TO: CoSIDA Membership
FR: Justin Doherty, 2009-10 CoSIDA President; John Humenik, Executive Director; Barb Kowal, Director of External Affairs
RE: Recap of Board of Director and leadership group initiatives and activities for month of April
We hope this newsletter finds each of you well as you move full speed ahead into the final months of the spring sports season. Despite how busy you are, we hope you will take a few moments to review this report on initiatives that have taken place at the CoSIDA leadership levels during the month of April.
We also are providing members with a listing of
CoSIDA Membership Calendar & Deadlines (for May) in this newsletter. Please find the calendar/deadline information below and also online at www.CoSIDA.com
HERE and look below for the full schedule of May events/deadlines.
Constitution Revision
• On April 1st,
CoSIDA Secretary Jeff Hodges (North Alabama) provided to the Board the fourth full draft revision and update of the organization’s constitution. Once the Board approves a full draft, this updated/revised version of the constitution will be posted on CoSIDA.com for review and input by the membership. The revised document will be voted on at the annual CoSIDA Business Meeting, held July 7th in San Francisco.
CoSIDA Leadership Visit to NCAA National Office
• On April 15 and 16, a seven person leadership contingent visited the NCAA national office in Indianapolis for a series of joint and divisional-based meetings that
John Humenik and NCAA
Director of Public Relations and Media Relations Erik Christianson developed and planned over the course of the past several months.
Humenik sent to Christianson, on April 11th, a document that provided a description of the Board’s main initiatives/priorities this past year and a list of accomplishments/achievements in each area. This was then provided to all NCAA staff members the CoSIDA group would visit with so that they were aware of our priorities and initiatives.
•
The CoSIDA Board leadership contingent included President Justin Doherty (Wisconsin), First VP Larry Dougherty (Temple), Barb Kowal (Director of External Affairs) and Executive Director John Humenik as well as Eric McDowell (Union), Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, Rich Herman (Clarion), President of DII-SIDA, and Bill Wagner (DePauw), President of DIII-SIDA. • Over the course of meetings on April 15-16 the CoSIDA contingent met in groups or individually with the following members of the NCAA staff:
David Berst- VP of Division I; Gary Brown, Director of NCAA News and Champion Magazine; Erik Christianson, Director of Public and Media Relations; Dennis Cryder, Senior Vice-President of Branding and Communications; Dan Dutcher, Vice President of Division III; Michelle Hosick, Associate Director of NCAA News and Champion Magazine; Leah Kareti, Director of Division III; David Lovell, Associate Director of Brand Strategy and Events; Stacey Osburn, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations; David Pickle, Managing Director of Publishing; Mike Racy, Vice President of Division II; Ronnie Ramos, Managing Director of New Media Strategies and Content Development; Wally Renfro, Vice President and Senior Advisor to the President;
also: Jo Jo Rinebold, Managing Director of Brand Strategy and Events; Jennifer Royer, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations; Damon Schoening, Director of Brand Strategy and Events; Terri Steeb, Director of Division II; Bob Williams, Managing Director of Public and Media Relations; Jim Wright, Director of Statistics; Chuck Wynne, Director of Communications Strategy. • CoSIDA/NCAA participated in the following meetings over the course of two days:- On Thursday evening, the 15th, the entire CoSIDA contingent had a working dinner with members of the NCAA Communications and Branding departments. The focus of the discussion was an overview of NCAA Public and Media Relations, new media, brand strategies and publishing. There was also a thorough discussion regarding CoSIDA’s current strategic branding efforts and NCAA feedback on those initiatives.
- On Friday, the 16th from 8- 9 am,
Erik Christianson and Bob Williams presented and discussed NCAA communication priorities for 2010. From 9- 10 am,
Justin Doherty and John Humenik led a CoSIDA-based presentation to the NCAA staff regarding an update on progress of its stated initiatives for 2009-10 year, CoSIDA benefits gained to date from its new partnership with NACDA and CoSIDA Board priorities with regard to initiatives for 2010-11 academic year. There was also some discussion relative to a role that the NCAA could play/assist as CoSIDA continues to transition into a pro-active strategic communicators resource role for the benefit of its membership and the college athletics community at-large.
