December 2011 Issue
Please link to the subheaders below which will take you to the different sections of the December 2011 e-newsletter where you can read more on each subject.
LInk to the Dec. E-Newsletter
• November 1-2, J
ohn Humenik, Barb Kowal and Will Roleson of the CoSIDA staff met with various members of the NACDA staff in Cleveland to review all aspects of our partnership. Discussion revolved around various aspects of the 2013 NACDA Convention in Orlando that CoSIDA will become a part of as CoSIDA joins other management associations throughout intercollegiate athletics. That 2013 Convention will become the largest and most influential gathering ever of administrators involved in all aspects of intercollegiate athletics.
• A “transition team” is being put into place by CoSIDA’s leadership to start to deal with various management and organizational matters associated with the joint June 2013 CoSIDA/NACDA convention in Orlando.
• As part of the 2009 spring partnership agreement signed with NACDA, CoSIDA’s leadership continues to provide a “CoSIDA Corner” for each of NACDA’s
Athletics Administration Magazine issue. The December column, penned by
former DII-SIDA President Rich Herman (Clarion) focuses on the Division II Communications model office and can be read
HERE.
Published in October, November, December, February, Mary, April, June and August, each NACDA Magazine issue is sent to 10,000-plus university and athletics administrators with CoSIDA’s voice, thoughts, and expertise being shared with these key constituents. This column, along with the NACDA Daily Review email blast, provides CoSIDA incredible and valued exposure with all management groups in intercollegiate athletics, something that it did not have prior to CoSIDA’s partnership agreement with NACDA a few years ago.
NCAA
• Executive Director John Humenik is working with
NCAA Director of Media and Public Relations Erik Christianson on details for CoSIDA’s leadership group which will attend the NCAA Convention in Indianapolis in mid-January.
President Tom Di Camillo (PacWest Conference), 1st VP Joe Hornstein (UCF), 3rd VP Eric McDowell (Union-N.Y.), Barb Kowal, Will Roleson and Humenik will compose the CoSIDA leadership contingent. This group will work throughout December to schedule meetings with various NCAA staff, NACDA staff as well as divisional AD and divisional commissioner based groups. Di Camillo is responsible for putting together Division II-specific meetings, McDowell for DIII meetings and Humenik/Hornstein will serve that role for DI. Humenik will coordinate various meetings with NCAA departments and NACDA staff.
• John Humenik recently sent a letter on behalf of the CoSIDA Board and CoSIDA’s various divisional leadership groups to
Greg Shaheen (Interim Executive VP for NCAA Championships and Alliances). The purpose of
that letter, which can be viewed HERE, was to indicate CoSIDA’s strong desire to establish a working relationship with the NCAA championships / alliances division so that communications/information directors will have the opportunity - via an advisory group - to help that NCAA department get needed input and advice from the communications directors in ADVANCE of decisions and advisories being sent out which impact our membership either directly or indirectly.
In early November, CoSIDA’s leadership became aware of an advisory sent by the NCAA/IMG regarding the decision to go to digital programs for many NCAA fall championship events starting in a few days (soccer, volleyball, field hockey). This led to many in our membership being upset about this decision having been made with no input from communications directors; in addition, CoSIDA members were upset that this information was relayed only a few days before schools were to host these championship events. Based on feedback from CoSIDA’s divisional leadership groups,
DiCamillo contacted IMG as well as
Mark Bedics at the NCAA Championships division on these issues.
Humenik has since worked with Shaheen and Bedics to set up a meeting January 11 during the NCAA Convention so that the CoSIDA contingent in attendance can discuss this matter with Shaheen and Bedics.
Jim Wright from NCAA Statistics and
NCAA Director of Public Relations and Media Relations Erik Christianson are also expected to attend.
• In addition, Humenik has set up a conference call with Bedics for December 13 to discuss with Presidents/Chairs of CoSIDA’s divisional leadership groups a proposed plan to form an advisory group - similar to what already exists with our leadership and the NCAA Statistics group - so that NCAA Championships/Alliances can use it to discuss matters and concerns while making decisions that impact communications directors and before correspondence is sent out. Participating on that call from CoSIDA will be
Blake Timm (Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee), Charles Bloom (Chair of the University Division Management Advisory Committee), Greg Goings (President of DII-SIDA), Larry Happel (President of DIII-SIDA), Tom Eiser (Chair of DI AAA MAC), Scottie Rodgers (Chair of FCS MAC) and Justin Doherty (Chair of FBS MAC).
