Tag: colleagues

Backchannel: ACPA & NASPA Consolidation Webinar

I was one of those who could not participate live in the webinar. Fortunately, I was able to see the Presentation Slides and then read through the Twitter Backchannel. Here are some of my responses.

Tweets That Caught My Eye

  • KevinRGuidry: Hah! I love how ACPA keeps hammering the “everyone gets a vote.” Small dig at NASPA who won’t let students vote? #NASPACPA
  • ValerieHeruska: 17,400 members combined members, 7,634 conference attendees, 33 staff members, 6.5 mil budget, net assets 7.2 mil #NASPACPA
  • clconzen: Professional Association is so much more than conferences, though, although for some its their only real experience #naspacpa
  • danbureau: #NASPACPA ppl will connect as they need – so I think state and regional meetings will still happen – that is how some make big assoc. small
  • clconzen: With the continued growth of social media networking & access to webinars, I think the needs for annual conference will change #naspacpa
  • cindykane: I agree w/ need for critical mass on regional level…I think it will improve regional opportunities! #naspacpa
  • KevinRGuidry: Make sure all of these documents, including comments, eventually make it to Bowling Green. These are important historical docs. #NASPACPA
  • freerangekarma: Wow! 68% said yes, consolidation is in the best interest of the profession! #naspacpa
  • ValerieHeruska: framework for new association: Institutional Delegate, pro, stdnt, affiliate, transition, emeritus, all except 4 affil can vote #NASPACPA
  • PKirchmeier: Glad to see that ‘Communities of Practice’ will help with Commission/Knowledge Community transition. #NASPACPA
  • ericstoller: Communities of practice list…could we get one for technology/communications? #naspacpa
  • DEBTAUB: We will need to say good-bye to things that will not be included in new association. #NASPACPA
  • ericstoller:About Campus and Leadership Exchange should be merged into a new blog-based publishing platform. RSS, comments, media = awesome. #naspacpa

Response to Webinar/Consolidation Discussion

Lots of very serious issues to resolve, but I don’t see anything that should stand in the way of consolidation. Both groups absolutely must continue to evolve to survive, and consolidation is the perfect opportunity to make some very big changes and take some risks. We could be on the verge of greatness! OK, that sounds a little over the top when I read it back to myself, but I have really high hopes for the uber-organization.

I’m also very interested to see where technology and communications fit into the new organization.

Kevin, I’m with you. Egads! Those slides are awful! Not only the color contrast, but the sheer volume of information per slide.

Response to Backchannel

I’ve followed the back channel for several events in the past, but this was my first real effort to do so after the fact. It was fascinating! The backchannel itself is almost like the whispered chatter that goes on during presentations. The transparency is great and I hope that a) the ACPA/NASPA leaders read this; and b) that we can encourage others to participate in future events. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account you can follow through the wthashtag.com … and I’m going to encourage my less-geeky colleagues to do so.

List of SA Tech Units and Leaders

Kevin Guidry has a great thought piece on technology in student affairs and how that fits into our current (and hopefully new) professional organizations. Joe Sabado from UC-Santa Barbara commented on that post and lamented about not knowing any other IT directors in Student Affairs.

I find myself asking myself this question all the time: Who are my peers?

I created this Google Doc to document to help capture that information. I know who a few of us are, but ask others to please add themselves to the document so we can really see who is part of this niche in the profession of student affairs. (Tip o’ the hat to the Student Affairs Collaborative – I basically just copied their Directory idea.)

As Kevin says:

There seems to be three groups of people in student affairs interested in technology: administrators who manage technology projects and groups in student affairs departments and divisions, student affairs scholars who study technology and its uses and impact, and student affairs professionals with interests in technology but a different primary focus.

Certainly the third group is very broad, and we know many of them follow the various blogs and hashtags on the topic, and many are members of the NASPA Tech Knowledge Community. The second group is likely very small…but would it be worth seeing who identifies themselves as such?

So, this is an effort to capture that first group: the geeky admins…some of us may be SA professionals first and geeks second. Others might be geeks first and SA staff second. In either case, identifying the members of this community might be helpful to us all.

ELI07: People I’ve Met

In no particular order, here are some folks that I’ve met with a note on how they’ve made an impact on me.