Closing out the April 16th morning meetings were several “breakout” sessions were conducted simultaneously.
Justin Doherty and Larry Dougherty met with David Berst, Chuck Wayne and Michelle Hosick of the DI management staff, with Erik Christianson and Bob Williams joining that session as well.
Rich Herman met with Mike Racy, Teri Steeb and Stacey Osburn of the DII staff and
Bill Wagner and Eric McDowell visited with Dan Dutcher, Leah Kareti, Jennifer Royer, Jo Jo Rinebold and David Lovell of the DIII management staff. In all cases, the discussions dealt with ways that the CoSIDA divisional leadership groups at the DI, DII and DIII could work better and more effectively with their counterparts at the NCAA. Also during this two-hour time block,
CoSIDA External Affairs Director Barb Kowal held discussions with Gary Brown, Ronnie Ramos and Jim Wright relative to joint efforts/benefits in the areas of communications, new media and statistical-based.
Marketing/ PR Based
•
President Justin Doherty contributed his monthly “CoSIDA Corner” column for the April issue of NACDA’s Athletics Administration Magazine, his sixth column in this regard since the start of the current academic year. Justin focuses in our new branding/website initiatives and outreach and how CoSIDA is continuing to expand its role as a strategic communications group. 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 on CoSIDA.com:
http://cosida.com/news/2010/4/3/0403104239_2822.aspx .
• On April 1st,
Barb Kowal provided the members of 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) a link to a fourth draft of CoSIDA’s new website redesign concept- both front page and inside page looks. This redesign concept was developed by the staff of ICS- a major CoSIDA corporate partner and the organization’s website administrator. All committee members were asked at that time to provide their thoughts/ideas/concepts to Barb for potential development as she continues to work with ICS to launch the new site on June 1st.
The Strategic Branding 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. During the month, the final redesign plan was finalized and approved and Kowal worked with the ICS staff to build the new graphic elements and page templates, trained on a new content management system, and began the process of transferring all website pages/files/information into the new web format. As mentioned above, it is the plan of this committee is to have this full redesigned website launched by June 1 so that the membership can review prior to the San Francisco Convention at which time Barb hopes to gain further suggestions/input that might be implemented in July so that any such changes could be fully implemented by August 1st.
•
Over the month of April, 22 CoSIDA-based stories appeared on NACDA’s Daily Review email blast (in a total of 22 daily email blasts for the month) and four on the daily NCAA News Direct e-mail distribution. 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 addition, articles on Division I Academic All-America men’s and women’s basketball performers playing in the NCAA Championship appeared on numerous basketball-specific websites.
• During the month of April, 45 articles were posted on our organizational website
(www.CoSIDA.com). In addition, the CoSIDA Twitter page (
www.twitter.com/CoSIDAnews) had 186 tweets/postings, all of an informative nature with breaking news and timely topics for athletic communication professionals.
•
Eric McDowell (Union), Chair of CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Committee, participated on a conference call on April 11th with the
NCAA’s National Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SACC). As part of CoSIDA’s leadership group that attended the NCAA Convention in January, Eric held conversations with some students from SACC that also attended that event. After some additional conversations in February, Eric was then invited by
Maricela Shukie of the NCAA Educational Affairs Department to visit with SACC on their next national conference call- April 11th. Eric reviewed the desire for our groups to work together and the benefits that SID’s can do to help the campus SAAC and vice-versa. It was further indicated to Eric that this group is interested in developing a relationship with CoSIDA that could lead to a presentation to the SAAC students at their meetings at the annual NCAA convention. Eric, as part of his visit to the NCAA national office with a CoSIDA leadership group, held a follow-up meeting with Maricela Shukie on April 16.
