The NACADA Board of Directors is the official governing body of the Association, and provides direction for the Association by developing and maintaining the Association's strategic plan.
Board of Directors - 3 positions available, three-year term each (October 2014-October 2017). Nominees must have served a full term as a Chair of a Division level sub-unit (region, committee, commission).
Ms. Dawn Fettig
University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder CO
Platform
Platform Statement: Part I
1. If elected to this position, what will you attempt to accomplish that will help to meet the strategic goals of the Association?
I have had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in many levels of leadership within the NACADA organization. While a three year term may sound like a lot of time, I know from experience it passes in the blink of an eye. Thinking about that short time, there is one area in which I would like to focus that I think falls under five of the seven strategic goals, and that is our “mid-career” advisors.
I have been fortunate enough to attend the last seven annual conferences and have read presentation proposals for the last four. What I discovered is that we are, in many cases, repeating ourselves in terms of the topics we are offering at these conferences. Why is this important? Because experienced advisors and administrators are choosing not to participate in NACADA’s professional development opportunities because they do not feel they are learning anything new. With limited funding they are choosing instead to send the new advisors or new administrators while those voices of...
I have had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in many levels of leadership within the NACADA organization. While a three year term may sound like a lot of time, I know from experience it passes in the blink of an eye. Thinking about that short time, there is one area in which I would like to focus that I think falls under five of the seven strategic goals, and that is our “mid-career” advisors.
I have been fortunate enough to attend the last seven annual conferences and have read presentation proposals for the last four. What I discovered is that we are, in many cases, repeating ourselves in terms of the topics we are offering at these conferences. Why is this important? Because experienced advisors and administrators are choosing not to participate in NACADA’s professional development opportunities because they do not feel they are learning anything new. With limited funding they are choosing instead to send the new advisors or new administrators while those voices of experience stay home and cover the office.
NACADA is exceptional at meeting the professional development needs of graduate students hoping to get into the advising profession, brand new advisors, faculty that now have to take on advising duties, and new advising administrators. The group we are missing is those long time advisors who “just” want to be an advisor. They love working with students, they have strong institutional knowledge bases, and they have no interest in climbing the administrative ladder.
I would like to propose that we address this issue by adding a conference track for experienced advisors. Making sure we have advanced sessions at our conferences (and in our webinars). We should be recruiting our very experienced advisors to present “advanced” topics. We should be asking them to read presentation proposals, not for any particular commission or interest group, but rather for content that goes above and beyond the basics.
There are plenty of other areas where the Board of Directors can work to make our professional organization better, but this is one area where I believe my unique expertise would be most valuable.
Platform Statement: Part II
2. Describe an accomplishment on your own campus or within NACADA of which you are proud. What do you believe your accomplishment demonstrates about your abilities as a leader?
Easily the accomplishment I am most proud of is the 2011 Annual Conference in Denver. Of course there is tremendous support from the NACADA Executive Office, but as the Conference Chair I felt responsible for every aspect of the conference. Choosing the conference planning committee was the key to a successful conference and I think says a lot about my leadership style. I thought about the various roles on the conference planning committee and what skills would be needed to make the positions outstanding. Then I thought about the people around me that had a natural affinity for those skills. I wanted both people who had proven skills and those that showed a lot of promise. I believe that we are happiest and most productive when we do what we are good at – this is what made me choose each person on my extraordinary team. Then, with 100% trust and 0% worry, I let them do their jobs. To this day I still get compliments on the conference and my team members.
Another thing that is one...
Easily the accomplishment I am most proud of is the 2011 Annual Conference in Denver. Of course there is tremendous support from the NACADA Executive Office, but as the Conference Chair I felt responsible for every aspect of the conference. Choosing the conference planning committee was the key to a successful conference and I think says a lot about my leadership style. I thought about the various roles on the conference planning committee and what skills would be needed to make the positions outstanding. Then I thought about the people around me that had a natural affinity for those skills. I wanted both people who had proven skills and those that showed a lot of promise. I believe that we are happiest and most productive when we do what we are good at – this is what made me choose each person on my extraordinary team. Then, with 100% trust and 0% worry, I let them do their jobs. To this day I still get compliments on the conference and my team members.
