The column below, penned by Ohio State Director of Athletic Communications Shelly Poe, CoSIDA's Second Vice-President. It appears in the March 2012 issue of NACDA's Athletics Administration Magazine.
Beginning with the 2009-10 academic year and with its new partnership with NACDA at that time, the CoSIDA leadership was invited to contribute to each issue of the Athletics Administration Magazine. In October of 2009, CoSIDA President Justin Doherty penned the first "CoSIDA Column."
In this 2011-12 academic year, several CoSIDA leaders contributed CoSIDA Corner columns. They have been authored by CoSIDA President Tom Di Camillo, Assistant Commissioner of the Pacific West Conference (in October and November); Rich Herman of Clarion (in December) who is the former DII-SIDA President; Sam Atkinson (February), who serves as Gallaudet College SID and is the Chair of the CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee.
Each Athletics Administration issue is sent to over 10,000 university and athletics administrators, with CoSIDA's voice, thoughts and expertise shared with these key constituents. The magazine is published each October, November, December, February, March, April, June and August.
See the CoSIDA Corner archives HERE.
The educational program is taking shape for CoSIDA’s 55th Annual Convention this June 23-26 in St. Louis. When a strong portion of our nearly 2,800 members meet in St. Louis, they will be exploring the powerful and far-reaching aspects of “Connections Through Communications.”
We all know that the communications-based issues facing college athletics departments today are everchanging and more complex than ever. In turn, this means that continuing education for communications and media relations directors is even more important
than ever.
The registration fee for the CoSIDA Convention - just $195 for CoSIDA members - continues to rank among the lowest in collegiate sports and a fee we’ve held steady the past few years. We are all mindful of budgets these days, and hopefully this relatively low fee allows for all communications professionals to attend.
Under the leadership of 2012 CoSIDA president Tom Di Camillo, Central Arizona College director of public relations and assistant commissioner for the Pacific West Conference, our program will be interactive, thought-provoking and timely, with an emphasis on items pertinent to our membership overall, as well as panels tailored to our distinct membership cohorts from NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA institutions and our growing segment of colleagues from two-year institutions.
It is important to note, especially with technologies leveling the communications playing field, that our conventions continue to provide information, networking opportunities and professional development ideas for everyone. That is why we emphasize both programming structured for the entire group in attendance and programming which is division-specific.
We will hear about creative ways to involve other campus communications departments in better synchronizing the university and athletics missions. We will be taking a constructive look at how to best manage a staff, work with student help, develop job confidence in entry-level professionals, and ways to bring new career challenges to our veterans.
We will be teaming with a number of experts from entities including the NCAA national staff, Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute, ESPN, USBWA, FWAA and others to bring a diversity of voices to the issues of interest to our members, on everything from paperless game notes to anonymous sources.
We will focus on case studies in crisis management, ranging from critical injuries to student-athletes and severe weather situations to legal and NCAA investigations.
Social media will again be a topic we explore in a number of dimensions, taking a look at best practices in promoting attendance and interest in your programs, ideas for training staff and student-athletes to use social media with more savvy, and utilizing social media in crisis
management. We will take a look at options for compiling and analyzing the measurables of these 21st-century communications tools.
As always, we will work with our corporate partners and exhibitors to show and teach us the latest and most cost-efficient technologies in the communications marketplace.
One of the highlights will be a chance to hear from a St. Louis icon, Ozzie Smith, the Hall of Fame shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals who has earned national acclaim for his humanitarian and community relations endeavors. Smith will be a special guest and address the Convention attendees at the final social event and farewell function on June 26.
In St. Louis, we are introducing a daily segment called “Skill Set,” to give our members hands-on training in items ranging from volleyball stats to dealing with your Olympic athlete to digital photography practices to expanding athletics’ role in historical commemorations on campus. We also will have opportunities to learn more about personal professional development items such as interview and job-changing techniques, stress management, financial planning and nutrition in a 24-hour environment.
We also welcome the opportunity to hear - for the first time at a CoSIDA Convention - from student-athletes representing the national leaders of the NCAA’s SAAC organizations, and a chance to hear from a panel of student media on current topics.
For the fourth year in a row, our Goodwill and Wellness Committee will coordinate a community service outreach and donation drive and for the second consecutive year will coordinate a fun 5K walk/run event for our participants.
As part of our Convention traditions, we look forward as always to hearing from our Hall of Fame inductees and other special award winners, including those incredible former student-athletes being enshrined in the Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
This will be our final “stand-alone” workshop before we hold our future conventions in conjunction with NACDA and its partner organizations beginning in Orlando, in 2013. As we approach this milestone transition, our members are more aware than ever that communications are on the cutting edge of business and educational practices nationwide.
Keeping our members abreast of the trends and giving them additional skills and competencies will continue to be at the core of our continuing educational mission, both at the convention and throughout the year.
We invite you to join us at any time in sharing this programming and hope you will encourage the communications professionals on your campuses or conferences or affiliated organizations to meet us in St. Louis!