College Sports Information Directors of America

CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week Moves to January
The fifth anniversary of the week-long celebration will be held January 20-26, 2021.

by Will Roleson, CoSIDA Associate Executive Director

The fifth annual CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week will be celebrated January 20-26, 2021, the association has announced.

First celebrated in 2016, Membership Recognition Week is designed “to show appreciation for college sports information professionals and to bring positive recognition to them and to their work in promoting student-athletes.”

The event has traditionally been held in November but has been moved this year in order to occur when there will be more games, events and media coverage of collegiate athletics to provide more opportunities for sports information staff members to be recognized.

"We are excited to celebrate the fifth anniversary of CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week and do so at a different time of the year. We understand the many different hardships our members have gone through or are going through at this moment,” said Sam Atkinson, 2020-21 CoSIDA President and associate athletic director for communications at Gallaudet University. “The shift in dates will hopefully provide a boost to our members in January as we begin the second half of the school year.”

This year’s celebration again will feature stories of CoSIDA members on CoSIDA.com; outreach to athletic departments, campus communications offices, conferences offices, related professional organizations and student-athletes; national media mentions; and a social media blitz centered on the hashtag #ThankYour SID.

“CoSIDA is composed of individuals that diligently work to showcase the outstanding student-athletes, coaches and institutions that are at the heart and soul of college athletics,” said Amy Yakola, deputy commissioner and chief of external affairs at the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Adapting to change is a quality that CoSIDA members know well, and celebrating CoSIDA Membership Recognition week in January provides us with another reason to look forward to positive things ahead.”

A media/tool kit will be available to educate those who connect with the sports information profession and provide ideas on ways to recognize and thank their athletics communications staff members. All details of the event will be added to this webpage as they become available, and can easily be accessed by going to CoSIDA.com/ThankYourSID.

About CoSIDA: The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), now in its 63rd year as an organization, was founded in 1957-making it the second oldest management association in intercollegiate athletics. Today, it is a vibrant 3,100-plus member national association comprised of the athletic communications, media relations and sports information professionals throughout all levels of collegiate athletics in the United States and Canada. CoSIDA has two primary missions as it seeks to have its profession, organization and membership take its rightful leadership role within the decision-making levels of the intercollegiate athletics community:
1) Help the communications professionals at all collegiate levels with professional development and continuing education as it relates to strategically dealing in an effective manner with the various issues, challenges and opportunities that now exist within the fast-paced and ever-changing communications environment.
2) Play a significant leadership and resource role (i.e. “Strategic Communicators for College Athletics”) within the overall enterprise of collegiate athletics thus helping the other management groups and their respective memberships deal with a set of communications-based issues that is the most complex and challenging in history.