The AACRAO Election period is officially underway! As a reminder, based on Bylaw changes voted on at the last annual meeting, there are two major changes in the voting process this year:
1.Electronic voting is live. Electronic balloting/voting opened on October 29th and will conclude on December 6th. There will be no vote on board of director positions at the annual meeting in Denver. Members have long requested electronic voting for the board so that those who cannot attend the annual meeting can participate in this governance decision. Due to the hard work of the Nominations & Elections committee, the Board of Directors and the staff, AACRAO is excited to be able to implement electronic voting this year.
2.There is a competitive slate for the Board of Directors. A competitive slate means that the Nominations & Elections committee has selected two candidates for each position. These two individuals appear on the ballot for the membership to vote upon and whichever candidate receives the most votes will be elected. A space for a write-in candidate has also been included. Offering members a competitive slate provides more direct participation in governance by the general membership.
The following positions are up for election this year:
- Vice President for Information Technology
- Vice President for Admissions and Enrollment Management
- Vice President for Access and Equity
- President-elect.
The new Vice Presidents-elect will be announced in late December, once voting has closed and votes have been tallied.
AACRAO leadership reflects
As we choose new leadership for open positions on the Board of Directors, we thought it prudent to ask former leaders to reflect on their leadership service, and what members can and should expect of the volunteers who take up these leadership positions.
We asked Alicia Moore, Dean of Student and Enrollment Services at Central Oregon Community College what she enjoyed (and didn’t) about serving on the Nominations and Elections (N&E) Committee.
Moore: The N&E Committee I was on gave me an opportunity to get to know a cross-sector of the AACRAO membership that I may not have had an opportunity to interact or work with in other settings. Our committee included colleagues from community colleges through highly selective private institutions from all over the country, people who were both newer to the admissions and registrar world to long-standing veterans, and all points in between.
This diversity challenged us to be thoughtful and intentional about the makeup of the AACRAO leadership slate. What was really impactful for me was the level of professionalism and collegiality that each and every person brought to the table, even when confronted by an issue that carried with it significant challenges to personal and professional values.
It was really a great process – I wish we had time for more in-person meetings than just the one, but that’s what professional activity committees are for!
We asked Glenn Munson, Associate Registrar at the University of Memphis, the same questions. Having served for three years as the Vice President for Records and Academic Services, he admitted that balancing the needs of the association and the needs of his home institution were quite difficult to manage.
Munson: It was a real challenge for all the Board members to allocate the time to the association given our daily jobs – association travel and management of our areas takes time that has to be above and beyond what is required of us 9-5. It makes new initiatives harder to implement, certainly more so than I had anticipated.
Another challenge was working with three very different presidents, each with different styles and agendas. I was fortunate to serve during the term of Paul Wiley, which I see as a real turning point in the governance of the association. That was the beginning of the Governance Task Force which occupied a great deal of our time that year and the next.
During my time on the Board, we became more active in strategic planning and budgeting, and as a personal point of pride, we revamped the Registrar 101 module. After years of stagnation, I rewrote the entire curriculum and introduced a new format that is still in use today.
I definitely miss serving on the Board – it was something I really wanted to do – but I have been fortunate to stay involved with both Reg 101 and the newly formed Reg 201. I also miss visiting all the different state and regional associations from around the country.
And we asked Angie Peterson, Associate Vice President at University of Central Florida, what it was like to spend an extra three years on the Board as a President. Armed with clear goals on what both the association and higher education at large needed to focus on, she began her term.
Peterson: When I was asked to serve on the board as a Vice President, my vision was to assist with professional development in the admission and enrollment management arena. During my tenure the first Admission Management workshops were created for the annual meeting and then converted to an online offering for entry and middle managers. A lexicon of admission, registrar, and enrollment management was created for the membership. The admission professional development was beginning to be addressed; however, I felt strongly that the transfer student segment, from an enrollment management perspective, was minimalized as were our community college partners. During my transition to President, it was a personal goal to bring a transfer professional development focus to AACRAO. With the assistance of a good team, that goal was realized.
During my role as president of the board, AACRAO completed the first phase of significant financial mission of stabilizing a more diverse portfolio and looking beyond the annual meeting for revenue generation. The previous leaders in the early 2000’s had the vision to create the stable financial basis that enabled a diverse portfolio and less dependency on the meeting revenues. This had little to do with my being President but spoke to the ability and vision of the previous leadership.
Being a board member is everything and nothing that I expected. Each board takes on a different group dynamic, and as such, board activities like strategic planning and critical actions take on different hue each year. I honestly and naively thought that every year served would provide opportunity for a more cohesive team and that is not always the case. As in any organization, there are individual agendas and great growth opportunities are derived from learning to adapt to those dynamics. It may have been the most important lesson learned. The dual expectations were the single most important professional growth opportunities I’ve ever had. It provided me a level of professionalism and expertise that I use every day; confidence to do the right thing, find compromise, learn from failure, and create a legacy of responsive leadership so that those who follow are better than you ever were.
Do I miss being on the board? Yes, I love serving others, being over committed, multi-tasking at a higher level, and learning compromise…but mostly, serving on the board provided new relationships with the ‘best of the best’ and who can go out and brag about having that unique chance in life?
Who indeed? While AACRAO leadership’s influence is somewhat telescopic (much like a university) the men and women elected this year will navigate issues that affect both the membership and Higher Education at large. You can view a summary of each candidate professional and volunteer activities, personal statements and goals, and cast your ballot by visiting voting.aacrao.org/2013. Voting ends December 6th.
And the door is open for your to get involved. Volunteer for a professional activity committee at http://www.aacrao.org/about/committees and start making your mark!