Related Content
•
CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Archive
This story is part of our May 2022 CoSIDA 360 package, to view more stories,
click here.
From the Desk of CoSIDA President Cindy Potter – An update on our rebranding process
by Cindy Potter – 2021-22 CoSIDA President
Columbia College (Mo.), Senior Deputy Director of Athletics @CougarCanuck
Who are we and who do we want to be?
As individuals, we wrestle with questions like those all the time. As an organization, the question of “who we want to be” is the main topic CoSIDA leadership is working on every day as we envision what the future of our great association will look like. We’re excited about the opportunities in front of us.
It’s unquestioned that big change is on the horizon.
Doug Vance, a true CoSIDA legend, will be retiring this summer. A new executive director will soon take his place.
In our organization's 65th year, we’re also deep into a process to retire the name CoSIDA and embark on a fresh new direction, inclusive of all communicators and creatives in college athletics. So how’s that going?
In a word, it’s hard. But as the saying goes, nothing worth doing comes easy.
Rebranding CoSIDA includes many facets, some can move faster than others.
The first part of our rebrand is the
All-In Membership Model, which launches this August for the 2022-23 academic year. If you have not taken the time to understand the tremendous value of this, and share it with your departmental colleagues, then here’s what you need to know.
For one price, you get unlimited members at your institution for the entire year.
For D1 Power 5 schools, the rate is $1,200. FBS non-Power 5 schools are $900, and all other D1 schools are $600. NAIA, D3, D2, and Canadian institutions are $350 (with Canadians getting an exchange rate). Two-Year Colleges are $250. That’s it. You pay that rate in August and you get as many members as you want. If somebody leaves mid-year or you make a new hire, it doesn’t matter because you’re set for the year.
If you have them, we’re asking you to include your social team, your graphic designers, your photographers, your video staff, your students, your senior administrators, and anyone — there are too many jobs to list them all — who is involved in the brand storytelling or messaging for your school or conference.
When we ask non-SID communicators what is keeping them from joining CoSIDA the two big responses consistently are either that it’s too expensive, or that they don’t feel like the organization is inclusive to them. For a high percentage of the membership, the All-In model eases the financial decision or even takes it away.
How do we make the organization more inclusive? And then once we get these important communicators to join, how do we provide the necessary support they need?
Our major survey last fall told us we likely couldn’t do it without changing our name. Since then, our dedicated branding working group has been trying to find that name with the guidance of Joe Bosack & Co. We’re not there yet. A wide variety of ideas have been considered including stand-alone brand names in the style of Apple or Starbucks such as “Relay” and “Narrate.” We’ve looked at names similar to Women Leaders in College Sports, LEAD1, and EAST-COMM. We’ve looked at new acronyms, and in a presentation to all members of our divisional cabinets and committee leaders, we uncovered that a new acronym is the preferred direction.
With nearly 150 people being brought into the renaming process at different points, not a single person has suggested that we should stick with the name CoSIDA, which is telling. Our organization has an appetite for something more inclusive.
But a name is just a name. We know that the reality is that it’s the people who make our association what it is — not the name. Creating a sense of belonging and value for SIDs, creatives, students and others in the work of college athletics storytelling is really the job to be done.
Many conversations are being had about creating better opportunities, advocacy and recognition for our current members and our new creative members. It’s energizing work because it’s being done for the right reasons.
We will find the name. That could come this month, it could come at #CoSIDA22, or it could come later. We will take the time we need to get it right. In the meantime we are asking you to be
All-In.
All-In on a new membership, All-In on supporting each other, and
All-In on creating this new version of our organization to be what we want to be.
Cindy
Talk about these stories on the
CoSIDA Slack Community.