CoSIDA 13: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Well, another CoSIDA is in the books, and from a professional standpoint, I believe I learned more from the programming at this session than I have learned at any of my previous conventions.
That’s not to say it was all sunshine and rainbows.
In my experience, the combined convention was a positive experience. I had the opportunity to visit with some of the most respected professionals in the industry and get some valuable insights just from striking up a conversation in the line at the hotel Starbucks.
And by the way, I think I may have an ownership stake in the World Center Marriott Starbucks after this week.
Having spent three years out of the business, the last convention I attended was San Antonio. And while much has changed in the years since that convention, much has remained the same. It was great to see old friends and catch up with them. We are members of a fraternity, and it seems to me that time doesn’t weaken those friendships.
With that said, my review of CoSIDA13 - the good, the bad, and the ugly. These opinions are my own.
1. Overall programming. Kudos to Eric McDowell and crew for putting together some very timely and informative programming. When it came to quality of programming, the convention program crew certainly elevated its game for this year’s event.
2. Academic All-America Hall of Fame. This one just goes without saying. Being able to display one of the best things we do in front of a larger audience is incredibly important.
3. Joint sessions with NACDA. I thought the “State of Intercollegiate Athletics” sessions were hard-hitting and excellent. My only regret is that the sessions weren’t longer - I know that some people didn’t want to ask questions during the media half because they didn’t want to cut Jay Bilas, Dan Wetzel, or Dan Wolken short. The AD session was excellent as well, and John Foley’s session was quite valuable too.
4. New Media and Social Media training. These sessions were valuable no matter what level of institution we serve - from the BCS institutions with armies of beat writers to the small schools who can’t even get their releases printed in a one-horse town’s weekly paper.
5. CoSIDA Hall of Fame. It’s an honor to see some of the best professionals and best people be recognized for the work they have done. I’ll always be glad that I got to see my friend Fred Stabley, Jr. go into the Hall of Fame.
THE BAD (In no particular order)
1. The sparse attendance at the CoSIDA business session. There were fewer people in attendance than at a Detroit Pistons game. We may have had more attendees at the D2SIDA meeting, and that’s no exaggeration. If we want our voices as professionals to be heard, we have to take an interest in “how the sausage is made”. Fault for this falls both on the general membership and on the organization. To the members, take some interest in how our organization is run. If you can’t take the time to be in the business meeting and engaged in the discussion, you’ll never have a say in how CoSIDA advocates for our profession. To the CoSIDA leadership - perhaps the business meeting shouldn’t be held while other events (like the table topics) are taking place. Perhaps it shouldn’t be held from 5:15 p.m.-5:45 p.m., particularly on the day of the only opportunity we’d be allowed to visit the NACDA Exhibit Hall (and I’ll get to that later). The bottom line is this - we are some of the best people in the world at recognizing our audience and tailoring messages to them. We find ways to get the story to people when people won’t come to the story. That’s the nature of our business. So why can’t the actual business meeting of our professional advocacy organization be scheduled for a time when we’d have a better opportunity for higher attendance? To put it another way, when I was the SID at Arkansas-Monticello, we coordinated two football coach hire press conferences at the University of Arkansas System office in Little Rock, nearly 90 miles away from campus. Why did we do that? Because the media wasn’t going to drive through the woods to come to Monticello, and it was important to us that this announcement be as widely covered as possible. We took the story to the media. Rather than burying the business meeting during dinner (or perhaps just as bad, at 8 a.m.), why not have our business meeting in a 10:30-noon window, possibly immediately preceding one of our two luncheons? The business meeting needs to be conducted in a higher-traffic time to encourage as much involvement from the rank-and-file as is possible.
2. Limited access to the NACDA exhibit hall. For people at Division I institutions, I would argue that this isn’t as important. However, as a Division II SID, my role includes operations, marketing, and more, those pesky “other duties as assigned.” The fact that our time in that space was limited to one evening did a disservice to the membership. From numerous conversations with fellow members, that one night’s access cost our organization a pretty penny per member. (Again, more on this later.)
3. The CoSIDA exhibit hall. I would love to see the number of exhibitors this year versus exhibitors in past years. I don’t think that it would be pretty.
1. That cost a lot of money. If the World Center had a pay phone, it would cost about ten bucks to make a local call. Yes, that’s an exaggeration. But at around $15 a day to park a car if you were staying on-site (and $15 per time in and out if you weren’t), that adds up quickly. Not to mention the costs of hotel food - and a lot of people went that way, because if you flew in and didn’t get a car, you were looking at a good $40 round trip to take a cab to get to a place where food was served because you certainly weren’t going to be walking anywhere. This in addition to the nearly $200 a night price tag. This certainly adds up quickly. And for a Division II director such as myself, the very limited access to the exhibition hall was a big added issue. I don’t know what kind of food they have in there when they weren’t doing the socials, but that one mixer was one time I didn’t have to drop any money on hotel restaurant food. None of these items by themselves are deal breakers, but it does leave me considering how I am going to handle my registration for next year. Do I stay on site, pay the CoSIDA registration and consider renting a car - or do I bite the bullet and pay for NACDA registration instead, knowing I can hit all the CoSIDA sessions, because I’ll have more access - and opportunities to save money by “grazing” - than I did with the blue lanyard?
All in all, I was very pleased with the programming content and the information presented. When the content was good, it was exceptionally good.
However, I believe we can get better, and I’d like to be a part of making that better. To that end, I’ve volunteered to serve on committees (have indicated an interest in three in particular). My name is attached to this post, and I don’t intend to lob criticisms from behind a pseudonym.
We all have varying levels of investment in our organization - and I am confident in the professionals we have serving our organization. My personal goal is to get more out of CoSIDA than I did during my first go-around in the business. Of course, I’m a little older and wiser now than I was then.
But at the end of the day, if we’re going to have a say we need to stand up and be counted. Well, here I am. I’m glad to be here. How can I help?