Another thing that is one of my strengths is analyzing data. For the conference in Denver I read every presentation proposal. I trusted the Commissions to make the decisions on their best and brightest, but then I also wanted to be fair and consistent. I created a spreadsheet to track the various commission and interest groups. With this data I was able to make sure that each of these groups had around 50% of their proposal submissions accepted for the conference. Again, I think consistency and fairness drive my decisions as a leader.
Platform Statement: Part III
3. Why are you interested in serving in this leadership position or what influenced you to run for this leadership position? As I said earlier I have had so many wonderful opportunities through NACADA in the past 13 years, this would be my chance to serve the organization that has given me so much on both a professional and personal level. I spent five years in leadership positions in Region 10, as a steering committee member and Region 10 Chair. I served for four years on the Annual Conference Advisory Board and have just started in October on the Academic Advising Consulting and Speaker Service Advisory Board.
Chairing the 2011 Annual Conference gave me a much broader view of the organization and I believe my personal experience will be an asset to the Board of Directors.
Past Involvement in NACADA
4. Outline your past involvement in NACADA:
a. Years in NACADA
b. National Offices Help and Accomplishments Achieved
c. Regional Activities/Offices Held, including accomplishments achieved in office
d. Etc.
a. Years in NACADA – 13 years
b. National Offices Held and Accomplishments Achieved –
• Academic Advising Consulting and Speaker Service Advisory Board - 2013 to present - as an incoming member of this advisory board I hope to make significant contributions to the board for this member service.
• Advisor Training & Development Commission, Steering Committee Member - 2014 - incoming member.
• Annual Conference Advisory Board – 2010 to 2013 – Provided testing of e-commerce site, Pre-conference subcommittee member, Survey subcommittee member, Graduate Student Scholarship reader.
• Annual Conference Chair 2011, Denver, Colorado – Provided leadership for hand-selected team to plan and coordinate the Annual Conference for over 2,800 participants.
• Committee on Name Change, 2009 – provided feedback on the proposed name change to reflect the increasing global mission of NACADA – The Global Community for Academic Advising.
c. Regional Activities/Offices...
a. Years in NACADA – 13 years
b. National Offices Held and Accomplishments Achieved –
• Academic Advising Consulting and Speaker Service Advisory Board - 2013 to present - as an incoming member of this advisory board I hope to make significant contributions to the board for this member service.
• Advisor Training & Development Commission, Steering Committee Member - 2014 - incoming member.
• Annual Conference Advisory Board – 2010 to 2013 – Provided testing of e-commerce site, Pre-conference subcommittee member, Survey subcommittee member, Graduate Student Scholarship reader.
• Annual Conference Chair 2011, Denver, Colorado – Provided leadership for hand-selected team to plan and coordinate the Annual Conference for over 2,800 participants.
• Committee on Name Change, 2009 – provided feedback on the proposed name change to reflect the increasing global mission of NACADA – The Global Community for Academic Advising.
c. Regional Activities/Offices Held, including accomplishments achieved in office
• Program Chair, 2005 Rocky Mountain Region 10 Conference. Oversaw committee to read and select conference presentation proposals. Created layout & design of conference program.
• Regional Chair, 2007- 2010 Rocky Mountains Region 10 (elected to 2008-10 term). Initiatives: established scholarships for attendance to both regional and national conferences. Initiated revision of bylaws to create and smooth transition between the in-coming & outgoing Chair and state liaison positions, creation of CO/WY ACADA affiliate member and listserv
• Steering Committee Member, Region 10 Colorado liaison 2006 through 2011 (Chair from 2007 to 2010)
d. Etc.
• 2012 Outstanding Advising Administrator Award – Certificate of Merit Recipient
• Presenter on training and professional development topics at several NACADA regional and annual conferences (2002 – 2013)
• Strengths Quest Educator, 2011 – Relator, Connectedness, Learner, Analytical, Developer
• Advisor Day – 2009 to present - developed campus wide professional development day for anyone interested in advising and advising related topics
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