Leadership Notes

Moving toward excellence

By Vicki Highstreet, CRSS, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NIRSA President

Greetings! Welcome to a new NIRSA year. What a great time we had in Austin at the Annual Conference. The Texas professionals and students were great hosts. They held to their reputation of doing it BIG in Texas. It was our largest attendance at a conference, EVER! Thanks to all who made this a memorable Conference. I’m reminded of a quote by Albert Schweitzer, “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” I hope those of you who attended the Conference had your flame rekindled. I know I did!

In this, my first Leadership Notes, I would like to encourage all of us to look toward the new year knowing that excellence is available to all who are willing to make the commitment. Sometimes just being on the right track is not good enough. You’ve heard the saying that “if you don’t move, you will probably get run over.” Think about this in terms of your own institutions and the work you do day-to-day. What ideas have you taken from a conference, workshop or another professional and modified to make a change in your own programming? Change is our only constant!

So what about NIRSA? How does this relate to our national association? NIRSA has had a great year with our educational events, our product delivery, and most recently our Annual Conference. We are fiscally sound and our reserves are where they need to be to provide for future activities and events. Our NIRSA Foundation reached the $1 Million Milestone while we were in Texas, and the NIRSA Services Corporation has had an outstanding year with major sponsors and well-attended National Campus Championship Series events. The question I ask myself and all of you is: “Is good enough where we want to be?” Are we using our most valuable resource, our members, in the most effective manner possible? The membership is the knowledge and know-how behind making us a great association.

Tom Kirch, during his term as your President, assigned seven professionals to what is known as the Governance Commission. Their charge was to look at our current governance and determine whether or not we were being efficient and effective in moving our association forward. This group of professionals then identified two more groups of members, the young leaders and the peer group. These two groups became the sounding board for the thoughts and ideas that were generated as the Commission researched and discussed the potential for something better. You heard about the development of a new governance structure at your Regional Conferences, Lead On Conferences, State Meetings, and through the NIRSA Know this past year. While the new structure is still in the developmental stage, those involved with the work have described this process as exciting, frustrating, engaging, rewarding, provoking, satisfying, exasperating, gratifying ... well, you get the point! We’ve had 60+ members working hard to make sure we’re looking at the governance for our association with the goal of moving forward - so we don’t get “run over!” There was designated time at a town hall meeting and at the Annual Business Meeting for further description, discussion, and questioning of where the process is taking us.

So, where are we now? The work is not done, but the structure is starting to take shape. The Commission has developed a structure that has three components, involving more members than ever in moving our association forward. Each component has roles and responsibilities which require skills and knowledge that, when combined with the others, will have us looking, not just good enough, but in the direction of excellence. My challenge to you is to visit with your colleagues, those on the Governance Commission, the young leaders, the peer group, and the current Board of Directors. Find out as much as you can about this process while also sharing your own thoughts. We have many opportunities this summer, fall and next spring to ask questions and provide feedback in order to ensure that our association’s governance is one that is efficient and moving us forward toward excellence. Don’t wait until you arrive in Charlotte next April to be informed.

I’m looking forward to a great year as your NIRSA President. I hope to see many of you throughout the year at conferences and events.

With warm regards,

Vicki