North America Society of Sports Management (NASSM)
• Eric McDowell (Union, N.Y.), CoSIDA's 3rd VP, and CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik will hold discussions with Dr. Janet Fink, President of the North America Society for Sports Management (NASSM) on developing a joint partnership in a December 15 meeting in Hartford, Conn. The intent will be to enlist sports management programs around the nation to assist our profession with a grass-roots effort to better insure that they provide students with background, information and opportunities about the sports communications profession. There are 327 U.S. sport management programs.
Building such relationships with campus deans and faculty, via the NASSM leadership, could also result in guest speaking and teaching opportunities for CoSIDA members; in turn, this could lead to more students considering our profession as a career and/or providing student help for SIDs. CoSIDA also believes that such a relationship could lead to “communications” being a more focused part of the curriculums that are developed for such sports management programs around the nation.
NAIA
• The NAIA-SIDA Board of Directors conducted a conference call on Nov. 3. President Jay Stancil (Union College) reports that the group spent most of its time discussing various programming session ideas and concepts for their convention which will be held in St. Louis on June 22nd prior to the start of the CoSIDA convention which takes place June 23-26.
Division III
• Larry Happel (Central College), President of DIII-SIDA, sent a letter on behalf of the DIII-SIDA Board of Directors to Director of NCAA Division III Leah Kareti which reviews the DIII-SIDA Board’s thoughts on a review of the Division II model strategic document. That document was developed and approved by various DII leadership groups over the course of the spring/summer of 2011.
The letter from Happel to Kareti indicated that the leadership of DIII-SIDA felt that there was a benefit to collaborate with the other management groups within Division III (AD, conference commissioner groups and the NCAA DIII leadership staff in Indianapolis) to develop a similar document to aid Division III in focusing on and advancing strategic communications and initiatives.
Division II
• Greg Goings (Bowie State), President of DII-SIDA, conducted a conference call with the DII-SIDA Board of Directors on Nov. 8. Goings reported that this leadership group discussed the fall programs and process for the first ever Division II Academic All-America program. Jeff Ligney (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference) reviewed things from the DII conference commissioner meetings that took place in Indianapolis in October; the group also reviewed issues associated with Stat Crew “Next Generation” software, reviewed upcoming deadlines for the Gene Upshaw Lineman of the Year Award and the Daktronics All-America teams, and reviewed and discussed a survey conducted by John Keas on the future of Windows XP operating systems. The group also discussed the issues with regard to IMG/NCAA making a decision to go to digital programs for fall NCAA championship events with none of that being discussed with communications directors - and furthermore, nothing being communicated to the DII membership until just days before the start of those events.
• Goings also reviewed an Oct. 25 conference call with the NCAA DII leadership and CoSIDA DII membership that discussed the summary on NCAA DII graduation rates and academic success rates that would be released later that day. Goings said that 47 schools at the DII level participated on that call.
• Executive Director John Humenik and CoSIDA President Tom DiCamillo (PacWest Conference) will make a presentation on Jan. 13, 2012 to the NCAA DII membership in attendance at the annual NCAA Convention in Indianapolis. The presentation will be on CoSIDA’s/DII-SIDA’s growing visibility and resource role with the intercollegiate community. The NCAA DII Management Council specifically requested that CoSIDA/DII-SIDA do a presentation on the positive and pro-active strategic transformation taking place within CoSIDA and the key resource role that DII-SIDA has played with the NCAA on various DII projects during the past 2-3 years, specifically regarding its assistance with the DII branding campaign and the DII Model Strategic Communications document.
Division I
• John Humenik continues to represent CoSIDA on the monthly conference call with conference PR directors (from all FBS conferences), NCAA Director of Media and Public Relations Erik Christianson and BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock. CoSIDA Board member John Paquette, Associate Commissioner for the Big East Conference, also participates. The conference call is held the first Thursday of each month. Bob Burda of the Big 12 Conference coordinates the agenda and moderates the call.