Divisional-Based Initiatives
• Rich Herman (Clarion), President of DII-SIDA, worked with
Mike Racy, VP of NCAA DII, Eric Schoh, VP of DII-ADA, Jim Naumovich, Chair of the DII Conference Commissioners, Eric McDowell and John Humenik to see if some of the NCAA enhancement grant money that goes to all DII conferences could be used to help communications/information directors offset costs of attending the San Francisco convention that includes a number of key DII sessions.
•
Herman conducted two conference calls of the DII-SIDA Board during the month. The April 7th
.jpg?id=2840)
call, which also included
Eric Schoh (a VP for DII-ADA group), primarily concentrated on a discussion of starting to compile a “working checklist” for communications directors to work with on campus as it relates to executing the “I Choose DII” branding campaign as well as a discussion of other topics for Rich, John Humenik and Eric McDowell to present during meetings in Indianapolis with the NCAA on April 15-16. The April 27th call concentrated on a review of meetings at the NCAA, which included a two-and-half hour DII based meeting with
DII VP Mike Racy. That call also discussed dates in late July/early August that Rich could hold a full DII membership conference call with Mike Racy to discuss a variety of DII matters.
• On April 9th,
Rich Herman, Eric McDowell and John Humenik participated on a conference call with several national DII leadership group representatives (
Mike Racy- NCAA VP for DII, Eric Schoh- DII-Athletic Directors Assoc. and Bob Fortosis- DII Management Council).
Erik Christianson, Stacey Osburn, David Pickle and Teri Steeb of the NCAA staff also participated. Focus of the call was for Rich to update this group on the DII-SIDA Board working on developing a specific checklist for communications directors to use to carry out the DII “I Choose DII” branding initiative at the campus and conference level. There were also discussions that related to CoSIDA Board and DII divisional leadership meetings in Indianapolis the following week as well as plans for Mike Racy, Eric Schoh and Bob Fortosis in terms of their presentation to the DII membership at the CoSIDA convention in San Francisco on July 6th.
• On April 12th,
John Humenik sent a letter to
Dan Dutcher, VP of DIII at the NCAA, asking that he and the NCAA DIII staff consider adopting a “Communications Directors Institute” for DIII along the lines of the “Institute” that has recently been developed for the DIII Faculty Athletic Representatives. The “ NCAA Division III Faculty Athletics Representative Institute” was recently established and will kick-off this October with three days of meetings and training sessions in Indianapolis.
An April 8th story in the
NCAA News said the Institute,
“Provides a forum for FAR’s from all DIII conferences to discuss the role and responsibilities of the FAR on campus and share common experiences and best practices to enhance their contribution to DIII intercollegiate athletics." Humenik indicated, with the support of Bill Wagner (DePauw), President of DIII-SIDA, and Eric McDowell (Union), Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, that such an “Institute” for communications directors would appear to be most timely due to the recent (January
2010) adopting of a DIII branding identity campaign by the NCAA staff and DIII athletics community.
It was indicated to Mr. Dutcher that such an “ NCAA Division III Communications Director Institute” would greatly aid the NCAA DIII national staff in training communications directors on “ best practices and strategic tactics ” to not only tell “the appropriate DIII story on their campus and in their community “ but better assure that the specific strategic plan that is needed to advance branding and communications-based initiatives at the DIII divisional level are effectively carried out at both the conference and campus level. Dan indicated, during meetings with the CoSIDA leadership in Indianapolis later that week, that this has some merit and deserves more conversation between DIII-SIDA and NCAA DIII staff.
• Over the course of the month,
Charles Bloom (SEC), who serves as Chair of the University Management Advisory Committee, and John Humenik continued to refine the formation of three specific Division I SIDA organizations: FBS- SIDA, FCS-SIDA and D1AAA-SIDA. Each of the three organizations would be composed of one representative from each of the conferences that compose each of those specific divisional groups. A President/Chair will lead each of those three groups and they will join Charles on the Executive Committee for the University Division Management Advisory Committee. The plan is to finalize this management structure at the DI level prior to the convention and use the convention to start putting objectives and initiatives into place. The leadership of DI felt it was appropriate to go to this divisional leadership model based on the success that other divisional leadership groups- specifically DII-SIDA and DIII-SIDA – displayed over the course of this past year.
