January 4, 2009
To: CoSIDA Membership
Fr: Justin Doherty, 2009-10 CoSIDA President, and John Humenik, Executive Director
Re: Recap of Board of Director and leadership group initiatives and activities for month of November
We send out a Happy New Year wish to all of you on behalf of the CoSIDA Board of Directors and CoSIDA executive staff. We hope you will take a few moments to review this monthly membership report on things that have taken place at the leadership levels within CoSIDA over the course of December.
General Organizational Initiatives
• CoSIDA President Justin Doherty and Executive Director John Humenik have begun discussions with NCAA Director of Public Relations Erik Christianson about holding a joint meeting in Indianapolis of CoSIDA’s officer and divisional leadership with appropriate NCAA staff to discuss various joint-based initiatives. This meeting will likely take place in April.
• CoSIDA Secretary Jeff Hodges (North Alabama) finished updating and posting CoSIDA’s 2010 Online E-Directory. The directory is also available in a PDF format to download and/or print. Click HERE to download the E-Directory PDF file (3.1 MB).
• Justin Doherty and John Humenik continued to work on finalizing plans for each CoSIDA committee chair to provide, both in writing and with participation on a future Board conference call, an update on committee progress/status as it relates to the specific goals and objectives that the chairs provided for their respective committees this past August. It is anticipated that these committee reports will be presented in late January/early February.
• Third VP Tom DiCamillo (Central Arizona College), along with Tam Flarup (Wisconsin) of the Special Awards Committee, began the process of putting meetings and timelines in place for the nomination and selection processes for 2010 Hall of Fame honors and other special awards to be presented at the CoSIDA San Francisco Convention in July.
• CoSIDA Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal and John Humenik finalized arrangements with TRZ - a long time corporate partner for CoSIDA - for additional teleconferencing opportunities for various needs now associated with our expanded divisional leadership and membership groups. Barb is continuing conversations with CollegeFanz Network in this regard as well as we seek to dramatically increase our ability in the near future to conduct numerous membership based “conversations” over the course of a given year.
• Per a recommendation from CoSIDA Treasurer Dave Wohlhueter and former CoSIDA Board member/Secretary and Hall of Famer Fred Neusch, the Board unanimously approved the naming of CoSIDA’s Graduate Internship Grant the Phil Langan Graduate Internship Grant. The grant is in honor of Langan, a CoSIDA Hall of Famer who during the decade of the 1970’s singularly and simultaneously carried out the organizational duties of Secretary, Treasurer, Digest Editor and convention coordinator. Langan suffered a heart attack on passed away on Nov. 23.
• With the CoSIDA officers, Secretary Jeff Hodges continued to make needed revisions to the CoSIDA Constitution, and he is finalizing a second draft in that regard. When that process is completed, the Constitution with its proposed revisions will be provided to the full Board for review and input; that will be followed by Jeff posting proposed amendment revisions/amendments on the organizational website this spring for membership review; those revisions will then be voted on at the San Francisco Convention (on July 7 at the annual business meeting).
• John Humenik sent out over 230 “Best Wishes for the Holidays” cards on behalf of the organization’s leadership to thank various corporate partners/sponsors, Committee Chairs and affiliated Presidents/Chairs of other leadership groups within CoSIDA, leadership of affiliated groups throughout the collegiate community, and others who have assisted our organization over the course of this past year.
Marketing/PR Based Initiatives
• Barb Kowal will work with CoSIDA’s recently established Strategic Branding Committee (a committee put into place in October to finalize the organization’s new strategic branding logo and branding mission statement) to gather input and direction with regard to finalizing a full redesign of CoSIDA.com which is expected to be launched in late January/early February. This committee includes Presidents of various organizations: Rich Herman (Clarion) of DII-SIDA, Bill Wagner (DePauw) of D III-SIDA, Sam Ghrist (Eastern Oregon) of NAIA-SIDA, Rob Knox (Kutztown State) of BC-SIDA, and Ann King (Sage Colleges) of the Female Athletic Media Relations Executives, or FAME; along with Eric McDowell (Union College), Chair of CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Committee, Charles Bloom (SEC), Chair of CoSIDA’s University Division Management Advisory Committee, Rod Williamson (Vanderbilt), Chair of Senior Athletic Communications Committee and Larry Dougherty (Temple), Nick Joos (Baylor) and John Paquette (Big East) of the CoSIDA Board.
