College Sports Information Directors of America

We hope your 2010 year is off to a great start, and we are pleased to bring you the January actions and initiatives undertaken by the CoSIDA executive staff and Board of Directors. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us; our contact information is at the end of this newsletter.

In addition, we are providing our members with a listing of Upcoming CoSIDA Membership Schedule & Deadlines for February & March (PDF). Click HERE for that PDF.

General Organizational Initiatives

• Justin Doherty and John Humenik continued discussions with Erik Christianson, NCAA Director of Public & Media Relations, about putting together a joint meeting in Indianapolis - likely in April- of CoSIDA’s officers and divisional leadership; the meetings will be with appropriate NCAA staff to discuss various joint-based initiatives.

•  CoSIDA Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal, per a request from NCAA Director of Public & Media Relations Erik Christianson, emailed out to the full membership updated directives and materials from the U.S. Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Education with regard to NIHI matters. The NCAA was requested to provide this information to all athletics departments in the country and the NCAA asked our help in that effort.

• Barb Kowal, working with Erik Christianson of the NCAA, sent out a notification to CoSIDA members that during the NCAA Convention in Atlanta a decision was made by the DI Legislative Council to postpone a vote at the Convention on proposed legislation that related to “printed media guides.” That Council decided it was appropriate to seek more comments and discussion from the membership on this matter and delayed a final vote until its April meetings.

• Barb Kowal, working with Debbie Copp (Oklahoma), Chair of the Committee on Committees, has begun the process of reviewing all CoSIDA certificates/plaques that are awarded throughout the year to make surre that they are consistent from a presentation and branding aspect.


Representation at Events

• John Humenik represented CoSIDA at several meetings/presentations/events associated with the BCS National Championship Game.

• Humenik represented CoSIDA at the American Football Coaches Association Convention in Orlando on Jan. 10-11.

• Humenik represented CoSIDA at the annual NCAA Convention in Atlanta from Jan. 12-15. Rich Herman (Clarion, President of DII-SIDA), Bill Wager (DePauw, President of DIII-SIDA) and Eric McDowell (Union College-NY, Chair of CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Committee), also attended this convention.

•  Humenik represented CoSIDA at the annual Mid-Year Conference of NACDA affiliated organizations on January 30-Feb. 1 in Marco Island, Fla.


NCAA Convention/Divisional Initiatives

•  John Humenik, Rich Herman (Clarion- President of DII-SIDA), Bill Wagner (DePauw- President of DIII-SIDA) and Eric McDowell (Union College- Chair of CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Committee) attended the annual NCAA Convention in Atlanta in mid-January. That group participated in the following meetings which were set up in November and December via various pro-active approaches and inquires by these CoSIDA leaders:

          --Met with Erik Christianson, Director of NCAA Public & Media Relations, to discuss various ways to jointly work together with the NCAA national staff and the collegiate community at-large to advance CoSIDA strategic initiatives and NCAA strategic initiatives.

          --Met with Mike Racy (VP of NCAA DII) to discuss ways that the leadership of CoSIDA and DII-SIDA could better work together for joint benefit purposes.

          --Met with the DII Conference Commissioners Group and relayed our interest in becoming a bigger resource to them as they help Division II deal with a growing number of communications-based challenges.

          --Met with Roberta Page, Director of NCAA Championships, to review several matters of concern as they relate to communications directors at the DII and DIII levels (examples: score reporting and roster size limitations for NCAA championship printed programs). Was agreed that the next appropriate step would be to hold a joint conference call on this matter to include reps from NCAA Championships, NCAA Statistics, DII and DIII- SIDA, DII ADA, DII Conference Commissioners and the DII Conference PR Department.

          --At the invitation of the DII Athletics Directors Association, the group attended a private reception of that association. Discussions here resulted in a desire to work on a panel presentation for DII and DIII attendees for the 2011 NCAA Convention in San Antonio that would highlight several AD’s who have been college division-level information and communications directors and have those AD’s relay during that session the value and resource that our communications professionals can, and do, provide. Was agreed it would be better to have the ADs make this presentation to others within the DII and DIII community rather than current communications directors so that it did not come across as self-serving.

         --Met with Dan Dutcher (VP of NCAA DIII) after he and the NCAA DIII national staff unveiled the DIII’s new branding identity initiative to a large group of DIII membership. Bill Wagner was invited to come to this unveiling as a “thank-you” for the efforts of himself and other Board leaders within DIII-SIDA (Dave Wrath, Larry Happel and Eric McDowell) in this initiative. That group took part in a conference call with the NCAA DIII leadership in Indianapolis in early November at which time they were given an advance look at the branding identity initiative and provided several thoughts/ideas. That conference call was deemed most beneficial and led to Dan extending an invite to Bill Wagner (which he accepted) that the DIII-SIDA Board of Directors be used as a strategic advisory group for the NCAA DIII leadership on this initiative moving forward.