• On November 21, John Humenik and Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal provided the November version of “Communications Watch for Today’s AD” to Dutch Baughman, Executive Director of D1A AD Association. This monthly newsletter goes to all members of the D1A Athletics Directors Association directly from Baughman.
University Division Management Advisory Committee (UDMAC)
• UDMAC Chair Charles Bloom (Southeastern Conference) held a conference call of the UDMAC Board on Nov. 16. The group received an update from Executive Director John Humenik on a several matters, discussed program ideas for the St. Louis Convention, determined some ways to work more closely with the NCAA Championships department on various championship event matters, and discussed ideas for continuing education initiatives via conference calls/webinars for the balance of this academic year.
There was also a conversation about the lack of ethnic diversity within CoSIDA/our profession and Bloom challenged the group to bring forward specific ideas to the UDMAC leadership to deal with this issue so that those ideas could be advanced to the CoSIDA Board of Directors.
Female Athletics Media Relations Executives (FAME)
• Fame’s leadership conducted its monthly conference call on Nov. 16, led by co-chairs Natalia Ciccone (Pac-12 Conference) and Diane Nordstrom (Wisconsin). The steering committee discussed specific St. Louis Convention programming ideas, solicited Special Awards candidates and reminded the FAME group about the January 31 deadline for any Special Awards nominees, collected ideas for the December FAME e-newsletter and discussed FAME’s social media outreach. Following the call, the FAME Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FAMEnews) was updated and enhanced.
• Access the Academic All-America master schedule for nomination deadlines/team announcements, the AAA Committee list of chairs, vice-chairs and district representatives and the district nominating/voting maps for all four divisions.
• Check CoSIDA.com for the Academic All-District men's/women's soccer teams, football teams and volleyball teams. As of November 30, announcements were made for the Capital One Academic All-America men's and women's soccer teams in the College Division, Division III and Division II.
NOTE: Deadlines for nominations and voting and updating First Team Academic All-District honorees' bio information (they advance to the national AAA ballot) will be strictly adhered to. There will be no extensions and no exceptions if the deadlines are missed. Please plan appropriately to make sure your information in place to meet the respective deadlines and that the people at your school who will be nominating student-athletes are paid members of CoSIDA for the 2011-12 year.
If you have questions regarding the nomination criteria for the AAA program, or other questions relating to the awards program, please click HERE and closely review the information page and FAQ document on the CoSIDA website which we believe will address your question.
• The Board and Academic All-America® Committee leadership remind CoSIDA members that CoSIDA's "Academic All-America®"mark is federally registered. As such, CoSIDA members must help the Board and AAA Committee monitor the wrongful use of this registered trademark. If you see any other organizations, including coaching associations, using this registered trademark, immediately contact CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik (jhumenik@bellsouth.net) or Academic All-America Committee member Dick Lipe (rlipe@bentley.edu). We will have our legal counsel, Collegiate Images, follow up with a letter regarding infringement of our federally registered mark and they will be asked to "cease and desist" from future use of that mark.
Many times during the year we find that our own membership is using "Academic All-America®" in releases that they prepare for student-athletes receiving academic achievement awards from other organizations - when in fact those organizations refer to their awards as "All-Academic," "Scholar-Athlete," "Academic All-Star," etc. We remind CoSIDA members to be cognizant of only using "Academic All-America®" in relation to CoSIDA's Capital One partnership program. There are NO exceptions and you should make sure your administrative staff and coaches understand that they do not have the right to take another award that is being presented for combined academic/athletic excellence by coach’s associations or other organizations and change it to “Academic All-America®” instead of its appropriate title given by that awarding organization.
• Special Awards Chair Tam Flarup (Wisconsin) reminds the membership that nominations for CoSIDA’s Special Awards program are open year-round. The Special Awards Committee held a conference call on Nov. 8 to review the procedures and nominations for 2012. Please review the various awards HERE and nominate deserving CoSIDA members, media members and CoSIDA advocates for these distinguished honors: http://cosida.com/awards. The deadline for the 2012 awards, which will be presented at the June St. Louis CoSIDA Convention, is Jan. 31, 2012. Questions can be directed to Flarup at tjf@athletics.wisc.edu.
• Publications Contest Chair Chad Grubbs (Hardin-Simmons) has released the Publications Contest guidelines, deadlines and information for 2011-12 contests. The process and contest has been streamlined this year with fewer contests, including two new at-large contests. More details can be found HERE; deadlines vary throughout the year. Questions can be sent to Grubbs at cgrubbs@hsutx.edu.