• CoSIDA President Justin Doherty (Wisconsin) contributed a "CoSIDA Corner” column to the December issue of NACDA's Athletics Administration Magazine, his third column since this fall. In this column, Doherty wrote about CoSIDA's signature program - the Academic All-America® program. Each issue is sent to over 10,000 university and athletics administrators, with CoSIDA's voice, thoughts and expertise being shared with these key constituents. NACDA’s Athletics Administration Magazine is published each October, November, December, February, March, April, June and August. Doherty’s most recent published column can be found under one of the top five rotating stories at CoSIDA.com.
• Over the month of December, there were 18 NACDA’s Daily E-mail blasts sent out, with eight CoSIDA-based stories appearing in them. A total of six CoSIDA-based articles also appeared on the NCAA.org website and in the NCAA Daily E-mail Blast during December. Due to this effort, several thousands of university and athletics administrators are being exposed to professional and CoSIDA organizational news, news that primarily only appeared on the CoSIDA website in the past and was thus only viewed by our membership.
• Over the course of the month of December, a total of 32 articles/stories and resource informational pieces were posted on our organizational website (www.CoSIDA.com); additionally, a total of 141 tweets on athletic news, notes and breaking news were posted on CoSIDA’s Twitter page (www.twitter.com/cosidanews).
• Barb Kowal will coordinate a committee that will work on developing a presentation plan and materials for our appearance at the NCAA Student-Athlete Career Forum in Indianapolis in mid-May. Members of that committee include Lawrence Fan (San Jose State), Chair of CoSIDA’s Job Seekers Committee, as well as Board members AnnMarie Person (Atlantic 10) and Blake Timm (Pacific University). Any other CoSIDA members who would be interested in serving on this committee are asked to contact Barb Kowal (barbkowal@cosida.com) prior to January 15.
Divisional Initiatives
• On Dec. 1, Bill Wagner (DePauw), President of DIII-SIDA, received and accepted an invitation from Dan Dutcher (VP for NCAA DIII) requesting that the Board of DIII-SIDA be a strategic advisor to the NCAA DIII staff in Indianapolis with regard to various aspects of the DIII’s branding initiative campaign currently being developed. Bill has also been invited to represent DIII-SIDA at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta and participate there in discussions on January 15th with regard to this branding initiative.
• Rich Herman (Clarion), President of DII-SIDA, had conference calls on Dec. 15th and Dec. 21st with Roberta Page of the NCAA Championships Department to discuss proposed changes in the score reporting process for DII and DIII. Rich will coordinate a meeting with Roberta and others during the NCAA Convention in mid January in Atlanta to discuss this. Eric McDowell (Union College), the Chair of CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Committee, Bill Wagner (DePauw) and Executive Director John Humenik will attend that meeting as well.
• On Dec. 17, Petrina Long (UCLA), Chair of the Division I Recruiting Cabinet, informed John Humenik that she accepts CoSIDA’s recent request that CoSIDA participate in upcoming discussions the the Recruiting Cabinet group will have on various recruiting-based issues, including “communications” with potential student-athletes. She indicated that after the Cabinet has narrowed their focus and has some concrete models to work with, the Cabinet members will seek feedback from various constituent groups within the DI membership, including CoSIDA.
• On Dec. 18, Mike Racy (NCAA VP for Division II) contacted John Humenik with a request to reconnect with CoSIDA/DII-SIDA based on CoSIDA’s successful interaction with other NCAA divisions in recent months. A meeting was set for this purpose, and will take place at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta in mid-January; attending the meeting will be Racy, John Humenik, Rich Herman (Clarion), Eric McDowell (Union College) and Eric Christianson (NCAA Public Relations Director).
• Per request from the NCAA DI Amateurism Cabinet, a committee of DI Communications Directors has been appointed (Board members Justin Doherty, Charles Bloom, Nick Joos and Joe Browning) who will hold teleconferences with this DI Cabinet at some point this month. The teleconferences will serve to provide input to the Amateurism Cabinet as it evaluates and then determines a specific list of actions that DI institutions can and cannot do as it relates to the use(s) of a student-athlete’s likeness.
Fund Raising & Sponsorships
• While in New York to represent CoSIDA at the annual National Football Foundation events, Executive Director John Humenik visited with executives from ESPN, CBS, , NFL and ASAP Sports to personally thank each of them for their corporate support and begin conversations relative to renewals for the upcoming year.
• During a meeting with ESPN executives in New York on Dec. 7, John Humenik was informed that ESPN has agreed to extend its current contract with CoSIDA for sponsorship of the Academic All-America program for one additional year. The current contract expires on June 30, 2010 and has now been extended, with the same financial terms, until June 30, 2011. Humenik will now work with appropriate ESPN personnel to write and sign the revised contract.
• Final fund-raising assignments have been determined for Board members and appropriate contact letters and timelines have been put into place for this fund-raising process which will take place over the course of the next several months.
