inform decisions on programming. For example, data from Annual Meetings over the last three years formed the basis for discussions on changes to the Annual Meeting format, in response to perceived changing trends in membership desires and needs. Barry Cohen and Rita Murdoch shared generously of their time and knowledge. The Board also asked Joe Grasso to review the format of the Senior Business Officer Round-table, and discussions have begun on the purpose and optimal delivery of the intended programmatic goals.

Besides programming changes, the year also saw efforts to enhance the effectiveness of association administration, from managing committee budgets to greater use of technology to support programs, and documentation of operational guidelines. Peggy Plympton developed an operating manual for the planning and running of our retreats. Ann Spencer (our Information Coordinator and utility in-fielder) authored a document on the role of the Board and the Executive Committee. I myself penned brief guidelines for committee chairs and vice-chairs to send with their appointment letters early in the year.

The transition of the treasury function from one school (Gary Raisl’s University of the Sciences) to another (Lisa Marie McCauley’s King’s College) brought home the fact that more extensive descriptions of the operations of our various officer functions would be a valuable legacy for future EACUBO officers. The officers rose to the occasion and a larger operations manual is the result of this team activity. In closing, I will loop round to the opening, and pull out this final group to thank.

I owe a huge debt to my executive committee who stuck with the tasks and put up with my endless follow-up lists, who did not complain when I added one more meeting to the year’s roster, who provided wise counsel, who helped one another grow by speaking up at critical points to provide re-direction: my colleagues, friends, teachers.