• On April 21st,
John Humenik sent a letter to
Petrina Long, Chair of the NCAA DI Recruiting Cabinet, indicating that CoSIDA’s DI leadership feels it would be appropriate for CoSIDA to participate in that Cabinet’s discussion of the “communications component” in regard to a review and possible development of a new recruiting-based model for Division I. The DI Recruiting Cabinet has announced that it is seeking feedback as it relates to four main areas of recruiting (evaluations, communications, campus visits and offers of aid) as it looks into perhaps developing this new model for that division.
Humenik indicated in his letter that, “Coaches request and demand much of communications-based professionals in today’s recruiting ‘communications environment.” As such, we are significantly impacted by discussions and decisions in the areas that your group will be reviewing and would thus appreciate the opportunity to assist your group as a resource in this discussion and evaluation as it specifically relates to the “communications aspects” of your review.”
• On April 27th,
Eric McDowell (Union), Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, conducted a conference call with that group which included
Rich Herman, President of DII-SIDA, Bill Wagner, President of DIII-SIDA, Jay Stancil, representing NAIA-SIDA, and Jack Neumann, representing CIS (Canada). Eric opened the call by
congratulating Jay on the fact that he will receive the Ike Pearson Award as the outstanding NAIA SID on July 3 at the NAIA meetings at Menlo College. Eric also congratulated
Kent Cherrington (Plymouth State) as Kent will receive the
Irving T. Marsh Award at ECAC-SIDA’s convention.
Rich reviewed his meetings in Indianapolis, including his meetings with Mike Racy and the Division II leadership, while Bill also reviewed his meetings with Dan Dutcher and the Division III leadership. Both joined Eric to discuss the tremendous progress that CoSIDA has built with the NCAA thanks to John Humenik’s work with NCAA Director of PR Erik Christiansen. Eric also talked about meetings with Jim Wright of NCAA Statistics and Maricela Shukie, who is the NCAA’s SAAC representative and director.
Jay, speaking for
Sam Ghrist (Eastern Oregon), talked about the meetings that the
NAIA will hold for their SIDs at Menlo College on July 3, the day before the start of the
CoSIDA convention. Jack mentioned that he expects close to 10 Canadian SIDs to attend the CoSIDA Convention. He also stated that it would be good if the organization could have a representative attend a convention of SIDs that will be held in Canada in June. Eric requested details and stated that he would alert John to check his schedule. The final part of the call involved the discussion of college-based programming for the San Francisco convention. A total of 14 different panel thoughts were decided upon. These will be presented to the CDMAC members for voting and the top four (or three, depending upon time allowed during the convention) will be presented to
1st VP Larry Dougherty and Dennis O’Donnell (University of Rochester) of the Programming Committee, to slot in for the college break-out programming.
•
John Humenik is working with the
PR Directors for all Division I conferences to provide them with a document that will recap and review the CoSIDA Board and DI leadership progress relative to various initiatives over the course of the 2009-10 academic year. This document would then be provided to each conference PR Director for distribution to appropriate league PR Directors prior to their respective spring meetings. This was done first by
Mike Finn (ACC Associate Commissioner) during the ACC spring meeting on April 29th.
2010 San Francisco Convention Matters
•
The 2010 CoSIDA Convention takes place July 4-7 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. You are cordially welcomed, and encouraged, to attend.
The CoSIDA convention online registration system (supported and developed by
Sports Systems) is available and can be accessed here:
http://www.sportssystems.com/clients/cosida/.
Marriott Marquis Convention room reservations are now being accepted. CoSIDA has a
direct hotel reservation link for room reservations (just $129 per night); please use this link to receive the CoSIDA room rate here:
https://resweb.passkey.com/go/cosida2010 .
