September 2, 2009
TO: CoSIDA Membership
FR: Justin Doherty, CoSIDA President, and John Humenik, CoSIDA Executive Director
RE: Recap of Board of Director Activities/Initiatives for month of August
We hope that the beginning of the 2009-10 academic year has been positive for all. As we mentioned in August, we will be addressing the membership monthly to update you on various Board of Director Initiatives and activities that took place during the last month. Here is our report for August 2009.
General Business/Management Updates/Corporate Partnerships
^ Multiple fund-raising and sponsorship organizational issues for 2009-10 were finalized in August.
^ Responsibilities and duties were finalized for all members of the Board for the 2009-10 term year. That document has been posted on CoSIDA.com within the Board of Directors link.
^ All CoSIDA Committee Chairs provided, as requested by the Board, a specific list of goals and objectives for their group this coming year which will support the organization’s strategic initiatives. That list has been posted on CoSIDA.com.
^ A contract extension with ICS – our internet service provider - has been negotiated that extends that contract until 2014 and provides CoSIDA two full redesigns of our website (anticipated in early 2010 and at some point in 2012); due to this negotiated extension, redesign charges will take place at a significantly reduced fee.
^ With CoSIDA Marketing Director Ed Carpenter’s retirement, the Board determined that it would be best to have John Humenik fully assume fund-raising and sponsorship-related organizational duties. As a result, that enabled the Board to change the focus of Ed’s allocated staff function from strictly fund-raising to one that coordinates CoSIDA’s marketing and branding initiatives as well as become a convention planner and coordinator. We felt that Barb Kowal could take on these expanded duties in addition to her communications director duties which she assumed in late June. This was all handled by reallocating current funds and it gives us a person who can fully concentrate on these areas for the first time in our organization’s history.
We have now, over the past 18 months, significantly “centralized” duties and responsibilities in the areas of day-to-day administration and organization, affiliate relationships, communications, marketing, fund-raising/sponsorships and convention coordination. We believe it will make us more efficient and effective and it has also enabled us to attack one of the key components of our adopted strategic plan: significantly divesting officers of “convention duties” so they can now concentrate more on managing and leading the organization and profession and dealing with the issues and challenges before us.
^ Our current contract with ESPN, as it relates to sponsorship of the Academic All-America teams program, expires in June of 2010. John Humenik has approached the management at ESPN to begin the negotiation process in the hopes of extending that contract.
Membership Services
^ Two weekly membership-specific blast emails have been instituted. The “Communications Watch” email deals with professional development articles, newsworthy articles and topics/trends for PR professionals; and the other (“CoSIDA Connections”) deals with CoSIDA organizational/business matters, including membership job transactions. If you see any stories/links you believe would provide interesting content for these blast emails and/or for CoSIDA.com content, please contact Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal (barbkowal@cosida.com)
^ Beginning in September, CoSIDA plans to begin hosting professional development/continuing education webinars and/or teleconferences for our membership. The Board and committee chairs began discussions with regard to topics for these electronic communications, which can be membership wide and/or divisional-specific. Please contact Barb Kowal (barbkowal@cosida.com) and/or CoSIDA Past President and SEC Associate Commissioner Charles Bloom (cbloom@sec.org) if you have any ideas in this regard. As part of his past president role, Charles coordinates our Leadership Cabinet efforts to implement continuing education initiatives.
^ Since mid-July, 12 CoSIDA-initiated stories/releases have been sent out via NACDA’s “Daily Review” e-blast and/or the NCAA’s daily email blast. We continue to move forward in raising our organizational profile and improving our communication methods as we initiate and share news of athletic PR trends and topics with the national athletic community. As a result, thousands within the athletics community are being exposed on a regular basis to professional and organizational stories generated by CoSIDA that were strictly “in-house” articles or topics in the past, listed on CoSIDA.com or in our monthly Digests.
Outreach to National Associations & Leaders
^ A letter was sent by John Humenik to Erik Christenson, NCAA Director of Public and Media Relations, that followed up on Board discussions with Erik during the San Antonio Convention about the possibility of having the NCAA Communication Department participate in regular conference calls with the CoSIDA divisional leadership to discuss divisional PR-related issues. Erik participates in such a call currently conducted at the D1 level and believes, as does our Board, that such a pro-active approach at other divisional levels will be equally beneficial. Some preliminary conference calls took place in this regard during August and others will be planned for September.
