GOAL: Develop a comprehensive strategic based marketing plan for the benefit of the organization, profession and its professionals.
Over the years CoSIDA, and its professionals, have been dedicated servants for the good of college athletics, its student-athletes, coaches and administrators. It’s membership and organization have been so determined and industrious with regard to that important role, and it is so ingrained with a servant attitude about “helping others”, that it has not concentrated enough on helping itself as it relates to the marketing of its profession, its professionals and its organization . As a result, one of the major strategic goals of CoSIDA is to do just that and it is imperative that a dedicated approach in this regard take place for the first time in the history of the organization and profession to fully assist CoSIDA with regard to advancing its “Seven Core Strategic Vision Guiding Focus Principles” – most notably; advancing the profession, advancing the professional, advancing the organization.
Strategic Objectives and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Establish a task force which deals with developing specific objectives/tactics in this regard
• Seek to develop a “Branding Platform” that can be used as an anchor for marketing based concepts
• Seek guidance with regard to “marketing aspects” from former SIDs who have moved into other athletic based and corporate marketing positions
• Evaluate the possibility of developing a marketing based “campaign”
• Fully understand and evaluate the role that our graphics presentation (website, Digest, logo) play in this marketing role and initiative as it relates to both external and internal marketing needs.
• Fully understand the marketing value of our Academic All-America program and seek to further enhance that value and its profile.
• Seek to develop and build additional programs like the Academic All-America program that would enhance CoSIDA’s image and would also be good for college athletics in general
• Build relationships/partnerships with other groups in college athletics community that would benefit the desire of CoSIDA to better market itself.
• Challenge our committees, task forces, advisory groups and membership to provide very specific thoughts and concepts with regard to this marketing aspect of the strategic plan.
• CoSIDA’s leadership must be highly visible throughout the collegiate athletics community as that visibility alone will pay “marketing benefits.”
• As an important part of the “marketing and branding conversation” conduct research and surveys with membership as well as peer organizations in the collegiate athletics community to determine if it is appropriate, due to possible positive and strategic branding aspects and purposes, for the organization and profession to perhaps emphasize “Communications Directors” rather than “Information Directors” as its essence in today’s environment. Would that change better position the organization and its membership within the collegiate community? Does it more appropriately represent today the nature and full scope of the profession and its people? Would this strategically enable the membership and organization to more effectively re-brand and reposition itself positively within the collegiate community?
• Each committee chair will have the responsibility of taking on a responsibility of making sure that it organized in a manner that will ensure that appropriate releases/information/materials are provided to the editor of CoSIDA Digest, CoSIDA’s website and appropriate national affiliate organizations like the NCAA News. In short, each committee should take on a PR and communications role to help in marketing efforts to help elevate the profile of the organization and profession."
• Compile a “Speakers Resource Guide” for the organization that would provide, to other organizations in college athletics, a list of members who have expertise with regard to certain topics/issues and should thus be considered candidates by those organizations to speak at forums/conventions with regard to those matters.
• When appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of its strategic-based marketing plan and initiatives.
GOAL: Elevate and enhance the organization and the profession’s overall standing and image within the collegiate athletics community.
For many years now, CoSIDA and its members have become increasingly concerned about their decreased standing within the collegiate community. This situation has become a major morale issue for the organization, its members and the profession and tackling this issue in a more head-on and pro-active manner is imperative for CoSIDA and its members. There is no goal we as an organization and profession face that is more challenging, but this issue must be attacked with resolve with both a short and long-term plan of action. Progress might not take place as quickly as we would like in this regard, but we must face the issue with a high level of focused passion and a galvanized relentless determination and steadfastness. The following strategic objectives and tactics will further support and enhance the overall organizational marketing plan that is to be developed per goal three of the strategic master plan.
