Timing is Everything

One of the challenges in publishing, as most of you know all too well, is the timing. There are due dates to permit editing and publishing and the timeliness of the contents also needs to be considered. This month’s article is a fairly good example, to meet the publishing deadline it needed to be delivered one week before our January Board meeting. We will be meeting in Providence, the site of our 2012 conference and the agenda is quite full. We will be reviewing the 2012 budget prepared by John Drysdale, Kevin Anderson and the finance committee, hearing reports on the many activities occurring in our Federations, getting some last minute guidance and information regarding the launch of the Industry toolkit and learning all about the plans our conference committee has developed to make our annual conference something you won’t want to miss… I promise to report more in our March edition.

While preparing for the board meeting I have been amazed by the amount of work our Committee Chairs and members, Federation officers, and Board members have accomplished in the past few months. In a volunteer organization such as ours this dedication speaks volumes for the interest we have in fellow members and the value perceived in membership. Having served in other volunteer associations I find the spirit in ICHRIE to be unique: people are always willing to help! Most of our members have schedules that are already bursting; teaching, research, administrative duties and meetings and yet they find time to assist local charities and community projects as well as to contribute to ICHRIE.

If we look back two years ago our Federations were just established, not all the federation board positions had been filled and people were still a bit unsure of where our new strategic plan was leading us. Today we have six active federations which are holding regional conferences, hosting events and providing more local networking opportunities for educators, industry and students. Our strategic plan is ready for a second revision and the Strategic Planning committee led by Josette Katz will be surveying you shortly to make sure ICHRIE will continue to meet your expectations in the years to come.

We have a new electronic journal and the editors and reviewers of all our publications have assured a consistent level of quality that we can be proud of. The Career Academy offered each year on the Wednesday before the conference as a great way to sharpen skills or develop new talents added Leadership to the Teaching and Research Academies in 2011. This year the programs for all three academies will provide our members a great opportunity for professional development. At the Eta Sigma Delta breakfast it was wonderful to hear about how our members have sparked students’ interest not only for our industry but also in providing service to others. These are just a few examples of your volunteerism at work. Thanks to each of you who has contributed so much!