^ CoSIDA/John Humenik was invited for the second year to participate on monthly conference calls with the National Communicators Group which includes the NCAA Communications Department, conference PR Directors for all of the FBS conferences, and Bill Hancock, BCS Administrator.
^ Leah Kareti, Director for Division III at the NCAA, responded in a favorable manner with regard to CoSIDA’s/D III-SIDA’s personal request to play a more pro-active role in assisting that divisional leadership with regard to communications-based issues and challenges. The Board and leadership of DIII-SIDA is preparing to respond to some questions that Leah proposed, questions which will be helpful to the NCAA D III staff as they work to build this relationship with CoSIDA.
^ Bill Wagner (DePauw and President of DIII-SIDA), working with John Humenik, sent a letter to Dan Dutcher, NCAA VP for Division III, indicating D III-SIDA’s leadership interest in being a resource as the Division III leaders begin new branding and communications initiatives for their member institutions. Dan responded in a most positive way and indicated appreciation for CoSIDA’s/Division III-SIDA’s pro-active approach in this regard, stating that this implementation plan for identity branding could benefit from the expertise of the D III-SIDA leadership.
^ At the request of Rich Herman (Clarion University/President of D II-SIDA), John Humenik sent a letter to Janet Montgomery, newly appointed Chair of the Division II Championship Committee, expressing D II- SIDA’s and CoSIDA’s desire to work with her and her committee on communications-based issues and needs with regard to those divisional championships.
^ John Humenik corresponded with Jason Galaska, NACDA’s liaison with the DII Athletic Directors Association, making him aware of our interest in working with that leadership group. Jason indicated that at their most recent meeting there was discussion of CoSIDA’s efforts to reach out in this regard and that there would indeed be follow up by the leadership of this D II ADA group.
^ A letter went to Chad Weller (Director of Sports Information and Media Services for the NAIA) from John Humenik, making him aware of CoSIDA's campaign within all divisions to reach out to appropriate leadership groups. Humenik indicated that it is CoSIDA's desire, supported by the divisional-SIDA leadership groups, to be a resource and part of all appropriate discussions with regard to divisional communications-based issues. John indicated that is was CoSIDA's wish, in conjunction with NAIA-SIDA, to do the same with the leadership of the NAIA, and informed Chad that this approach has led to an elevated leadership profile for the DII-SIDA and D III-SIDA groups within their respective communities. John and Chad are finalizing that effort within the NAIA leadership structure and a letter will be going out to NAIA leadership in this regard in early September.
Strategic Initiatives
^ Preliminary organizational discussions are taking place concerning the need to update the CoSIDA Constitution; redo/update our organization’s professional Code of Ethics; branding initiatives; and convention programming, timeline/workshop schedule and finances.
In closing, we ask your assistance and pro-active follow-up on several items:
1. Nomination deadlines for the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America fall sports nomination process are fast approaching at the end of September. We encourage you to complete your 2009-10 CoSIDA membership registration, as only CoSIDA members can nominate student-athletes for AAA consideration and vote.
2. Please take the time now to review Academic All-America sport nomination schedules and deadlines (http://www.cosida.com/Awards/allamerica.aspx). The deadlines posted must be honored for a variety of reasons. Each year, especially with the fall programs, we have some schools/SIDs who don’t check these deadlines and end up missing the deadline, with quality student-athletes deserving AAA nomination are panelized due to the SID’s lack of awareness. Please check these deadlines and plan accordingly!
3. If you have a relationship with a company/firm/organization that you feel should be a CoSIDA corporate supporter, please pass that information along to John Humenik (jhumenik@bellsouth.net) for possible follow-up.
Again, we hope that the beginning of the 2009-10 academic year is off to a terrific start for all our members. We invite you to contact us at any time with questions, comments and suggestions. You can find all Board of Directors/CoSIDA staff email and phone contact numbers here.