Strategic Objectives and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Establish a CoSIDA task force that would be charged with presenting specific ideas to the Board of Directors and membership as to additional specific things that might be done/should be done to assist the organization and its membership in enhancing and elevating its status/image/role within the collegiate athletics community. Some of these elements could be things that would apply to image enhancing for all of the various groups CoSIDA is seeking to build better relationship, but there might also be the need to develop specific ideas/plans as it relates to CoSIDA’s dealings with specific groups such as athletics directors, marketing directors, coaches and university public relations directors.
• Work diligently to see if relationships could be built with sports marketing firms, sports PR firms, and sports planning and research groups to determine if they might be of assistance in helping CoSIDA with regard to its goal of image building and enhancing.
• Work diligently to build relationships with other administrative organizations that exist within college athletics (Athletics Directors, Marketing Directors, Development Directors, etc)
• Work diligently to build relationships with coaching based organizations within the college athletics community like the American Football and Basketball Coaches Associations. Representatives of the organization should make efforts to attend coaching conferences to educate coaches with regard to working with information and communications directors so that they better understand their services and efforts.
• Work diligently to build relationships with national collegiate sports governing bodies
• Work diligently to build relationships with collegiate conferences and commissioners.
• Work diligently to build relationships with media based organizations within the college athletics community, especially the Football and Basketball Writers Associations.
• Work diligently to build relationships with other organizations that exist primarily for the benefit of college athletics- such as; The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Basketball Hall of Fame, Bowl Championship Series, etc.
• Work diligently to build relationships with the organizational groups that present national awards on behalf of college athletics and respective sports. Educate them about the profession and its extraordinary people and the jobs that they do, not only on-behalf of the award recipients, but collegiate athletics in general.
• Be highly visible at events- championships/ tournaments/ media events/ meetings- to assist in raising CoSIDA’s profile.
• Work diligently with the leadership of such organizations as the Football Writers and Basketball Writers Associations to see if there are things that they and CoSIDA could jointly do to help each other as it relates to image building and enhancing since this issue of image/lack of respects is also a paramount issue for those groups as well as it relates to the collegiate sports communities.
• Work diligently to continue to enhance the image and profile of CoSIDA’s premier awards program- Academic All-America.
• Work diligently to further enhance the image and profile of CoSIDA’s Capital One Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
• Determine if there are new programs that CoSIDA could/should generate that would aid it with regard to image building and enhancing. In short, can we come up with new ideas/concepts that would provide additional goodwill, visibility and a high-profile for CoSIDA as has been the case with its Academic All-America program.
• Contact the deans of sports administration programs throughout the country and inform them that our organization and membership feels quite strongly that their programs need to better prepare future collegiate administrators with regard to the role and value of public/media relations and an understanding of the “communications field” in today’s world of athletics. Furthermore, their programs should be teaching more knowledge and skills relative to these aspects, something that has not been the case and has thus resulted in many Athletics Directors who are not prepared to deal with or understand the importance of this part of their job and the role it can and should play.
• Diligently seek to help the membership understand the need for each of them to use “strategic planning” as a most important element in helping them and the profession to reshape how they/we are viewed.
• Encourage the membership of respective conferences/divisions to develop strategic plans as it relates dealing with specific issues like image building/enhancing rather than relying solely on the BOD to attack this issue. BOD should be responsible for developing concepts that deals with this issue on the “national level” and it should also encourage more local approaches to this same issue within a given conference/division.
• Diligently seek to help the membership fully understand the need for each of them to conduct themselves in a high professional manner at all times as this is a most important element in helping them and the profession to reshape how they/we are viewed.
• Each committee chair/task force/advisory group will have the responsibility of making sure that it organized in a manner that will ensure that appropriate releases/information/materials are provided to the editor of CoSIDA Digest, CoSIDA’s website and appropriate national affiliate organizations like the NCAA News. In short, each advisory support group should take on a PR and communications role to help in marketing/image enhancing efforts to help elevate the profile of the organization and profession.
• Work with CoSIDA’s current partners and sponsors to determine if there are ways for those groups to assist CoSIDA with its goal of image building and enhancing.