• You can get a
full updated copy of the current San Francisco Convention schedule online
HERE (or click on the CoSIDA Convention graphic on the main page of this website).
Among the Convention highlights:
- Sunday (July 4th)- Welcome Reception in Exhibitors Hall from noon to 1:30 pm.; divisional-based meetings, committee meetings and programming throughout the afternoon.
- Monday (July 5th) – Designated as “Best Practices Day”Programming to date: Writing for the Web Seminar -Don Ranly, Ph.D., professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism;
Kickoff Luncheon (sponsored by ICS, TRZ Sports, Sports Systems, Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award); a
credentials issues-based panel; and evening
ESPN Reception.
- Tuesday (July 6th) – Designated as “Strategic Communicators Day”Programming to date: Strategic Messaging panel –
Ari Fleischer (former White House press secretary); Crisis Communications panel –
Ben Porritt (Outside Eyes);
NCAA Strategic Planning panel -Erik Christianson (NCAA Director of Public and Media Relations); NCAA Division II Strategic Positioning Platform – Mike Racy, NCAA Vice President for Division II; NCAA Division III Strategic Positioning Platform – Dan Dutcher, NCAA Vice President for Division III; Awards Luncheon (with
keynote speaker Ari Fleischer), with Luncheon sponsored by CBS College Sports Network, ASAP Sports, Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award;
The Ever-Changing Role of the SID panel; and the evening
Hall of Fame Gala Academic - All-America Hall of Fame and CoSIDA Hall of Fame Induction dinner (sponsored by ESPN and the NCAA).
- Wednesday (July 7th)- Designated as "Digital Summit Day"Programming to date: Social Networking panel (David Perry & Associates - a full service strategic communications, marketing, public and media relations firm in San Francisco);
The Changing Face of Television (panelists to include executives from CBS, ESPN, FOX, CollegeFanz);
Being Your Own Media panel; and
Farewell Happy Hour Reception (sponsored by Rose Bowl Game, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Heisman Memorial Trophy).
•
Ron Franklin of ESPN has agreed to be the Master of Ceremonies for the Hall of Fame Gala on Tuesday evening, July 6th.
• PLEASE NOTE: Committee chairs, conference PR directors and Presidents of CoSIDA affiliated groups interested in putting together specific meetings at the convention in San Francisco should send an email in that regard to both Larry Dougherty (larrydoc@temple.edu) and Barb Kowal (barbkowal@cosida.com). Please indicate the date you would like to hold such a meeting (July 4-5), the time and the likely size of your group. Larry and Barb will then work with CoSIDA’s master meeting room space schedule to try and accommodate your request.
These requests should be provided no later than May 10th.
Academic All-America Related Issues
• In April, nominations were solicited and balloting began for
ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® baseball and softball University and College Division honors. The
voting period for All-District baseball/softball honors ends
Tuesday, May 4 (6 pm Eastern). In addition, the
nomination period for the
Academic All-America at-large program (men’s and women’s, both divisions) is open through May 4.
• On April 15th
John Humenik and President Justin Doherty (Wisconsin) met in Indianapolis with
Peter Davis of the NCAA’s Corporate Alliance Department to discuss CoSIDA’s Academic All-America Hall of Fame “property” and to make him aware that if they felt appropriate, the NCAA could present this as “available inventory” on CoSIDA’s behalf going forward in discussions with current or future NCAA corporate partners. John and Justin also updated him on all aspects of the Academic All-America program as it related to corporate sponsorship history. Peter felt that due to the “brand”, and the interest of the NCAA in wanting to help advance that brand, that it would be appropriate for him to make current NCAA corporate partners aware of our discussions and thus perhaps assist CoSIDA in getting some doors opened to this group to hold further discussions on the merits of the Academic All-America program and specific elements within it such as the Hall of Fame.