•  A few days after the NCAA Convention, Erik Christianson sent a note to Executive Director John Humenik which said: “CoSIDA leadership took advantage of their time at the NCAA Convention to continue to position its members as strategic communicators with key leaders. Conversations with Mike Racy, NCAA Division II vice president, and Dan Dutcher, NCAA Division III vice president, led to better connections with them. In turn, both vice presidents shared the good progress the divisions have made with CoSIDA with their presidents councils. Overall, this is a very positive result for CoSIDA as it continues to evolve as an organization, demonstrating that those working in athletics communications and sports information are and can be key influencers on their campuses, within their conferences and in the Association as a whole.”

•  A committee of DI Communications Directors [CoSIDA Board members Justin Doherty of Wisconsin, Charles Bloom of the SEC, Nick Joos of Baylor and Joe Browning of UNC Wilmington) participated in a teleconference with the DI Amateurism Cabinet on Jan. 16. They provided input to that Cabinet as the Cabinet evaluates and then determines a specific list of issues that institutions at the DI level can and cannot do as it specifically relates to the use(s) of a student-athlete’s likeness.

        [This opportunity came about as a result of a direct request by John Humenik and
Justin Doherty in November when this Cabinet announced that they would be coordinating this discussion. That call on Jan. 16th went very well and resulted in Rachel Newman, the NCAA staff liaison to the DI Amateurism Cabinet, sending a letter to this CoSIDA group requesting the opportunity for additional conferences on this matter. She said at that time, “Yesterday's discussion validated the importance of having CoSIDA provide feedback/input throughout this process and we look forward to a continued partnership in that regard.]

•  John Humenik and Justin Doherty continued to work with Petrina Long (UCLA), Chair of the Division I Recruiting Cabinet. Long recently informed John Humenik that she accepts CoSIDA’s recent request that CoSIDA participate in discussions that Cabinet will be having in the next few months 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, it will seek feedback from various constituent groups within the DI membership, including CoSIDA.

•  On Jan. 28th, Bill Wager (DePauw), President of DIII-SIDA , Eric McDowell (Union), Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, as well as other members of the Board of Directors of DIII-SIDA, participated on a conference call with Dan Dutcher, VP for NCAA DIII, and Leah Kareti, NCAA Director for DIII, to discuss the NCAA Division III branding initiative that was introduced to the NCAA Division III membership at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta on Jan. 15. DIII-SIDA took part in a conference call with this NCAA leadership group in early November and provided their thoughts at that time as it related to the initiative.

     The input of the DIII-SIDA group was received at that time in a most positive manner and as a result Dan Dutcher requested that the Board of Directors of DIII-SIDA act as a strategic advisory group to the NCAA DIII leadership group on this initiative moving forward.

•  At the invitation of NACDA Deputy Executive Director Bob Vecchione, John Humenik represented CoSIDA at a Jan. 30th reception at the NACDA Mid-Year Meeting in Marco Island which included the Presidents/Executive Directors for the following organizations: Minority Opportunities Athletics Assoc. (MOAA), Division I-A Athletic Directors Assoc. (DI-A ADA), Football Championship Subdivision Athletic Directors Assoc. (FCS ADA), Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Assoc. (DI- AAA ADA), Division II Athletic Directors Assoc. (DII ADA), Division III Athletic Directors Assoc. (DIII ADA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Center for Spectator Sport Safety and Security (NC4S), College Athletics Business Management Assoc. CABMA), National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) , National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD), Collegiate Event and Facility Management Assoc. (CEFMA), International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA), National Association of Two Year College Athletic Administrators (NATYAA), National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC) and the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).


Marketing/PR Based Initiatives

•  President Justin Doherty contributed a “CoSIDA Corner” column for the February issue of NACDA’s Athletics Administration Magazine, his fourth column in this regard since the start of the current academic year. His column, “What’s Your Athletics Department’s Brand?”, discussed the development of CoSIDA’s new strategic logo and branding platform (“CoSIDA- Strategic Communicators for College Athletics”). Each issue of NACDA’s monthly magazine is sent to over 10,000 university and athletics administrators and “CoSIDA Corner” provides a key opportunity for our organization’s voice, thoughts and expertise with these key constituents. Doherty’s most recent “CoSIDA Corner” column can be viewed HERE: http://cosida.com/news/2010/1/28/0128101335_6068.aspx

•  In addition to the general CoSIDA Twitter account (www.twitter.com/CoSIDAnews) with 560-plus followers and 900+ tweets since August (all postings are informational or linking directly to an article/feature), CoSIDA’s Academic All-America® Committee has introduced two social media tools: a Twitter account (aaacosida, found at www.twitter.com/aaacosida) and a Facebook page (www.facebook/aaacosida). CoSIDA members are encouraged to follow all CoSIDA news on these social media communication tools.