• Seek out new partners and sponsors who might be of assistance to CoSIDA with regard to its goal of image building and enhancing.
• As an important part of the “image building/enhancing conversation” conduct research and surveys with membership as well as peer organizations in the collegiate athletics community to determine if it is appropriate, due to possible positive and strategic branding aspects and purposes, for the organization and profession to perhaps emphasize “Communications Directors” rather than “Information Directors” as its essence in today’s environment. Would that change better position the organization and its membership within the collegiate community? Does it more appropriately represent today the nature and full scope of the profession and its people? Would this strategically enable the membership and organization to more effectively re-brand and reposition itself positively within the collegiate community?
• See if awards should be developed that would be presented by CoSIDA to an athletics department/ Athletics Director/Head Coaches who do fully respect the important role that PR plays. Idea would be to draw attention to this issue of “lack of respect” by shining the light on those who do in fact provide it.
• Compile a “Speakers Resource Guide” for the organization that would provide, to other organizations in college athletics, a list of members who have expertise with regard to certain topics/issues and as a result should thus be considered candidates by those organizations to speak at forums/conventions with regard to those matters.
• Seek to work with the PR leadership of the NFL which is considered the most PR conscious and PR respected pro league in the nation – both externally and internally- to get some ideas/concepts with regard to this issue of image building/enhancing that might be beneficial to our organization.
• When appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of its image building and enhancing initiatives
GOAL : Improve the self- image of the profession, its professionals and the organization.
As important as it is to CoSIDA and its membership to work diligently on marketing itself better and enhancing its image within the collegiate community, we must not in our quest for positive results in those areas forget that it is just as important, perhaps even more-so in the short term, to work on internal image building and enhancing. In fact, it is safe to say that we must feel better about ourselves, our profession, our professional colleagues and our organizational society before we can truly make the type of progress we aspire to as it relates to image building and enhancing within the entire athletics community. We must feel better about ourselves before we can expect others to think and feel better about us to the level we are seeking. We must first have a high level of personal self dignity about what we do and our value and our role in collegiate athletics if we want others to hold us high in that regard.
Strategic Objectives and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Clearly and consistently demonstrate that image building/enhancing internally is just as important as image building/enhancing externally
• Put together a task force of highly passionate people who want to specifically deal with this important issue
• Leadership of organization should be highly visible and accessible among all of the various constituencies within the organization.
• Leadership of organization should consistently emphasize the positive aspects of the profession and the professional organization.
• Challenge the membership to be pro-active in this area with specific ideas and objectives
• Constantly and consistently work at building relationships and partnerships with diverse groups within the organization
• Clearly demonstrate that leadership is being pro-active with regard to this, and many other, issues.
• Create a “Can Do” attitude among the leadership and membership with regard to attacking issues and opportunities
• Evaluate the possibility of developing a “campaign” centered around this issue/challenge
• Clearly demonstrate that the organization’s leadership/organization has an organized plan in place to move forward on this and a variety of topics.
• Make sure leadership is demonstrating passion/energy and understands how important that is in impacting the membership and organization as it relates to morale building and enhancing.
• Change the internal perception of the membership that the BOD and senior leadership of the organization are primarily involved in managing a convention/organization and not concentrating enough on the leading of a profession and the issues facing it.
• Diligently seek to help the membership understand the need for each of them to use “strategic planning” as a most important element in helping them, and the profession, to reshape how they/we are viewed.
• Encourage the membership of respective conferences/divisions to develop strategic plans as it relates dealing with specific issues like internal image building/enhancing rather than relying solely on the BOD to attack this issue. BOD should be responsible for developing concepts that deal with this issue on the “national level”, but it must also strongly encourage more local approaches to this same issue within a given conference/division.