Bradley Cohen – Trained as a philospher, he’s been in the IT world for a number of years. He did doctoral work at UNC, and is now at UMinnesota. He is very articulate, and down to earth. I enjoyed his program teaser, during which time he talked with the audience and his words complemented the PPT content, rather than reading it (which others have done at this event…argh). We enjoyed talking about preparing to present, and he talked about “Powerpoint Karaoke” which I found hilarious. We were at the same table for dinner last night, and I got to hear his thoughts about students, and supporting faculty, and the world of IT. (Not to mention the pros and cons of studying philosophy, which was of interest since my father-in-law was chair of that department here at NC State for 25 years). He had some good comments during the event so far. He observed that students seek a path of least reistance (though that’s not quite his words) in order to maintain a certain level of comfort.

Diana Oblinger – A plant geneticist (who knew!) who later moved into the world of IT in higher ed, she’s a real mover and shaker that I’ve long admired. Given that NC State is sorta her home institution (vicariously through Chancellor Oblinger, if nothing else, though she has 4 sons who are NCSU grads as well), I’ve been hoping for a chance to really connect with her. Her first words upon shaking my hand were something like “We sure traveled a long way to finally meet.” I have since had great opportunities to chat with her – at dinner, during our presenters’ meeting, and so on. I was impressed when I mentioned Wolfpack football, and she quickly jumped in with “Central Florida at 6:00 on September 1st!” If I wasn’t a fan already, this would have sealed the deal. :-) Her opening remarks were great, and I just enjoy hearing everything she has to say.

Cyprien Lomas – Cyprian and I sat at the same table during this event. He’s a fellow Mac user (primarily Macs at this event!), and always has a camera in hand. He posts his photos online and they are great. He’s at UBritish Columbia. He scored points with me when he invited me to be his Facebook friend during my presentation. A very intriguing guy.

Patricia Curtis – Pat turns out to be a former NC State faculty member in Food Science. She was/is buds with Jim Oblinger, and was at State for 12 years (I think). We had a great chat at the reception about people we knew in common. She liked being at State, but said that Auburn made her an offer she just couldn’t refuse. A very engaging, smart and down-to-earth woman.

Jarret Cummings – Jarret works with EDUCAUSE and lives in Durham. He previously worked with Diana Oblinger during her time with UNC General Admin, and I think went with her to EDUCAUSE, though they both work from NC with lots of travel. He was very invovled with the behind-the-scenes event planning and implementation, and took care of all of the presenters. I got to know him much better at dinner, where he talked about his son, his love of bourbon, his brief stint as a philosophy graduate student at UNC, his wife…and the list goes on. A very nice, helpful and very fun fellow.

Lida Larsen – Lida works with EDUCAUSE, and is responsible for putting together regional events. She mentioned to me on more than one occassion that I had opened her eyes to Student Affairs being an important partner. She said that on some spreadsheet they had put together (for what purpose I can’t quite remember) that Student Affairs wasn’t even mentioned…that we were lumped in with “other.” She plans to separate SA out soon as she gets a chance!

Linda Jorn – Linda was my bus buddy, and is at UMinnesota. We seemed to always be going to/from hotel/event on the same bus, and sitting next to each other. She said that my presentation has inspired her to seek out her VP of Student Affairs and make that connection. She also asked me more about my efforts to establish social networking software for our LGBT community. Turns out some of her folks are doing something similar, though with a different audience in mind for now. She asked to share my info so that her folks could possibly invite my opinion as they move forward with the project and share their info with me.

Table 8 – ‘nuf said!

Donald Carter – Brief conversation with this Director of e-Learning at Northern Arizona University. He mentioned that they are using their LMS to educate the campus communty about their reaccreditation process (hope I’m remembering that correctly). Said that 68,000 (I think) are “enrolled” in the course. They also made a podcast of students and others talking to give to the reviewers before they visit campus. This was a quick hallway discussion, so I’m not remembering the details well. I do intend to follow up with him.

Rick Satterlee – Rick works as an AVP for Student Affairs at Loyola, but prior to that, he was the Campus Rec guy at UNC-CH for a long while. He was there to present about an online academic integrity program that is now required for all students starting with this year’s freshman class.