• Based on the conversations that were held with the NCAA Corporate Alliance Department,
John Humenik approached
John von Stade, Senior VP at Sports Velocity and Entertainment, about him/that sports marketing firm being of assistance and co- representing CoSIDA’s Academic All-America program properties as it relates to potential presentations/discussions with NCAA corporate partners. Humenik worked closely with von Stade in the 1980’s and 90’s when the sports marketing firm Millsport coordinated GTE’s corporate sponsorship of CoSIDA’s Academic All-America program.
•
The Board and the leadership of the Academic All-America Committee want to remind all of its members that CoSIDA’s “Academic All-America” mark is federally registered. As such, all CoSIDA members must help the Board and AAA Committee monitor the wrongful use of this registered mark. If you see any other organizations, including coaches associations, using this registered mark, please contact AAA Chair Dick Lipe (Bentley College, rlipe@bentley.edu) and Executive Director John Humenik (jhumenik@bellsouth.net) immediately. We will then have our legal counsel,
Collegiate Images, follow-up with a letter regarding inappropriate infringement of our federally registered mark and they will be asked to “cease and desist” from future use of that mark. We also ask that information and communications directors be careful in their use of the “Academic All-America” mark. Several times over the course of the year we find that our own membership is using “Academic All-America” in releases that they prepare with regard to student-athletes receiving awards for academic achievement from other organizations when in fact those organizations refer to their awards as “All-Academic”, “Scholar- Athlete”, “Academic All-Star”, etc.
We ask that our own membership be cognizant of ONLY using “Academic All-America” in relation to CoSIDA’s program. It should not be used with any other program. There are no exceptions.
Awards
•
Jay Stancil, SID at Union College (Ky.), was selected as
NAIA’s 2010 Clarence “Ike” Pearson Award recipient, given annually to an outstanding NAIA sports information director.
• The schedule for presentation of the
annual CoSIDA awards at this year’s Convention has been announced by
CoSIDA 3rd VP Tom DiCamillo (Central Arizona College). The awards to be presented in San Francisco:
July 5th Luncheon: Lifetime Achievement, Rising Star, Keith Jackson, Warren Berg
July 6th Luncheon: Bob Kenworthy, Jake Wade, Arch Ward, Trailblazer, 25- Year Award
July 6th Hall of Fame Gala: CoSIDA Hall of Fame, Academic All-America Hall of Fame, Enberg Award, Lester Jordan Award.
Committee Related
• A second draft of an updated and revised
organizational/professional Code of Ethics was presented to the CoSIDA Board of Directors on April 1st by
Bob Noss (Wright State), Chair of CoSIDA’s Ethics Committee. Board member Dave Reed (Colorado College) made a motion on the Board call on April 1st that it be accepted and it was approved by unanimous vote. CoSIDA Secretary Jeff Hodges will be making this available to the membership via CoSIDA.com.
• On April 7th,
Lawrence Fan (San Jose State), Chair of CoSIDA’s Job Seekers Committee, working with John Humenik, sent a letter to
Corry Rush and Greg Aiello of the NFL Communications Department. Lawrence’s letter dealt with seeking to setup a call with Corry to try and finalize a process that Greg and John had discussed as part of the NFL’s partnership/sponsorship with CoSIDA. They agreed as part of that partnership that Lawrence’s committee could work with the NFL and its teams to put together 2-3 times a year a specific list of NFL PR internships/entry level positions throughout the league and Lawrence would email out that specific NFL based listing to our membership.
Webinars/Conference Calls
• John Humenik finalized plans with the
NFL Communications Department to have a
Tuesday, May 11 (11:30 am ET) continuing education conference call in which several PR Directors from the NFL will discuss with our interested membership how they are trying to deal with several communications-based issues that many in CoSIDA’s membership are already, or will be, facing in the near futu
re. It was one of the things that resulted from a meeting John and
Greg Aiello- VP of Communications for the NFL- had in New York in December that included a discussion with regard to how the NFL could better provide its PR expertise to CoSIDA and CoSIDA’s members.