• Seek assistance on this matter from former SIDs who are now in other positions in the college athletic community or work for corporate sports entities
• Make a concerted effort to fully evaluate the important role of using organizational communication vehicles- website/Digest/logo- as ways to deal with this issue of internal image building/enhancing and morale building
• Each committee chair will have the responsibility of making sure that it organized in a manner that will ensure that appropriate releases/information/materials are provided to the editor of CoSIDA Digest, CoSIDA’s website and appropriate national affiliate organizations like the NCAA News. In short, each committee should take on a PR and communications role to help in marketing/image enhancing efforts to help elevate the profile of the organization and profession within our membership and profession.
• Fully understand the need for the annual workshop/convention to deal with this issue
• Diligently seek to help the membership fully understand the need for each of them to conduct themselves in a high professional manner at all times as this is a most important element in helping them and the profession to reshape how they/we are viewed.
• Highlight/showcase many former members of the organization who have gone on to other prominent positions of leadership in athletics administration and the communications industry (i.e. esteemed alumni of profession).
• Compile a “Speakers Resource Guide” for the organization that would provide, to other organizations in college athletics, a list of members who have expertise with regard to certain topics/issues and as a result should thus be considered candidates by those organizations to speak at forums/conventions with regard to those matters.
• When appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of its image building and enhancing initiatives
GOAL: Consistently and diligently concentrate on all aspects of career and professional development
There is a strong need to work diligently on advancing this profession and organization to improve its standing and image within the collegiate athletics community, but that effort must not come at the expense of also advancing the career and professional development of its current and future members. That task becomes more difficult for an organization and profession like CoSIDA due to the vastly different needs of such a diverse group that has varying needs/interests based on age, experience in the profession, their long-term commitment to the profession and the level of their athletics program. None-the-less, that can not deter the organization from doing due diligence in this regard.
Strategic Objective and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Develop specific plans of action for each of the following aspects of career and professional development
- Raising awareness of professional opportunity among high school and college students
- “Recruiting” college graduates into the profession
- Developing an effective way to assist both the schools and recent graduates with the hiring process both face
- Entry level training and support
- Continuing education and support
- Technology-based educational system and support
- “Mentoring System” for organizational membership
• Determine the best ways to use current and emerging communication vehicles to assist the organization and its professionals with all aspects of training, including continuing education.
• Fully understand that when dealing with the core strategic concept of “Advancing the Professional” we are dealing with multiple aspects of career preparation, development and continuing education. We must assist the professionals of the organization in multiple leadership and management aspects. Among them:
- Motivational
- Technical
- Technological
- Supervisory
- Leadership
- Negotiating
- Time Management (professional as well as personal/life balance)
- Strategic Planning
- Organizational
• Diligently educate the membership regarding the importance for each of them to use “strategic planning” as a crucial element in helping them and the profession to reshape how they/we are viewed.
• Fully understand and embrace the importance of using the annual convention and workshop with regard to this strategic goal.
• Closely evaluate other organizations in collegiate athletics as well as corporate/pr organizations in the country that primarily deal with public relations/communications, to see how they are handling these things relative to their annual conventions as well as continuing educational assistance and support throughout the year.
• Closely study various aspects of continuing education as developed by the Public Relations Society of America to determine possible adaptations with regard to CoSIDA.
• Compile a “Speakers Resource Guide” for the organization that would provide, to other organizations in college athletics, a list of members who have expertise with regard to certain topics/issues and as a result should thus be considered candidates by those organizations to speak at forums/conventions with regard to those matters.
• When appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of continuing education initiatives
GOAL:
Seek to identify and/or develop methods of evaluation and analysis that will enable the profession and its professionals to more effectively establish its role and value as a critical component of organizational success within the collegiate athletics community. This process would include finding and developing ideas and concepts that will enable it to better “quantify its value” within the collegiate community.