Representation at Events
• John Humenik represented CoSIDA at the annual National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame events in NYC on Dec. 8.
• John Humenik represented CoSIDA at the ESPN College Football Awards Show in Orlando on Dec. 10.
• Humenik finalized plans for representing CoSIDA at several events/ meetings during the month of January: the BCS National Championship Game, the American Football Coaches Association Convention, the NCAA Convention and the NACDA mid-year meeting.
• Humenik worked with Erik Christianson of the NCAA to get the following CoSIDA members to the NCAA Convention in Atlanta for the purpose of several key meetings: President of DII-SIDA, Rich Herman (Clarion), President of DIII-SIDA Bill Wagner (DePauw) and CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Committee Chair Eric McDowell (Union College) will attend NCAA Convention in Atlanta .
Convention Matters
• Dave Wohlhueter, Barb Kowal and John Humenik continued to work with Brian Binette of Sports Systems, Inc. to review and refine the online registration process that is being put into place for the San Francisco Convention. The plan is to have that system operational on our website by Feb. 1.
• ESPN has agreed to host a late afternoon/early evening reception at the San Francisco Convention on Monday, July 5.
• Second VP Doug Walker (Alabama) finalized the convention logo for San Francisco.
• Barb Kowal is in the process of putting together additional planning meetings with the Hall of Fame Gala organizing committee.
Survey Related
• Dr. Heather Barber of the Univ. of New Hampshire informed John Humenik that she anticipates getting to the Board an executive summary of the CoSIDA membership-wide survey which took place last April; Dr. Barber intends to have this summary for the Board in early February. Over 700 members of our organization participated in that survey project which dealt with membership-wide and divisional specific data collections. The survey included a professional background questionnaire and two questionnaires examining work-related pressures experienced by sports information/communications personnel.
Future Membership Webinars/Conference Calls
• Eric McDowell (Union College), Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, has scheduled a membership conference call for Jan. 26t featuring CoSIDA Third VP Tom DiCamillo (Central Arizona College).
• Barb Kowal is working with Mark Fratto (St. John’s) and others to put together conference call(s)/webinars in late-January to discuss trends and alternative concepts to printed media guides (such as video, digital guides, etc.). The plan is for these webinar topics to follow the NCAA Convention in January where there is anticipated Cabinet/Management Council votes on printed media guide legislation.
• Barb Kowal is finalizing a conference call/webinar for February that will focus on what professors in Communications/Journalism schools are currently teaching students, what these professors see as PR trends, evolving sports broadcast industry issues, new digital/social media ideas, etc., that we as communications directors need to be aware of as we move into 2010 and beyond. The panel will be composed of Jeff Rubin of ICS (a corporate partner and CoSIDA’s website administrator) who teaches Digital Media at Syracuse University, and Chris Taylor, instructor of telecommunications sports at Ball State University and BSU’s former director of athletic communications/marketing; along with Malcolm Moran, former award-winning sports journalist who is now the Knight Chair of Sports Journalism and Society at Penn State University.
• While meeting with Greg Aiello (VP for Communications for the NFL) in New York on Dec. 7, John Humenik discussed the possibility of having Greg and several NFL PR Directors hold a conference call with our membership that would revolve around media-based issues/challenges they are facing, and which many in our membership are also facing or will be facing. It was agreed that such a Q&A session would be of benefit to both of our groups and such a teleconference would likely take place in April/May. They agreed to try and continue to focus on making this conference call happen in the spring.
Miscellaneous
• On Dec. 16, U.S. News and World Report posted a online story detailing the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America selections participating in the football bowl games this season. Read this article on CoSIDA.com here: http://cosida.com/news/2009/12/17/1217090705_9259.aspx.
• A conference call will be setup for a late January/early February meeting that will select the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame Class of 2010. That class will be inducted on July 6 at CoSIDA’s Hall of Fame Gala event in San Francisco.
Please Note:
If you have any article or feature ideas, submissions or suggestions for the upcoming issues of the monthly CoSIDA E-Digest, please contact Jeff Hodges, Digest editor (sportsInformation@una.edu); if you have suggestions for CoSIDA.com content or wish to contribute to our website, please contact Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of External Affairs (barbkowal@cosida.com).
Again, best wishes as we enter 2010. Thank you for taking the time to read our monthly newsletter, and please do not hesitate to contact any member of the Board of Directors or CoSIDA staff members if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions as we move into the second half of our academic year.
Justin Doherty, University of Wisconsin
2010 CoSIDA President
jmd@athletics.wisc.edu
John Humenik
Executive Director
jhumenik@bellsouth.net