President's Message
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Dear Colleagues, Greetings from the northern plains of North Dakota. My office at Bismarck State College has a magnificent view of the Missouri River and the fertile valley that surrounds it. This part of the country makes you very thankful for the outdoor opportunities and beautiful landscape we share. It's the dividend we receive for our sometimes challenging weather. Hopefully you or some colleague at your school had the opportunity to experience our CACUBO Annual Meeting in Cincinnati. The hospitality was great, the programs enriching and the meeting was a great example of why CACUBO is a good investment of your time and resources. I would like to thank Julee Sherman, past president, Tammy Martin, host committee chair and Kathy Qualls, program chair and all committee members for their timeless work to make this year's meeting a success. A new addition to this year's annual meeting was a separate program track for "Developing Business Office's for Tomorrow's Challenges." This initiative was very clearly of interest to our membership and the CACUBO Board of Directors will determine how to provide this curriculum in future professional development offerings. This past year has been challenging to all of us in Higher Education. The recession and resulting budget and enrollment impacts have made for challenging times. It's during these difficult times that CACUBO can facilitate by bringing professional colleagues together to share strategies and solutions through the experience of others. I encourage you to consider attending and/or sending key campus staff from your institution to one or more of this year's CACUBO Professional Development events. You will have an opportunity to do just that on February 10-11, 2010 when the St. Louis Workshop will be held at the Ballpark Hilton. You won't want to miss this 42nd annual event. Tom Corley and his committee will provide a program that develops management skills and technical competencies for business office staff. Also again this year a current issue workshop will be delivered on February 9, 2010. This will be a repeat of last year's pre-conference entitled "Success for Academic and Unit Business Officers." Due to last year's budget and travel restrictions in many states it was decided to offer this exceptional professional development value to our membership again. The pre-conference and regular St. Louis workshops are held at the same venue. Just arrive one day early and cash in on two workshops for business officers both internal and external to central administration. As always networking opportunities, information sharing and business partner interaction will also be featured. Registration and details can be found on CACUBO's website at http://www.CACUBO.org. In this past year the CACUBO Board of Directors made the difficult decision to discontinue the Collegiate Management Institute (CMI) in 2009 after 22 years of service. We have many CACUBO CMI volunteers and attendees to say "Thank You" to for the dedication and ardent support of CMI professional development. As a result of this action the CACUBO Board is working on a Request for Qualifications solicitation that will result in a Request for Proposal for a new leadership development program. The timeline we have established for this important work is to select a vendor in time for a new program marketing presentation at the 2010 annual meeting in Indianapolis in early October. The new leadership program will be delivered for the first time sometime in 2011. The calendar year is coming to a close and I'm sure everyone looks forward to better financial times ahead. But being pragmatic business officers we all share an ability to deal with the hand we are dealt. I for one am not surprised by the skills and ingenuity of those in our profession who provide sound financial leadership in good times and bad. During this holiday season be sure to take some time for reflection and to make sure you connect in your own way with loved ones, family, friends and colleagues and to give thanks for all that is good. Thank You for your support of CACUBO and Happy Holidays to one and all! DaveDave Clark (2012) |