As collegiate athletics have evolved into a truer business- based model and the top management at respective schools become more financially and business led in their decision making, the PR based profession has seen a decline regarding its status within the collegiate sports community. It finds itself in a very defensive position as it relates to “demonstrating and proving value.” PR’s declining role has coincided, not co-incidentally, with the rise in role and stature of those positions within a athletics department (marketing and fund raising in particular) that can better demonstrate their value and are seen as financial revenue generators. The sports PR profession and its people have always been in a position where it has been extremely difficult to demonstrate/quantify its role as it relates to “value”- especially “financial value”, but that has clearly become more of an issue in the past decade or so due to the continuing emphasis on that aspect of performance based evaluation by senior management within athletics programs around the nation. That development has become a big issue as it relates to the decline in status and morale of the professionals in the organization and it thus behooves the organization and its leadership to aggressively seek ideas and concepts that will aid the membership with regard to pro-actively attacking this issue. It would be an enormous benefit to the profession and its professionals if concepts could be developed that would be distributed to the membership to assist them with this aspect of “proving value”, especially “financial based value”, at their respective institutions.
Strategic Objective and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Establish a task force comprised of people who are passionate and knowledgeable about this subject and charge them with the responsibility of developing ideas and solutions.
• Seek input on this subject matter from former SID’s who have moved into sports based/corporate based administrative positions that could provide needed thoughts and direction on this topic
• Seek input on this subject matter from athletics directors/conference commissioners who were former SIDs so that they could provide needed thoughts and direction in this regard.
• Challenge our corporate partners and sponsors, to provide some thoughts and direction relative to this matter
• Approach sports-based technology companies to see if they might be able to provide thoughts and ideas with regard to this matter
• Approach sports-based media and consulting firms to see if they might be able thoughts and ideas with regard to this matter
• Approach the PR leadership of the NCAA, and other national governing bodies, to seek their help with regard to attacking this issue.
• Work with the leadership of non-sports PR and communication based professional organizations- such as Public Relations Society of America- to see if they might have some ideas/models that could be adapted to assist CoSIDA in this regard.
• When deemed appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of determining quantitative analysis for the benefit of the membership and organization.
GOAL:
Establish an efficient communications plan and network system that will enable the organization’s leadership to effectively and productively communicate with various and diverse constituencies, both internally and externally, on a consistent basis.
To assist the organization in significantly elevating and enhancing its leadership role and visibility within the profession and the collegiate athletics community, as well as enhance image building- both internally and externally, it is imperative that an effective communication process and system be developed and implemented that will enable the organization’s leadership to consistently deal with each of its varied constituencies in a productive and pro-active manner. Such a structured process and effort will result in a significant increase in the organization’s visibility and profile, both internally and externally, and thus allow it to put into place many other aspects of the strategic plan initiatives
Strategic Objective and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Fully determine and compile a list of all of the “internal based” groups that the
Board of Directors and Executive Director should communicate with on a
regular and consistent basis. Among those groups:
- Complete membership
- Committee chairs
- Full membership from a given committee
- Past Presidents
- Chairs and members of a given task force/advisory group
- Conference information/communication directors
- University division leadership
- College division leadership
- SID organizations that are within the CoSIDA “umbrella”- i.e. NAIA-SIDA, ECAC -SIDA, BCSIDA, Female Athletics Media Relations Executives (FAME), etc.
• Fully determine and compile a list of all of the “external” organizations/groups that the Board of Directors/Executive Director should communicate with on a regular and consistent basis. Among those groups are:
- Affiliate athletics administration organizations such as NACDA. NACMA
- National governing organizations such as the NCAA and NAIA
- Coaches Associations
- Chairs for committees with national governing boards who should be
receiving input from CoSIDA on appropriate issues that impact its
membership/profession
- Athletics Directors
- Media based associations such as Football Writers and Basketball Writers
- Current sponsors
- Potential sponsors
- Collegiate awards based organizations
- Sports marketing firms
- Deans at sports administration programs around the country
• Compile and evaluate each of the best potential ways for the leadership to effectively communicate with each of determined “internal” constituencies via
- Website
- CoSIDA Digest
- Email
- Teleconferences
- Direct mail
• Compile and evaluate each of the best potential ways for the leadership to effectively communicate with each of determined “external” constituencies
- Website
- CoSIDA Digest
- Email
- Teleconferences
- Direct mail
• Develop full and comprehensive email contact lists for each specific internal and external constituency
• Fully evaluate how can the organization do a better job of using the senior leadership as well as the committee and advisory structure to do a better job of releasing appropriate news regarding award recipients, appointments, position on topics etc.
