College Sports Information Directors of America

TO: CoSIDA Membership

From: Nick Joos, CoSIDA 2008-09 President

Hope this finds each of you well as you wind down with what I'm sure has been another hectic year. Is there any year in this profession and business that is not hectic ?

As I wind down on my Presidential year there are many good things that I believe have taken place over the past 11 months, which I will get into in just a bit. Before doing that, however, I believe it is important to let all of you know that due to all of the economic and travel based issues that you are most aware of, we are facing a difficult financial picture with our San Antonio. Candidly, at this point in time, we are facing a $100,000-plus penalty from our hotel property in San Antonio for not meeting our contracted minimums with regard to reserved hotel nights and food/beverage expenses for our luncheons and social events.

For those of you who have made plans to come to San Antonio, thank you so much. For those of you still considering coming to San Antonio, I would ask that you take a look at the convention schedule- which once again has many outstanding events, speakers and sessions. The Board believes that it has put together a solid convention in every way and is hopeful that you will decide to join us.

If you know you are coming, but have not made reservations, or decide that you do want to come I would ask that you please click on this hotel link below and and reserve your rooms so that the Board can do the necessary final planning as it relates to multiple aspects of the convention and working with the hotel staff.
https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=80691

Please help us deal with the financial concerns we are facing by making your reservations and registering for the convention within the next few days.

The financial picture we are currently facing with the San Antonio Convention is of course a major concern, but it does not mitigate the many positive things that have taken place over the last 11 months. During that time frame the Board has developed and adopted the organization's first-ever strategic initiatives plan and spent a good deal of time on remaking the organization's management and organization structure to be more pro-active. That included the implementation of a new management tier- College Division Management Advisory Committee (CAMAC) and University Division Management Advisory Committee (UDMAC)-that enables the leadership of different segments of our organization to be more pro-active in dealing with appropriate issues and challenges. The CDMAC is composed of three leadership groups (D2-SIDA, D3-SIDA and NAIA-SIDA ) while the UDMAC is composed of leadership groups from the Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision and D1-AAA.

Every though these are tough economic times in general we have attracted five new corporate partners into CoSIDA. Our partnership with NACDA has resulted in dozens of CoSIDA based stories being distributed to thousands of others in the university of athletics community via the NACDA daily blast email system, something that was not taking place in the past. Several firsts were established this past year as the Board pushed forward on its goal of taking a more visible and prominent position within the intercollegiate athletics community. Presentations before the Division 1-A Athletics Directors, Board of Trustees for the America Football Coaches Association and an opportunity to attend the NACDA mid-year meeting this past January enabled CoSIDA to participate and discuss things with Presidents/Executive Directors for every other management organization in intercollegiate athletics. CoSIDA had never had any of these opportunities extended to it in the past and in this past year all of them were achieved. In addition, CoSIDA will be represented at the table when the D1 Recruiting Cabinet convenes in California in a few weeks to discuss possible legislation as it relates to printed media guides. This will be the first time that CoSIDA has ever participated in meetings that relate to proposed legislation before possible legislation is written. That is another significant step forward for our organization and profession.

Over the course of the year we have also conducted our first membership-wide webinar and also held two membership-based conference calls dealing with pertinent issues in college athletics. Our latest initiative is the establishment of the organization's first-ever Communications Director post which is being elevated from the former Online Director position by reallocating current budgeted money. Like many other things that have taken place over the past year or so, we believe that this will enable us to be more pro-active with regard to a variety of matters.

In short, there have been many significant advancements within CoSIDA and with our profession in my opinion. The past two CoSIDA Board of Directors, in my opinion, have ranked among the most pro-active in our organization's and profession's history. I hope that you consider this as you evaluate coming to San Antonio. We have created much positive momentum in several areas and don't want to have a huge financial setback with this convention affect our ability to continue to build on our goal of taking our rightful place within the intercollegiate community.

Thank you for your time and consideration and I hope to see you in San Antonio next month.