College Sports Information Directors of America

August 7th, 2009

TO: CoSIDA Membership
FR: Justin Doherty, 2009-10 CoSIDA President, and John Humenik, CoSIDA Executive Director

We fully realize that this is a most busy time of the year as we get ready for the start of another full academic year, but we wanted to take a few moments of your valuable time to update you on various Board of Director Initiatives and activities that took place during the month of July.

•  Working with the leadership for D II-SIDA (Rich Herman- Clarion University) and D III-SIDA (Bill Wagner- DePauw University) as well as Eric McDowell (Union College, NY), Chair of the College Management Advisory Committee, letters were sent jointly by the two of us to the Presidents/Chairs for respective AD associations, Commissioner groups and Management Councils for each of those divisions.  We expressed that our leadership- both at the Board and divisional levels- wants to be, and expects to be, considered as a valued resource regarding any and all discussions that revolve around communication- based issues and its impact on our profession and people. Ed Matejkovic, President of the D II Athletics Directors Assoc., and Chris Martin, Chair of D III Commissioners Assoc., both responded to us in a positive way with regard to this request.

•  CoSIDA entered into a partnership with the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NC4S) that encourages Communications Directors inclusion into the 2010 training sessions and “management teams” that are being put together on each campus nationwide to deal with event risk management issues. The NC4S, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and with partnership from NACDA, has developed these Sport Event Risk Management Workshops to be delivered to NCAA institutions in Divisions I, II and III.  The workshops focus on building multi-agency collaboration capabilities among university security action teams.
 
We sent out a letter to the entire CoSIDA membership on July  29th with regard to this partnership and ask that you please discuss with appropriate officials inside you Athletics Department so that you can be included as part of these important “management teams” and thus attend these free training sessions that will be offered starting in 2010.

•  Working through Rob Knox (Kutztown University), a Board member and current President of BCSIDA, a letter was sent to Rudy Keeling, Commissioner of ECAC and Chair of a NCAA committee that will be examining various minority-based issues as to entrance, retention and advancement within collegiate athletics.  Rob expressed that BCSIDA and CoSIDA leadership wanted to be involved in this specific discussion as it relates to our profession.

•  Dick Tomey, President of the American Football Coaches Association and San Jose State head coach, used his July Presidential column in that organization’s magazine to address the need for coaches at all levels to respect and use their Communications Directors to help manage media related issues. This letter to the AFCA membership was a result of a teleconference that CoSIDA leadership had with Dick in April with regard to this issue.

•  CoSIDA Treasurer Dave Wohlhueter and Executive Director John Humenik worked with Marriott officials to get a sizeable penalty for us reduced by 50% for not meeting guaranteed room night contractual requirements for the San Antonio convention. They are now in the process of starting negotiations with the Marriott in San Francisco to try and adjust that contract’s guarantees in light of the current economic conditions and our turnout in San Antonio.

•  John Humenik was extended an invitation from Dutch Baughman, Executive Director of the Division 1-A Athletics Directors Association, to address that group during their annual meeting in Dallas on Sept. 28th.  CoSIDA was extended this opportunity for the first time ever last year and the fact that it has been reissued is a positive sign for our future endeavors with that group.

•  One of the Board’s stated “focus points” for this year is to get more committees to be productive and organized as it relates to assisting and supporting the organization’s strategic plan and initiatives. With that in mind, committee chairs have been asked to provide- by mid August- a specific list of goals and objective for the upcoming year that would support the organization’s strategic plan.  Board liaisons have been assigned for each committee chair to work with and each chair has been advised that they will be asked to participate on a Board call around mid-year to provide a personal update to the Board on the status of their goals and objectives for 2009-10.
 
• Barb Kowal took over as the organization’s first-ever Communications Director and has already provided more content on our site than ever and a CoSIDA Twitter account (Twitter.com/CoSIDAnews) was also setup.   She is putting several things into place that will be noticeable as we move forward. We are also in the very early stages of a redesign of our site.  If you have any story ideas, links to stories or would like to assist Barb with editorial content for the website she would be glad to hear from you (barbkowal@cosida.com)

•  Ed Carpenter informed the Board that he was retiring from his Marketing Director role.  The Board is currently reviewing/determining the best way to allocate/reallocate the duties and roles for that staff position to best benefit the organization. We are appreciative of Ed’s efforts and thank him for his longtime service to CoSIDA. 

•  All of our top sponsors have been provided specific letters with regard to their sponsor-based inventory as it relates to the upcoming year.  The organization of various components of sponsorship relationships and 2009-10 fund-raising efforts are being finalized. We are also working with IMG, our sales partner, on putting together list of potential new clients to approach. John Humenik, while in Los Angeles to meet with the Pac-Ten PR Directors, visited with the leadership of FOX Sports Interactive, our newest corporate partner.

•  With 3rd VP Tom Di Camillo (Central Arizona College, Pac West Conference) as point person, we are in the process of seeking ways to work with the  PR leadership of two-year institutions  to develop initiatives to improve communications with and within that group and increase membership within CoSIDA.

• We are in the preliminary stages of putting together a first draft of a timeline/concepts/ panel ideas for San Francisco convention.  If you have any thoughts relative to “topics” please send to 1st VP Larry Dougherty at Temple (larrydoc@temple.edu) within the next month.
        Don’t forget to take a moment and fill out the 2009 CoSIDA Convention survey ONLINE; your input and feedback is crucial as we move ahead with 2010 convention plans.


As we enter August, we are ready to move forward with another stage of our partnership agreement with NACDA. We have already benefited greatly by the added exposure many of our stories, which in the past were posted just on our website, have gained by being broadcast on NACDA’s daily email blast that reaches several thousands of athletics and university administrators.

Starting this month, “CoSIDA Corner” will become a part of the monthly NACDA magazine (Athletics Management) that reaches over 9,000 members of the athletics and university community. This will provide us with yet another important platform to reach others in the athletics community to talk about things that are important to us and provide our perspective on various issues.

One final thought. We know you are all busy, but we encourage you to take the time to renew your CoSIDA membership now.  You will need to be a CoSIDA member for the 2009-10 year in order to nominate and vote for Academic All-America teams. That process comes quickly in late September and early October and it would be best for you to get that done now rather than rushing that process at the same time you are trying to meet deadlines for those fall programs.  That has been the case in the recent years and sometimes such a late approach results in deadlines being missed due to registrations not being fully processed. 

Please go online at CoSIDA.com/register.aspx to renew or join. Information is provided to you to update your membership online or via mail.

We hope to provide you with a monthly recap of Board activities throughout the upcoming year. Best wishes to you as you enter the fall season.