• Evaluate websites and newsletters from other collegiate athletics administrative organizations, communication and public relations based organizations, to see if there might be some ideas and concepts that would be helpful to our organization.
• When deemed appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of this communications-based goal.
GOAL : Increase revenue generation and fund raising capabilities
The importance of generating additional revenue streams for the organization can not be overstated. Such additional revenue will help keep membership fees among the lowest in the athletic community, support the annual convention and workshop in a way that will make it even more productive and effective, keep the cost of registration per member for the annual workshop/convention among the lowest in all of college athletics, and also provide additional funds to support the Board of Directors with regard to strategic objectives and tactics as it relates to marketing based campaigns and image building/ enhancing plans for the benefit of the profession and organization.
Strategic Objectives and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Develop a full list of “inventory” of things we have/can/should offer corporate partners and sponsors
• Talk to current corporate supporters and find out what we are doing well, not doing well and what we need to do/offer to attract more participants in this regard.
• Understand that some sponsors/partners want to reach our entire diverse group and we should try to provide them with what they are seeking in that regard to get their participation.
• Understand that some sponsors/partners just want to reach a specific segment of the organization and we should try to provide them with what they are seeking in that regard to get their participation.
• Continue to improve profile and value of Academic All-America program.
• Improve profile and value of Capital One Academic All-America Hall of Fame
• Seek to establish an “Academic All-America Foundation” , a charitable/tax-based benefit concept in which donated funds- from Capital One Academic All-America Hall of Famers and those companies and individuals who are dedicated to advancing the program and its missions- would be used to enhance various aspects of the program.
• Seek additional ideas/concepts/programs that could give the organization another successful idea like the Academic All-America program.
• Get the word out to sports marketing firms that we are willing to help them/their clients put together/execute a program that would give them a broad-based awards recognition program in college athletics if that is something that they are seeking
• Seek out firms- like IMG- that might be willing to represent CoSIDA in soliciting funds/corporate sponsors/corporate partners for a % of the value of such funds that are raised on our behalf.
• Compile a list of firms that are involved with supporting other groups/associations in collegiate athletics and seek to approach them regarding their interest in getting involved with CoSIDA.
• Compile a list of firms that CoSIDA firmly believes should be supporting the organization/convention and approach them to find out why they aren’t, what they want/need from us to participate
• Understand that “Services” (guest speakers, assistance with marketing and image building campaigns, convention, strategic planning, etc) while not “pure cash” are also of valuable financial assistance to the organization.
• Establish a committee/task force whose primary and sole mission is to work with Executive Director and Board of Directors on “revenue generation and fund raising”.
• Seek to specifically raise advertising-based revenue to support the website, CoSIDA Digest and organizational directory
• Identify former SIDs who are now in marketing/fund raising positions in collegiate athletics or the corporate environment and seek their ideas/help.
• Determine if the organization can be better served with regard to fiscal planning/revenue growth and development by using a firm/advisors in that regard.
• Conduct research and surveys with all aspects of the organization’s fund-raising efforts with sponsors/advertisers to provide the organization’s leadership with appropriate feedback with regard to various aspects of this revenue generation-based goal.
GOAL: Establish and increase visibility in addition to building effective partnerships and affiliations within the collegiate athletics community
In order for CoSIDA to make significant progress in the areas of overall image building and enhancing it must work very diligently and passionately with regard to establishing a highly visible presence while building strong long- term relationships and partnerships within the collegiate athletics community. CoSIDA has become increasingly perceived within the collegiate athletics community at-large as an organization that has, subconsciously, distanced itself somewhat from the rest of the other collegiate athletics groups and community and is primarily perceived as reactive, rather than pro-active as it relates to dealing with appropriate issues. These perceptions must change and that can only be changed by CoSIDA and its leadership establishing a much higher profile in the collegiate community and working hard to build partnerships as well as positive affiliations.