• Nomination forms and details for the CoSIDA Scholarship & Grant Program are available for CoSIDA scholarship/grants to be awarded for the 2012-13 academic year. Carol Hudson, Jr. (Old Dominion) is Chair of the Scholarship Committee and questions can be directed to him at chudson@odu.edu.
CoSIDA members are encouraged to nominate worthy candidates for undergraduate scholarship and post-graduate scholarship monies available via the Fred Nuesch-Dave Wohlhueter Undergraduate Scholarships, Langston Rogers Postgraduate Scholarship and Wylie Smith Postgraduate Scholarship. Additionally, any institution in need of boosting its media relations/sports information office and in search of funding for a graduate internship position also is encouraged to apply for the Phil Langan Graduate Internship Grant. There are April/May deadlines for these awards.
• The annual 2011-12 Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest is now open. Wade Steinlage (William Penn College), CoSIDA Stabley Writing Contest Chair, has announced the submission criteria, categories and entry form information. Deadline for submissions is February 24, 2012. There are new categories this year. Questions can be directed to Steinlage (steinlagew@wmpenn.edu).
• CoSIDA Board representative Joe Browning (UNC-Wilmington) continues to work with John Humenik to refine a proposal for the possible establishment of a “Communications Department of the Year” awards concept that is modeled along the lines of NACDA’s “Athletic Directors of the Year” program. The concept, which was first discussed at the San Francisco convention in 2010 with Browning named the chair, is to have CoSIDA’s divisional leadership groups determine four regional “Communications Department of the Year” awards for each of six specific divisions (Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Subdivision, NCAA Division I AAA, NCAA DII, NCAA DIII, and NAIA).
Each of those six divisional leadership groups would accept one nomination from each respective conference in those divisions, as determined by those respective conference schools. The conference would choose its nominee based on its determination of which school it believes is doing the best comprehensive job of overall excellence. The divisional boards would then choose “Communications Department of the Year” awards for each of the four regions that are established for that respective division. Browning and Humenik have continued to refine this concept and process and will soon be forwarding to the divisional leadership groups another comprehensive draft for them to review with their respective Boards of Directors.
• Executive Director John Humenik is in the process of providing the CoSIDA Board of Directors and divisional leadership a three-year update and progress report on various initiatives in the CoSIDA Strategic Master Plan that the Board adopted in June of 2008. Humenik is taking one of the established initiative each week and providing a update on progress with regard to that initiative after three years and focus points for the remaining two years of the plan.
• During the month of November, 15 CoSIDA-based stories appeared on NACDA’s Daily Review email blast. There were 20 Daily Review emails during the month. Through the Daily Review email, thousands of university and athletics administrators are exposed to professional and organizational news.
• Also in November, two CoSIDA-based features/stories were circulated a total of three times on the NCAA Daily News Direct email blast.
• Last month, 33 articles were posted on CoSIDA.com. The CoSIDA Twitter page had 252 tweets/postings, all of them informative nature with breaking news and timely topics for athletic communication professionals.
• Clay Stoldt, a former SID at Wichita State who now serves as the Chair of the Sports Management Program at that school, has been working with Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal and Executive Director John Humenik as it relates to doing a survey/study with our organizational membership on the growing use of social media. Stoldt has
prepared a survey for our membership which has been circulated via email, and asks CoSIDA members take a few moments to review and complete it in the next few weeks. CoSIDA’s leadership encourages you to take part in this survey and research project.
• John Humenik has worked with
VP Jay Williams of Eclaro Sports (Eclaro is CoSIDA’s official professional development partner), and CoSIDA’s divisional leadership Presidents/Chairs to have the CoSIDA leaders send a letter to their respective membership groups regarding the confidential Eclaro resume bank that is being developed for our membership. This resume bank, which now has nearly 400 personal resumes from CoSIDA members, can then be made available – in a confidential manner- to schools/AD when a communication’s based opening occurs.
• Please review the most up-to-date
CoSIDA’s Membership Master Schedule Calendar of Events and Deadlines, which extends from December 1 through February 29. We encourage all membership to review this closely so that you are aware of important dates and deadlines.