•  At the BCS National Championship Game, the leadership of the Football Writers Association and CoSIDA discussed a possible joint project regarding putting all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) - and perhaps FCS (Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) - media guides on one CD/DVD for easy media distribution, etc. The FWAA did this the past year and is looking to partner on the project. Our CoSIDA leadership noted that perhaps this could be a good PR initiative as well as a replacement for the CoSIDA printed Directory, which CoSIDA no longer prints and mails to media members. (CoSIDA’s E-Directory is available online and in a PDF format to download).

•  Barb Kowal continued to 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. She also continued to work with the staff of ICS with regard to this full website redesign that will now likely be launched in late spring/early summer prior to the CoSIDA Convention.

        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, Ann King (Sage Colleges)- FAME) as well as 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 and Rod Williamson (Vanderbilt), Chair of Senior Athletic Communications Committee; along with Larry Dougherty (Temple), Nick Joos (Baylor) and John Paquette (Big East) of the CoSIDA Board.

•  Over the month of January, 17 CoSIDA-based articles and/or features appeared in 20 NACDA Daily E-mail blasts and five on the NCAA Daily E-mail Blast. Due to this effort, several thousands of university and athletics administrators are being exposed to professional and organizational news that primarily only appeared on the CoSIDA website in the past and was thus only viewed by our membership.

•  In January, 48 articles or feature stories were posted on our organizational website (www.CoSIDA.com); there were 192 Twitter postings on CoSIDA’s Twitter page, with each post linking to a article/feature/commentary/breaking news stories pertinent to collegiate athletic PR professionals.

•  Barb Kowal continued to work with a committee that will work on developing a presentation plan and materials for our appearance at the NCAA Student-Athlete Career Forum in Indianapolis this coming mid-May. Members of that committee include Lawrence Fan, Chair of the Job Seekers Committee, as well as Board members AnnMarie Person (Atlantic 10) and Blake Timm (Pacific University). Other CoSIDA members who expressed interest in assisting with the Student-Athlete Career Forum include: Aaron DeWall (University of Nevada) and Guy Harrison (Eckerd College). If any other CoSIDA members would like to work with this committee, please contact Barb Kowal (barbkowal@cosida.com).


Committee Based

• Justin Doherty and John Humenik finalized plans to have 2009-10 Committee chairs provide, both in writing and via participation on a February conference call with the Board, a progress/status update on their committees at mid-year. Each Chair will discuss where the committee is in relation to the specific goals and objectives they provided to the Board this past August.

•  3rd VP Tom DiCamillo (Central Arizona College/Pac West Conference), along with Tam Flarup (Wisconsin) of the Special Awards Committee, had their first meeting of the full committee. They began the process of developing timelines with regard to the nomination and selection processes for Hall of Fame and other Special Awards to be presented at the July CoSIDA Convention in San Francisco. All nomination forms have been sent to CoSIDA’s membership for nominations and the complete nomination process is now online. Members may nominate using their CoSIDA login and password here: http://cosida.com/Awards/index.aspx. MARCH 2nd IS THE FINAL DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS FOR ALL CoSIDA SPECIAL AWARDS AND FOR THE HALL OF FAME.

•  Bob Noss (Wright State), Chair of the Ethics Committee, provided Justin Doherty a first draft of a rewrite and updated version of CoSIDA’s Code of Ethics document. This will be reviewed by the Board which will work with Bob on any possible language changes/revisions. When that document is eventually approved by the Board, it will then be presented to the entire membership for review and input.

•  The Goodwill Committee, chaired by Sam Atkinson of Gallaudet University, worked with the Board leadership to prepare a release encouraging CoSIDA membership support for the Hatti Relief Fund.


Fund Raising-Sponsorships

•  Final fund-raising assignments have been determined for Board members and appropriate contact letters and timelines have been put into place for this process over the course of the next several months. All staff and Board members involved in this solicitation process are to make initial written contact with their assigned organizational/firm contacts no later than the first week of February and then follow up with a personal phone call if appropriate.

•  During his various trips in the month of January to represent CoSIDA, John Humenik visited with dozens of organizations/firms that attended the BCS National Championship Game, American Football Coaches Association Convention, NCAA Convention, NACDA Mid-Year Meeting; he discussed CoSIDA and our convention in San Francisco and explained the opportunity to be part of our Tradeshow and/or sponsorship opportunities.


Convention Matters

•  CoSIDA Treasurer 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 early/mid February.

• 1st VP Larry Dougherty (Temple) anticipates that the first draft of the general schedule for the convention will be posted on CoSIDA.com by mid-February.

