Story courtesy of NCAA.org Division III membership site; written by Gary Brown
A joint working group involving representatives of Division III’s leadership and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) is exploring ways for the division to support professional-development activities of sports information and athletics communication directors, and improve their involvement in conference and institutional strategic planning.
Delegates to the NCAA Convention (January 16-19 in Grapevine, Texas) heard about goals of the working group during a presentation by CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik and
Eric McDowell, assistant director of athletics for sports information at Union (New York) and CoSIDA second vice-president.
The Division III/CoSIDA Strategic Communications Working Group, chaired by
Ann King, sports information director at Sage, includes representatives of the Division III Sports Information Directors of America (D3SIDA), as well as two members of the Division III Management Council, two conference commissioners, and a representative of the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
“The goal of the working group is to support the division’s identity initiative and strategic plan by enhancing athletics communications in Division III locally, within conferences and nationally, and to identify ways in which to allocate existing and new resources to achieve this goal,” King said.
The working group solicited feedback to guide its work from D3SIDA members attending the 2012 CoSIDA workshop in St. Louis and also has reviewed data from the D3SIDA athletics communicators survey conducted last summer.
Last week, representatives of the working group met with Humenik, McDowell and other CoSIDA board members attending the NCAA Convention to discuss ways that Division III might be able to support professional-development programming and attendance by directors of athletics communications and sports information at the CoSIDA workshop. Included among the CoSIDA leaders at the meetings was Larry Happel, Central College (Iowa) Communications Director and Sports Information Director who is the president of DIII-SIDA.
“The Strategic Communications Working Group for NCAA Division III and CoSIDA is discussing ideas and providing thoughts regarding ways to effectively serve students at the institutional level with staffing, new media and other challenges that can be achieved with communication,” McDowell told delegates to the Convention during remarks at the Division III business session Jan. 19.
McDowell, who in 2014 will become the first sports information director from a Division III institution to serve as CoSIDA president, described the working group as part of a broader developing partnership between Division III and CoSIDA. He said its members “all have the same vested interest in serving the student-athlete effectively in these changing times.”
King said the working group is addressing a wide range of issues for athletics communicators, including such challenges as addressing the heavy workload of sports information and athletics communications directors and ways of increasing staffing; improving the availability of professional-development resources and opportunities; and increasing involvement in strategic planning within athletics departments and across campuses.
The ultimate objective of the group’s work is to better prepare and equip athletics communicators to support institutional, conference and division-wide goals in a strategic manner, and to recommend resources that Division III might provide toward achieving that outcome.
One possible outcome of the group’s work is a best-practices document for institutional and conference use in considering how athletics communications and sports information directors might participate in strategic planning within the athletics department and on campus, and to provide recommendations of resources, professional-development activities and staffing.
The group also is exploring such ideas as involvement of directors of athletics communication and sports information in NCAA committees with Division III representation, the possibility of a certification program for athletics communicators, and ways to use Division III funds that are allocated to supporting strategic communications.
It plans to present a preliminary report in April to the Division III Management and Presidents Councils and to seek final approval of recommendations in July, in time to begin implementation during the 2013-14 academic year.
Also representing D3SIDA on the working group is
Ira Thor, sports information director at New Jersey City University and a member of the D3SIDA board of directors. Management Council representatives are vice chair Portia Hoeg, director of athletics at Allegheny, and Steve Nelson, director of athletics at Wisconsin-Superior.
Other members of the group are Patrick Summers, executive director of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference; Chuck Yrigoyen, commissioner of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; and SAAC representative Nafeesa Connolly, a volleyball student-athlete at Simmons.