Strategic Objectives and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Diligently seek out and build partnerships and affiliations with both external and internal group
• Leadership of CoSIDA must be highly visible as it relates to:
- Other management groups in college athletics
- Coaches associations
- Conventions
- High profile national championship events
- Conference championships/spring meetings
- Media organizations
- Within CoSIDA
- Public Relations based organizations
• Seek out co-partnership ideas/concepts with others in the collegiate athletics communities
• Seek win-win scenarios where we can help another organization in the athletics community and they can help us
• Be pro-active in dealing with issues/opportunities and not reactive
• Seek to be a pro-active part of legislative process rather than reactive
• Diligently work within the collegiate community to help people better understand the unique role sports PR people play, the unique issues that they deal with and the need for them to help us deal with our issues/problems to not only better the sports PR profession but college athletics in general. Help them understand that many of our issues- are/will become their issues if they are not dealt with up-front by the athletics community in general.
• Encourage the membership of respective conferences/divisions to develop strategic plans as it relates dealing with specific issues like image building/enhancing, respect, advancing the profession, etc. rather than relying solely on the BOD to attack issues. BOD should be responsible for developing concepts that deals with issues on the “national level” and it should also encourage more local approaches to those same issues within a given conference/division.
• Use the top management/leaders at other athletic administration organizations to help us improve/move forward/provide advise as it relates to such things as:
- Management and leadership structure
- Strategic planning
- Marketing
- Corporate support
- Career development
- Convention
- Membership services
- Membership growth
• Each committee chair will have the responsibility of taking on a responsibility of making sure that it organized in a manner that will ensure that appropriate news/materials are provided to the editor of CoSIDA Digest, CoSIDA’s website and appropriate national affiliate organizations like the NCAA News. In short, each committee should take on a PR and communications role to help in marketing/image enhancing efforts that in turn would help elevate the profile of the organization and profession within the entire collegiate community.
• Work with the leadership of non-sports PR and communication based professional organizations- such as Public Relations Society of America- to see if they might have some ideas/models that could be adapted to assist CoSIDA in this regard.
• When deemed appropriate, conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to this goal and topic.
GOAL: Use of the annual convention to support multiple aspects of the strategic master plan initiatives
CoSIDA’s annual convention and workshop is a superb opportunity for the organization to positively impact various aspects of the strategic goals and initiatives plan. With that in mind, this event must be carefully planned to best assist strategic objectives and clearly demonstrate to the membership, and others in the collegiate athletics community, that we are dealing with our stated goals of advancing the profession, advancing the professional and advancing the organization in numerous ways.
Strategic Objective and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
Conceptual Based Objectives:
• Diligently seek to get more “decision makers” present and involved
• Convention organization must understand that in essence CoSIDA is an “Umbrella” organization that brings together a large group of people with diverse needs and opinions but are bound by certain common threads – their interest in college athletics and their interest in the fields of communications/PR/media relations, etc. We have a need to thus deal with those things that bind us all together, including joint issues, but also deals with the diverse issues that do not necessarily impact the entire group or are of interest to the entire group. With that in mind, from a management and leadership perspective we should help/encourage these diverse groups to use this annual event to deal with their respective issues.
• Work at doing what is needed to bring in Assoc/Asst. ADs for Communications, External Affairs, Public Relations, etc. We need their presence, leadership and wisdom. This will also impact the profile of the convention as it relates to sponsorship opportunities.
