News

Update from NIRSA Governance Commission

Group solicits member feedback and reviews governance practices

George Brown	Tony Clements	Mick Deluca	Tom Dison
Kathleen Hatch	Sam Hirt	Maureen McGonagle

As introduced in the July 2007 issue of the NIRSA Know, a NIRSA Governance Commission was created to examine the Association’s leadership structure, governance process, and ultimately report back to the NIRSA Board of Directors with a recommendation.

Commission members include:

• Mick Deluca, UCLA (Team Facilitator)
• George Brown, University of Alabama
• Tony Clements, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Tom Dison, The University of Texas at Austin
• Kathleen Hatch, Washington State University
• Sam Hirt, Vanderbilt University
• Maureen McGonagle, DePaul University
• Karen Bach, NNC Staff Liaison

Over the summer, the commission has accomplished the following:

• Appointed 24 NIRSA Members to a Young Leaders Advisory Group and 23 NIRSA Members to a Senior Leaders Peer Group. Great effort was made to balance experience, regional affiliation, and demographic diversity on these advisory groups.
• Conducted an online survey and multiple teleconferences with the Young Leaders to garner feedback about various governance issues, including:
  • barriers to standing for office
  • effectiveness of the current candidate recruitment process
  • understanding of board roles and responsibilities
  • feedback on leadership training that is, or should be, provided by NIRSA
  • specific training areas essential to being an informed elected officer
  • the role of committees
  • opportunities for giving input about decisions facing the Association
• Conducted interviews with other higher education associations about their governance practices. A total of 12 member associations of the Council of Higher Education Management Associations (CHEMA) have agreed to participate in the NIRSA-led interviews, which will allow the commission to learn more about other associations’ current governance models for comparative purposes. The interview questions include both opinion-oriented and specific data-driven queries. The final report will include aggregate information from all interviews.
• Prepared initial NIRSA Governance Commission Objectives chart [PDF]. This document highlights the various areas of focus for the commission.

The NIRSA Governance Commission will continue to solicit additional input from members in order to make recommendations to the NIRSA Board of Directors.