September President’s Update
Before I begin, I’d like to take one last opportunity to thank everyone involved in the planning and execution of the Spring Conference, especially members of the Steering Committee and the staff at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. It was a tremendous success.
Several new individuals have joined the Executive Board this year and I’d like to introduce them to you. In no particular order, I would like to welcome: Susan Cohen, The Cooper Union, co-chair of Government Relations; Dr. Patricia Peek, Fordham University, and Kent Rinehart, Marist College, co-chairs of Media, Marketing, and Technology; Timothy Lee, Hilbert College, co-chair of Membership; Laurie Austin, CUNY, co-chair of Professional Development; Christopher Doyle, Marist College, co-chair of Development; James Luciano, Union College, co-chair of the Newsletter; Kevin Reed, SUNY Geneseo, and Dennis Nicholson, Le Moyne College, College Delegates; Dave Motta, Niskayuna High School, High School Delegate; Donna Schaffner, Daemen College, and Kristen Neary, Niskayuna High School, co-chairs of College Fairs; and Jane Heaphy, Goddard Riverside Community Center, CBO liaison.
Please join me in welcoming these talented individuals to the team. For a complete list of 2007-08 NYSACAC Executive Board members, please visit our Web site (http://www.nysacac.org) or open the attachment below. In addition, many thanks to all of our board members for the past year, your help and expertise is much appreciated.
As of mid-August, membership stood at 1,217, which includes 346 new members. This represents an increase of 16 members from last year. My thanks go out to Andrea Nadler from Hofstra and Jennifer Hess from SUNY Buffalo for all their hard work in 2006-07 as co-chairs of the Membership Committee. In addition, the number of individuals from New York State that are members of NACAC grew considerably. Currently, we have 1,043 total members, an increase of 90 over the previous year. This increase provides us with two additional delegates at the national level. This brings our total number of delegates to 21, making New York the third largest State & Regional (S&R) (behind only Southern ACAC, 25, and New England ACAC, 24), and the largest single-state S&R. Please note that to better correspond with our fiscal year, we have changed our membership year to run from January through December beginning in 2008.
After months of hard work, our new Web site is up and running! Greg Wasserman and Jackie Pravda put forth a tremendous effort to revitalize the site. The site offers many new features, including:
• member email accounts
• online membership signup/renewal
• online financial transactions (Paypal)
• job postings
I invite you to visit us at http://www.nysacac.org . A special thank you to Joe Tweed, Past President, for spearheading this project during his presidency.
The organization’s fiscal health remains stable. While the 2006-07 accounting will not be complete until December, we hope to end the year with a balanced budget. However, there is a possibility that we may run a slight deficit for the year due to several new initiatives that impacted the operating budget this year, including the Web site redesign, hiring a full-time executive assistant, and securing office space in Albany (NYSACAC’s new home). All three of these initiatives position NYSACAC very well for the future. Our investment account with Merrill Lynch has been performing quite well. The account has realized significant gains this year and we currently have $280,000 in our investment portfolio.
Please note our new fiscal year will run from January 1 through December 31, starting in 2008.
As previously mentioned, we hired a full-time Executive Assistant. Riana Ardis, a 1999 graduate of Siena College, joined the NYSACAC team in July. You may contact Riana at 518-472-1977 or nysacac@nysacac.org for assistance. Please join me in welcoming Riana.
The Seedling Program was offered at two locations this year (CUNY Hunter College and Manhattan College) and 105 rising ninth graders took part in these programs. Overall, the programs were a huge success. Our goal for 2008 is to have at least five programs, one in each of the five New York City boroughs. Kudos to Committee members Carla Shere, Huthaifah Kareem, Njemile Davis, and Natalie Sandy.
It was another successful year for Camp College. Two Camp College programs took place this summer, July 12-15 and July 20-22 at Union College and SUNY Potsdam, respectively. SUNY Potsdam was the first ever SUNY school to hold a Camp College experience on their campus. A total of 139 students attended Camp College and had a wonderful experience. In addition, over 50 college admission and high school guidance professionals volunteered to serve as mentors and chaperones to the students. Thanks to all who gave of their time by participating in this program. Special thanks to Chris Milton and Karen Staller for their extraordinary effort.
The annual Summer Institute for new professionals, held at Skidmore College in July, was very successful again this year. My thanks to co-chairs Peter Farrell and Ann Wallace and all the volunteers for their hard work.
Our annual Executive Board Retreat was also hosted by Skidmore College in mid-August. New members of the Board were welcomed and the focus of our discussion centered on increasing membership, additional Web site enhancements to benefit members, and a more integrated approach to fundraising and sponsorship. The retreat was extremely productive, and members of the Executive Board are busy working toward our goals.
Fall 2007 kicks off with the NACAC National Conference, September 26th-29th in Austin, Texas. If you are there, please join us at the General Membership Meeting. This meeting will be held Thursday, the 27th from 4:15 – 6:00 pm at the Hilton Austin in Salons A/B . Following the meeting, please join us for a reception sponsored by Manhattanville College, the host for the 2008 NYSACAC Conference. Jose Flores, Vice President of Enrollment Management, and his team look forward to welcoming you. Please visit the NACAC website, http://www.nacacnet.org , for the complete conference schedule.
Thank you all for the great work you do. See you in Austin!
Sincerely,
Sean P. Kaylor
President