• Encourage more conference meetings and special interest group gatherings so that will drive more people/more decision makers to come
• Seek to centralize full convention operations as much as possible
• Reach out to publications and website folks to get them more active within the organization and workshop
• Convention should consistently support the “Seven Core Strategic Vision Guiding Focus Principles” especially those that relate to internal image building/enhancing, advancing the professional and advancing the profession
• Use the event to specifically help the membership understand the need for each of them to use “strategic planning” as a most important element in helping them, and the profession, to reshape how they/we are viewed.
• Convention has to deal with multiple career and professional development aspects and skills. Among them are:
- Motivational
- Inspirational
- Time Management
- Pro-active planning (Strategic , Communications, Crisis Related, etc)
- Organization
- Managing
- Leadership
- Supervising
- Technology
- Technical
- Emerging concepts
- Health and Welfare
• Closely review seminar programs at other collegiate conventions as well as those in the PR fraternity (Public Relations Society of America, etc) to see if there are ideas and concepts that would make our convention better.
• Encourage more specific “Town Meetings” based on a topic of interest to all or to a given specific group.
• Work with the leadership of non-sports PR and communication based professional organizations- such as Public Relations Society of America- to see if they might have some ideas/models that could be adapted to assist CoSIDA in this regard.
• Conduct research and surveys to provide the organization’s leadership and membership with appropriate feedback with regard to this goal and topic.
Financial Support Objectives:
• See if a firm like IMG would represent CoSIDA in this regard for a % of revenue they generated for us- as they have done for other organizations in collegiate athletics
• Compile a list of all possible “inventory” we have/should/could/can offer
• Identify people/firms who should be involved and find out what we need to do to get them on-board
• Identify people who are involved and find out what we need to do to get them on-board at a higher level
• Identify companies that are involved with other college athletic groups and find out what it will take to have them get involved with us.
• Talk to our current sponsors, especially those that have former SIDs involved, to get a better feel for what we should be doing to increase revenue generations it relates to convention support.
• Seek to develop a “convention enhancement fund” that would be used to pay for additional costs associated with doing something new/better for a given convention session.
GOAL:
Using the master strategic initiatives overview plan adopted for CoSIDA as its guide, the organization’s leadership will develop a detailed yearly strategic plan that the Board of Directors and the Executive Director will use to ensure continued focus that year on the strategic objectives and tactics.
The Executive Director, working in conjunction with the Board of Directors, will be responsible for taking the comprehensive strategic master overview plan that will guide CoSIDA over the next several years and develop a specific master plan with strategic objectives and tactics that will then guide the management and organization over the next year. The Board of Directors, working in conjunction with all committees, advisory groups and task forces, will make sure that each of these specific strategic objectives and initiatives are aimed, directly or indirectly, on advancing one or more of the “Seven Core Strategic Vision Guiding Focus Principles.” Furthermore, the Board of Directors and Executive Director will be responsible for making sure that all management support groups- committees, task forces and advisory groups- stay focused on the strategic initiatives and are held accountable to supporting them over the course of that specific year.
Strategic Objective and Tactics to Support Advancement of This Goal
• Develop a timeline for the yearly strategic plan process that will enable the Board of Directors to present it to the membership for review/input a few weeks before and after the annual convention/workshop
• Based on input from the membership, the new President in combination with the Executive Director and Board of Directors will then finalize the yearly strategic plan so that is fully in place by August 1st of each year and this will then be used as a guiding leadership document over the course of the upcoming year.
• The yearly strategic plan will focus on very specific “measurable” items for achievement within each goal of the master strategic initiatives plan.
• The President and Executive Director will be jointly responsible for compiling a yearly report to present to the membership/leadership on specific progress that has been made/achieved with regard to each aspect of master strategic initiatives plan over the previous year. This report is to be completed no later than June 1st of each year so that the membership/leadership can review this document prior to the upcoming convention later that month.
• Each convention program should include a scheduled opportunity for the President, Executive Director and appropriate organizational leadership to review various aspects of the status of the master strategic initiatives plan and plans for the upcoming year.
Other Sections of the Strategic Plan