Ohio Academic Advising Association

2009 Year End Letter from the President

Dear Ohio Academic Advising Association Members,

It is hard to believe but this year is coming to a close. Now is a good time to stop and reflect on the progress we have made.

Since July, the OHAAA Board has had several unexpected changes. Our 4-Year Public Institution representative and our President Elect, who was also our web master, resigned from the board. To overcome these vacancies, Jennifer Wells has stepped out of the Member at Large position and moved into the 4-Year Public Institution representative and Kelly Conkle has stepped out of the 4-Year Private Institution representative position and into the President Elect position.

Our OHAAA Board currently has two open positions to be filled immediately. The 4-Year Private Institution representative and Member at Large representative positions are currently vacant. If you have any interest in these positions please contact me or any one of the OHAAA board members to find out how you can join our board. Also note that we are currently seeking a new web master to help us keep our web site as current as possible with the events and activities for our membership. Please be patient with us while we work to make these changes a reality.

Despite our board member losses, the remaining board members have continued to work towards the OHAAA vision and goals. We have held several great events and grew our membership from 70 in June to 89 members at the end of October. We initiated our first board member meeting on a university/college campus by holding our October board meeting at our host Owens Community College in Findlay. This event provided an opportunity for the board and the academic advisors to enjoy lunch and get to know one another. On November 6th OHAAA held a very successful Fall Seminar at Ohio University.

The Fall Seminar held at Ohio University was unique in that it was the first time OHAAA had both wonderful speakers and a panel of experts. Ohio Universities Provost, Dr. Pam Benoit, and Dr. David Descutner, Dean of University College and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education were the keynote speakers. Laura Chapman, Asst. Dean University College OU; Lillian Johnson, Asst. Dean University College WSU; Verne Walker, Asst. Dean of Students Owens Community College Findlay; and Dr. Sally Lozada , Asst. Provost Hocking College were the distinguished panel members that addressed the issue of Lean Times in Academic Advising along with several other hot topic issues.

The OHAAA Board is continuing to plan excellent events and programming for the future to bring our membership more opportunities to share and learn from each other. Mark your calendars and plan to attend our upcoming events. On the evening of January 28, 2010 OHAAA plans to hold a “Meet and Greet” in conjunction with the OCPA Annual Conference. Then on March 12, 2010 we will hold our Spring Seminar at Lourdes College in Sylvania Ohio. The theme of this seminar will be “Advising Non-Traditional Students”. Our Annual OHAAA Conference will be held on June 18, 2010 at the Fawcett Center on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Some additional dates worth noting are the Ohio College Personnel Association (OCPA) Annual Conference January 28-29, 2010 in Worthington Ohio. The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Region 5 Conference will be April 14-16 2010 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and the National NACADA Annual Conference will be October 3-6, 2010 at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The Ohio Transfer Council (OTC) will hold their annual conference in June 2010.

The OHAAA Board also plans to hold future board meetings at other host universities/ colleges around the state. We are working with OCPA and OTC to put together additional programming such as a Quarters to Semesters event in the near future. The board is always eager to hear from its members to see how we can provide the best programming and support to academic advisors in the state of Ohio. We encourage you to contact your OHAAA Board members with your ideas and suggestions along with your interest in getting involved. We love to hear from you.

In closing the OHAAA Board has been working on the following initiatives that promote the five goals we sent for our organization in June:

Do What We Do Best First - Provide quality conferences and regional seminars. I think the Board has done a great job of meeting or exceeding this goal. We have had a successful Fall Seminar with 45 advisors in attendance representing 13 different learning institutions and we have a Spring Seminar and Annual Conference in the planning stages.
Increase Quality Membership - OHAAA is only as good as its members. We have done several things to increase our membership including board member contact with specific learning institutions, open invitations for colleges to host the OHAAA board for monthly meetings, increased collaboration with other student affairs oriented organizations, and provided programming in different parts of the state to promote involvement across the state. We have improved membership by 19 % thus far and I think by bring on new board members we will be able to do even better in the New Year.
Increase Quality Communications – Provide the OHAAA membership with timely updates and information. The loss of our web master has hurt our ability to communicate as effectively as we would like. Hopefully, with a new web master on board and increasing our e-mail communication to the membership, I think we will improve on this goal in the New Year.
Build Collaboration – Identify ways to implement avenues for the OHAAA membership to collaborate with each other and with other beneficial organizations. We are continuing to work on this collaborative goal. With our interest in meeting OCPA members at their conference and inviting them to attend our annual conference, along with continuing work on common issues such as quarters to semesters with OTC, I anticipate that this collaboration will become more apparent as time goes on.
Develop and Provide Professional Development – Identify, create and provide opportunities for professional development for the OHAAA membership. We are promoting not only our own activities and events but those of NACADA and our collaborative partners such as OCPA and OTC. We are also continuing to support our members to attend these professional development events by offering professional development awards at our OHAAA functions. This will be an on going goal.

Dan Dakin

President Ohio Academic Advising Association 2009-2010

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2009 Year End Letter from the President