This forthcoming joint conference call is entitled: Collegiate Communications-Based Issues and Challenges: An NFL Perspective. Presenters: Mike Signora (NFL Director of Media Relations and International Communications), Scott Berchtold (VP of Communications, Buffalo Bills), Mark Dalton (VP of Media Relations- Arizona Cardinals) and Tony Wylie (VP of Communications, Houston Texans).Moderator: CoSIDA President Justin Doherty (University of Wisconsin) Topics to be discussed:How the NFL PR leaders deal with various communications-based issues that many in CoSIDA’s membership are also, or will be, facing in the near future:
-Opportunities and challenges associated with the growth and impact of non-traditional media
-Importance of unified messaging
-Protecting media access- coaches and players
-Continued movement from printed to digital-based document
-Becoming your own competitive media and communications entity
To participate: Members will be able to listen to the teleconference (and participate by submitting questions in advance and during the conference). TRZ Communications/Teamline, CoSIDA’s partner and official conference all provider, will present this teleconference.
To listen online (via streaming audio), go to:
http://www.teamline.cc/teampage?teamcode=1184.
To listen via phone, please call: 216/502-3200 and enter '
team code': 1184 then choose "Live Event" from the menu.
ASAP Sports, CoSIDA’s official transcript service provider, will provide a full transcription of this call that will be posted on the website and emailed to membership after the completion of the conference.
TRZ Communications, CoSIDA sponsor, will be taping this session and making it available on both the CoSIDA website and the TRZ Teamline website following the teleconference.
Representation on National Conference Calls and at Events
•
Executive Director John Humenik represented CoSIDA at a April 2nd meeting in Indianapolis with the National Communicators Group (PR Directors for all bowl subdivision conferences, the NCAA, BCS and CoSIDA). Humenik used this time to inform this leadership group of upcoming CoSIDA continuing education calls with and he and
Charles Bloom (SEC) also presented and discussed a proposed
restructuring of CoSIDA’s University Division Management Advisory Committee which would have create the formation of three specific leadership groups within that umbrella; FBS-SIDA, FCS-SIDA and DIAAA-SIDA.
Humenik also reviewed the upcoming convention in terms of major programming aspects and the general timeline and encouraged this group to play an important leadership/mentoring role that is needed by attending, and encouraging attendance within their respective conferences.
•
John Humenik represented CoSIDA at the annual meeting of ConSIDA (Conference PR Directors for all of the Division I conferences) held in Indianapolis on April 3rd during the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Final Four. He reviewed various organizational and Division I initiatives over the course of the past several months. Encouraged this group to take a leadership role in building greater DI involvement within that division as it relates to CoSIDA.
• Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal represented CoSIDA at the annual meeting of ConSIDA (Conference PR Directors for all of the Division I conferences) held in San Antonio on April 4th during the NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four basketball championship. She spoke on the various CoSIDA organizational and Division I initiatives, also encouraged this group to take a leadership role in building greater DI involvement within CoSIDA and took ConSIDA recommendations and concerns under advisement.
Following the CoSIDA meetings April 15-16 in Indianapolis, Kowal followed up with the ConSIDA members on issues they raised and answers/explanations following those meetings.
Sponsorship/Fund Raising
• Over the course of April the following organizations made sponsorship pledges for the 2010 CoSIDA convention and 2010-11 academic year: ASAP Sports ($17,500), Liberty Mutual Sports Coach of the Year Award ($12,500), Rivals/Yahoo! Sports ($1750), AOL Fanhouse ($1000), Pursuant Sports ($1000), Big 12 Conference ($750), National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame ($750), American Football Coaches Association ($700), United States Basketball Writers Association ($500), Big East Conference ($500), Pac-10 Conference ($500), CollegePressBox.com ($500), Big Ten Conference ($500), American Baseball Coaches Association ($500), NCAA Football ($500) and ARA Sportsmanship Award ($500).