•  As coordinator of the Convention Workshop in his 1st VP role, Larry Dougherty has announced that programming for the San Francisco Convention will be focused each day on a general concept. Monday, July 5th will concentrate on “Best Practices and Solutions”; Tuesday July 6th will be “Strategic Communications Day”; and Wednesday, July 7th is “Digital Summit Day”. General membership conferences those particular days will be focused on each of those respective topical concepts. More specifics will be announced by the Programming Committee over the course of the next month or so.

•  ESPN has agreed to host a reception at the San Francisco Convention on Monday, July 5th- late afternoon/early evening.

•  FOX, ESPN and CBS have all agreed to provide a representative to participate in a panel discussion at the convention’s “Digital Summit Day” on Wednesday, July 7th. Those representatives will focus on a topic dealing with “Where is television and the TV based mediums heading in the next five years?”

• Barb Kowal, who will serve as Convention Coordinator, is in the process of putting together additional planning meetings with the Hall of Fame Gala organizing committee for this event which will take place on the evening of July 6th. Inductions that evening will take place for the 2010 CoSIDA Hall of Fame and the 2010 Academic All-America Hall of Fame in a first-ever joint induction dinner. The last teleconference with this Committee took place on January 28. Committee members include: John Humenik; Board members Rob Knox (Kutztown), Joe Browning (UNC Wilmington) and Jeff Hodges (North Alabama) along with Academic All-America Committee associate chair/external operations Bernie Cafarelli (Notre Dame) and Jim Seavey (Massachusetts Maritime), vice-chair of AAA marketing/Hall of Fame operations.

Survey Related

• Dr. Heather Barber of the Univ. of New Hampshire informed John Humenik during the month that she anticipates that by early February she will have for our Board an executive summary of a CoSIDA membership-wide survey which took place last April. Over 700 members of our organization participated in that survey project which dealt with a membership-wide and divisional specific data collection. That survey included a professional background questionnaire as well as two questionnaires examining work-related pressures that are being experienced by sports information/communications personnel.


Membership Webinars/Conference Calls

•  Eric McDowell (Union College), Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, moderated a membership conference call on Jan. 26th which featured a Q&A with CoSIDA 3rd VP Tom DiCamillo (Central Arizona College/PacWest Conference). The call also included a full update on various initiatives that have taken place over the past few months that have specifically benefited DII and DIII. A total of 175 participants were involved in the teleconference.

•  Barb Kowal worked with Mark Fratto (St. John’s) and Bob Lowe (Greensboro College and Chair of CoSIDA’s New Media/Technology Committee) to put together a conference call/webinar for Tuesday, Feb. 9 that is titled “Digital Technology in the Workplace. ” This call will feature Philip Nelson, Senior VP for Strategic Development at NewTek. These three will discuss topics that revolve around overseeing and developing video and digital product launches which are affordable for athletics departments.

•  Barb Kowal is close to finalizing a membership teleconference for February 23 or 24 that will focus on what professors in Communications/Journalism schools see as educational trends for the new generation of media representatives. 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; Chris Taylor, instructor of telecommunications sports at Ball State University and BSU’s former director of athletic communications/marketing; and Malcolm Moran, former award-winning sports journalist who is now the Knight Chair of Sports Journalism and Society at Penn State University. More information on this session will be forthcoming in the next week or so.

•  Barb Kowal and John Humenik are having discussions with FOX Sports Interactive about a potential conference call/webinar that would revolve around the topics/issues associated with social-based media and what a media organization such as FOX Sports Interactive sees in the immediate future for this growing phenomena. FOX Sports Interactive is a major CoSIDA sponsor for the 2009-10 year.

Miscellaneous

•  A conference call has been set up for early February that will select the 2010 CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame Class. That class will be inducted on July 6th at CoSIDA’s Hall of Fame Gala event in San Francisco.

•  ESPN has informed CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik that it has decided to pass on the specific sponsorship rights for the “Academic All-America Hall of Fame.” As a result, CoSIDA once again controls sole ownership of those specific rights. Humenik is now beginning the process of seeking a corporate partner for this specific rights property of the AAA program. ESPN did renew the specific rights for the “teams program” aspect of the AAA program and they now holds those specific rights through June 30th, 2011.

•  ECLARO Sports, a sports executive search and placement firm, approached John Humenik at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta about the possibility of that group working with the CoSIDA leadership and membership in the future to create a data base of communications professionals in the intercollegiate sports industry that ECLARO could then provide to school’s /AD’s as a “reference resource” when they are seeking to fill positions in the communications-based areas at their schools. Additional talks will likely be held about this possibility as this is something that could benefit both our individual members as well as continue to aid CoSIDA in its drive to be viewed as organization that is a resource to the intercollegiate community at-large.

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).

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 for our organization.


Justin Doherty, University of Wisconsin
2010 CoSIDA President
jmd@athletics.wisc.edu


John Humenik
CoSIDA Executive Director
jhumenik@bellsouth.net