Senior Management Professionals at Conference

A big thanks to my friends on the Anaheim CPT...job well done.  A memorable and valuable conference experience for the association!  Looking forward to seeing many of you next year in NYC.  I'm out...

So what is a senior professional?  We engaged in some interesting discussion this morning.  Does senior professional connote VP or Dean or Vice Chancellor?  Is it merely holding the status of director of a facility or program?  Someone who has been in their position for more than 10 years, or simply more than 10 years in the profession?  Perhaps a professional who has significant supervisory, decision-making, and/or budget responsibilities in their position - regardless of title?

This is an opportunity for the leadership within ACUI to discuss.  Perhaps this is an opportunity for another community of practice.  Regardless, from personal experience this year, I can attest to the importance of bringing together director-level individuals (definitely to include assistant and associate directors with significant responsibility).  It is an opportunity for interaction, communication, and sharing at a level that is different from how I have seen myself and my responsibilities at previous annual conferences.

Many of us face important, tough decisions all the time.  The nature of these decisions, and certainly the implications of these decisions, may come with financial challenges that are beyond what we have seen in many years.  I appreciate the opportunity to connect with colleagues who are facing what we are facing, who understand our institutional challenges, and who can be a resource for those of us who need it.

Thank you ACUI for providing another opportunity to learn from and share with others in a supportive environment.  To the ACUI leadership and NYC-CPT:  This may simply be the opinion of one member, but as you look to next year with concern about making the conference both affordable, attractive, and accessible to our members, I urge you to continue the more formal networking opportunities, like SMPP.  And to look at including additional extended learning sessions, even paying to bring in presenters who can deliver solid, effective educational sessions.  If there is a chance it could come to this, cut the keynote budget first.  The core of ACUI is the smaller gatherings of colleagues, not a motivational speaker that many of us may forget about rather quickly.

It didn't take much.  Just a young person dancing on stage with a red hat.  This reminded me that I am of another generation.  Believe me, I'm aware I'm in an older generation, I've read about it and spent time here talking about it with colleagues.  But the red hat guy pretty much sealed the deal for me.

I realize California might not be the right setting to bring this up, but I now wear a tie to work every day.  When did that happen?  I'm using terms like budget analysis, and R&R, and F&E, and even saying crazy things like "how will that impact our long-term strategy?"  I can actually sit down with employees, colleagues, and students and confidently answer the questions that I used to ask.

How and why?  Certainly it's experience.  And mentorship from others.  ACUI and this conference has been a big part of that for me.  I spent yesterday in three sessions, and once again had the opportunity to gain so much in such a short time.  And the access to the presentations on the ACUI site following the conference this year will not only help me, but my colleagues back home who weren't able to make the trip this year.

This is not my first red hat realization.  I had one entering grad school, one after leaving grad school, and certainly one when I got married and had children.  I know more red hats are in my future, as they are for others.  I feel now, tho, that I have a responsibility to help others as they make their own transitions.  So many people have been there for me, I owe that back.

What a great night at Pomona College with colleagues!  I do wish we could have had a little more time to see the facility and surrounding campus while we were on site, but the experience was a great way to open the conference experience for me.  Many of us read a recent journal on the Millennial generation, and we had the opportunity to spend time with the editor of the publication.  The following morning (Sunday) we spent time together again, discussing the journal and our thoughts around managing and working with our current population of students.

The room of senior professionals roughly divided into 2/3 Boomers and 1/3 GenXers, which in and of itself led to some lively discussion about our own styles.  The Millennial generation poses some challenges to those of us a little farther removed from our own collegiate experience, as each of our own generations posed challenges to the ones before us.

Generally speaking, I came away from the morning feeling confident in knowing who our current students are, what motivates them, and how I can best connect with them.  I look forward to bringing the information back to my colleagues, as we begin to formulate new ways of working with and advising our students.

Arrive in Anaheim.  Check into hotel room.  Hug more people in a 5-minute walk to the ballroom than I have in the last 11 months.  Go do something Disney.  Such was my Saturday afternoon getting ready for my 12th annual conference.

Hello my ACUI friends.  Forever in the association's debt for many reasons, I have agreed to offer my insights on my experience as a senior professional at the annual conference this year.  Having just moved to the University of Minnesota Duluth last September, I have completed my first six months in my new role as Director of the Kirby Student Center.  Honestly (and hopefully my staff won't read this!), I feel much more like a newcomer than a senior professional.  Like each step before my last, I felt ready for this transition.  But I remain at the front end of a learning curve where I am just beginning to see around the corner.  Suddenly I am getting the credit for the great work of others in our facility, while feeling the pressure when our staff hasn't responded the way someone had hoped.

I received my foundation for this opportunity as a graduate student at South Carolina in Region 5, then moved to Region 9 and tested myself with stints of service at the University of Indianapolis and at the Indiana Memorial Union in Bloomington.  I have been touched by so many at those institutions and couldn't be doing what I am doing now without their support.  I have learned so much in a dozen years, yet I know I have much more to learn.  It is this reason that I signed up for the SMPP program this year.  Our group is well underway, having gathered last night at Pomona College and again this morning.  Details forthcoming, so check back in!

Follow Corbin Smyth as he blogs for the Senior Management Professionals about the 2009 ACUI annual conference in Anaheim!