• ASAP Sports, as part of their 17,500 sponsorship renewal with CoSIDA for the 2010-11 academic year, will be designated as
CoSIDA’s “official transcript service provider.” ASAP will provide their transcript services for all CoSIDA membership-based continuing education conference calls/webinars for the 2010-11 academic year.
Miscellaneous
• John Humenik accepted an invitation from LaVelle Edwards, Chairman of the Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) National Sportsmanship of the Year Award, to serve on the 2010 Selection Committee for that award. The ARA Sportsmanship Award celebrates character, academics, athletics and leadership as they translate to sportsmanship on the football field. The award is presented annually to a NCAA Division I college football player who exemplifies sportsmanship both on and off the field. The current Selection Panel includes retired coaches such as Don James, Dick Macpherson, Don Nehlen, and Gene Stallings, along with Christine Brennan, USA Today; ARA President BJ Bailey; Steve Hatchell, President National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame; Bernie Kish, Former Executive Director ,College Football Hall of Fame; Lisa Malin, Executive Director, College Football Hall of Fame and Grant Teaff, Executive Director, American Football Coaches Association.
• Barb Kowal will be participating in a panel discussion at the annual ECAC-SIDA Convention held on June in North Falmouth, Massachusetts. That panel will take place on Thursday, June 10 and will feature selected members of the CoSIDA leadership [
1st VP Larry Dougherty of Temple, incoming 
President for 2010-11; John Paquette of the Big East Conference] discussing CoSIDA organizational initiatives and actions with the ECAC-SIDA membership. This panel will lead into the ECAC-SIDA Town Meeting #2, where CoSIDA officials will also be present to answer further questions and address further concerns.
May Calendar Schedule of Deadlines/Activities
• Tuesday, April 20 - Tuesday, May 4 At-large sports nominations for ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® All-District available online. Last day to nominate: May 4. See:
http://www.cosida.com/Awards/allamerica.aspx
• Tuesday, May 4Final day to vote for ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® All-District baseball and softball teams
• Tuesday, May 4 - Tuesday, May 18Track/cross country nominations for ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® All-District available online. Last day to nominate: May 18. See:
http://www.cosida.com/Awards/allamerica.aspx• Thursday, May 6ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Baseball & Softball All-District Teams announced
• Friday, May 7 - Tuesday, May 18Voting period for ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District at-large teams:
http://www.cosida.com/Awards/allamerica.aspx• Tuesday, May 11CoSIDA Membership Continuing Education Presentation/Teleconference with NFL Communications Pros
Topic: Collegiate Communications-Based Issues and Challenges: An NFL PerspectiveTime: 11:30 am Eastern/10:30 am Central/9:30 am Mountain/8:30 am Pacific
Featured Presenters: Mike Signora (NFL Director of Media Relations and International Communications), Scott Berchtold (VP of Communications, Buffalo Bills), Mark Dalton (VP of Media Relations- Arizona Cardinals) and Tony Wylie (VP of Communications, Houston Texans)
For more information, go to: http://cosida.com/news/2010/4/30/0430104946_9170.aspx• Tuesday, May 11 CoSIDA Scholarship: Fred Nuesch-Dave Wohlhueter Undergraduate Scholarships deadlineThere are two $2,500 scholarships awarded to outstanding undergraduate students working in sports information offices, and are named for former long-time CoSIDA secretary/digest editor Fred Nuesch and current treasurer Dave Wohlhueter.
For nomination form, go to: http://cosida.com/news/2009/12/14/1214095958_611.aspx • Thursday, May 20ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District At-Large Teams announced
• Friday, May 21-Tuesday, June 1Voting period for ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® All-District track/cross country teams
• Tuesday, May 25ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® National Baseball Teams announced
• Wednesday, May 26ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® National Softball Teams announced
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. 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 Wisconsin2010 CoSIDA President
jmd@athletics.wisc.edu
John HumenikCoSIDA Executive Director
jhumenik@bellsouth.net
Barb KowalCoSIDA Director of External Affairs
barbkowal@cosida.com