The 2005 CACUBO annual meeting was held in the Hilton Milwaukee City Center in the heart of Downtown Milwaukee October 16-19, 2005. The meeting provided an exceptional program that covered an extensive array of themes, ideas, and viewpoints which challenged the membership to "Build our Future". Ron Lostetter and his program committee are to be commended for their hard work and the great speakers they made available to the attendees. In addition, the attendees were treated to great food, a lovely facility, and ample time to interact and share ideas and insights with each other. 345 members attended the annual meeting. Business partners and guests in attendance totaled 269 for a total annual meeting attendance of 614. Seventy-two exhibit booths provided lots of opportunity for interaction with business partners and ample time was provided for members to get lots of information and questions answered by the exhibitors. Sodexho sponsored an internet lounge for the attendees which was heavily visited and greatly appreciated.

The annual meeting was once again a wonderful professional development event. Many thanks and our congratulations for a job well done, go to Sue Laskos and her host committee for providing an exceptional annual meeting experience. Warm thanks are also extended to all of our sponsors for their support of our program, meals, breaks, prizes, and all the little extras that make a CACUBO annual meeting so very special.

The meeting opened with caucus sessions by institutional type. These sessions were very well attended and discussion was animated as we shared common issues, challenges, and solutions with our peers. President Christine Jackson welcomed everyone to Milwaukee and the 2005 annual meeting. The opening general session was presented by Richard Teerlink, former CFO for Harley-Davidson, Inc., who gave a powerful presentation entitled "Things Have Got to Change".

Mr. Teerlink took us through the changes that Harley-Davidson made as they reinvented themselves and created a brand that is not only recognized worldwide, but that some people feel strongly enough about to wear. We thank ARAMARK Education for their sponsorship of Mr. Teerlink. The Sunday program concluded with a reception where old acquaintances were renewed and new ones were made. Our thanks go to Sodexho for their sponsorship of the Sunday evening reception which was a great success.

The Monday program opened with a general session by James Taylor entitled "Becoming Your Own Futurist". Mr. Taylor was a fascinating speaker who shared many very interesting statistics. He believes that there is a great deal of wealth that will be bestowed on charities in the next couple of decades and believes that higher education is missing a golden opportunity by not being more aggressive in asking the aging baby boomers to endowed their operations. He strongly urged the attendees to expand their fund raising efforts and to broaden the pool of those they ask for donations.

On Monday, attendees had the opportunity to pick three concurrent sessions from an offering of 13 different topics. It was very difficult to pick only three. In addition to the sessions on accounting and tax, there were sessions covering many different topics such as post 9/11 security issues, asset management, benchmarking, efficiency, athletics, leadership, and communications. Two very popular sessions dealt with cross generational differences in experience and expectations and how these differences impact our campuses. One session was focused on students, and the other session on the workplace. The attendees seemed very pleased with the quality and the applicability of the concurrent sessions, both from a content and presentation approach.

Monday evening's programming concluded with a reception at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Monday Museum Event.jpg Great food and beverages, coupled with the good company of colleagues, and a wonderful location resulted in an exceptional event. Many thanks to Johnson Controls, Inc. whose sponsorship made this wonderful event possible.

Dr. Clara Lovett, former president of the American Association of Higher Education, led off Tuesday's sessions with a discussion on the perspectives on federal government funding for higher education. Like Goldilocks, some people think we need more funding (e.g., the research community), some think we need less (e.g., the CATO Institutes with a 6-year plan to phase out all federal subsidies to higher education), and some think that the funding is just right (e.g., most members of Congress). Dr. Lovett also commented on the interesting component of the "just right" realm, the congressional "pork-barrel" funding and its unique characteristic of being completely free of needs assessment or peer review in the awarding process. She concluded her talk with comments about the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, newly formed by Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings. Dr. Lovett challenged the audience to rank their concerns on the future of higher education and to be ready to share them with the Commission as the opportunity presents itself. Our thanks go to the Commonfund for their sponsorship of Dr. Lovett.

Ten different concurrent sessions were presented on Tuesday and attendee's had the opportunity to attend the two of their choice. Concurrent session topics included student expectations, 9/11 consequences on international programs, parking issues, benchmarking, risk transfer in design and construction, as well as a several sessions with a focus on budget implications. These included revenue strategies development, utilities challenges, health care, responsibility center budgeting, and cost saving initiatives. Lots of wonderful ideas were shared by the presenters and in the open discussions with attendees.

The vendor area was very busy on both Monday and Tuesday. Breakfast, lunch and breaks were served in the exhibit hall on Monday as well as Tuesday morning's breakfast and break. This provided lots of time for interaction with our business partners. Our thanks to Campus Management corporation and Janus Institutional Asset Management/INTECH for their sponsorship of Monday's lunch and breakfast. Thanks also to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, LLP for their sponsorship of our annual business meeting luncheon on Tuesday and to College Book Stores of America, Inc. for sponsoring the conference bags.

The program closed with a wonderful general session by The Passing Zone called Teamwork: Building block for Success. Their program showed very clearly the value of teamwork and the importance of communication, synchronization, cooperation and trust in creating a successful team result. The session brought laughter and greater understanding to the group and definitely ended the meeting on a high note.

Our Tuesday evening festivities began with hospitality suites sponsored by George K. Baum & Company, SSC Service Solutions, and Custom Energy. The fun continued with a Happy Days themed dinner and dance sponsored by Follett Higher Education Group. Our thanks to our sponsors for making this fun evening possible and to the attendees who got into the spirit with their 50's attire! It was a great way to end a great professional development experience.