As a response to shrinking travel and professional development budgets at member institutions around the country, the AACRAO Board of Directors created a work group in late 2017 charged with reviewing the current program structure to identify bottlenecks and pain points for content delivery outside of the three main meetings, and to submit recommendations to remedy those issues.
This work group met in person and remotely over 12 months, delivering their final report in December 2018. The recurrent theme of their recommendations revolved around collaboration – between the professional activity committees, the office, the program committee, and an expanded Group Seven, which will now encompass coordinators for each major professional activity area.
If you’re unfamiliar with AACRAO’s volunteer organizational structure, each professional committee falls into one of six distinct groups – Admissions and Enrollment Management, International Education, Records and Academic Services, Leadership and Management Development, Access and Equity, and Information Technology. Group Seven was focused on operational meeting elements such as identifying keynote speakers and organizing workshops. For a long time, the group held a single member.
AACRAO is pleased to announce that, per the Professional Activity Work Group’s recommendation, Group Seven has been expanded to include 6 new coordinators, voted on by the committee chairs in each respective group.
Pictured clockwise from upper left, these members are:
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Becky Tankersley (Georgia Tech) -- Group I - Admissions and Enrollment Management
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Brenda Schumann (The University of Texas at Austin) -- Group IV- Leadership and Management Development
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Daniel Wilson (Muskingum University) -- Group VI - Information Technology
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Leah McCormack (NAIA) -- Group II - International Education
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Hala Abou Arraj (American University of Beirut) -- Group III - Records and Academic Services
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Roslyn Perry (The Ohio State University) -- Group V - Access and Equity
The expanded Group Seven will meet for the first time at the 2019 Leadership Meeting in June 2019, in conjunction with the AACRAO staff members appointed to support the committees for content production and delivery. Stay tuned to AACRAO in the coming months for an expanded offering of content available to consume direct from your office.
A special thanks to the members of the workgroup, listed below:
Jennifer Minke (Co-Chair), Tarrant County Community College
Paul Kyle (Co-Chair), Johnson County Community College
Emily Shandley, Yale University
Jeff Elliott, University of Missouri System
Kristy Goodwin, Governors State University
Stave Seaworth, Wake Forest University
Jack Miner, The Ohio State University
Mark McConahay, Indiana University Bloomington
Mark Simpson, Iowa State University
Adrienne Bricker, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Clayton Smith, AACRAO
Melanie Gottlieb, AACRAO