From the President
Jeff Clark, James Madison University
Perhaps the crown jewel of CCUMC as a professional organization is its annual conference—and there’s no doubt our time in Lawrence, Kansas kept this jewel sparkling! “Wonderful” and “excellent” were comments often repeated by attendees, and these apply to the conference in every way. An excellent program of “variety and depth”—everything from streaming video to classroom technology support in all of their manifestations—was offered by presenters at our conference hotel and on campus at the University of Kansas. As always, we were treated to very special topics with a regional flair, too. Our Thursday dinner allowed us to marvel at the crop art of Stan Herd. Our Saturday lunch included a talk by the distinguished KU professor and filmmaker Kevin Willmott, on community filmmaking and his work. Sunday’s general session exposed us to the amazing photography of storm-chaser Mike Umscheid. There was our usual “great networking” (another conference comment)… with the real college-town atmosphere of Lawrence enhancing it to the hilt. And who’ll soon forget the irresistible Alfred Packer Memorial String Band at our Circle S Ranch outing?
All of this was made possible by key contributors who have been tireless in pursuit of success, and who deserve my warmest thanks. Brian Burns and president-elect Jane Hutchison co-chaired the Program Committee and delivered outstanding and relevant content. Our Executive Director, Aileen Scales, and her assistant, Kirsten Phillips, were masters of attention-to-detail in handling registrations and every sort of inquiry, the things that help make the experience had by conference attendees more pleasurable. deg farrelly deserves kudos for gathering and preparing our printed conference "Proceedings" as if he were already a seasoned hand at the task instead of tackling it for the first time. (You should find the updated, post-conference "Proceedings" available online at our www.ccumc.org web site, too.)
A large part of the success of a conference, and especially its unique character, is due to the imagination and hard work of our conference hosts. Susan Zvacek, Kathy Burchett and their expert staff deserve special recognition for making our Lawrence event one that CCUMC members will remember in years to come. Setting up the conference web site, arranging the special speakers, and dealing with all of the on-site logistics involved in keeping attendees informed and comfortable as their guests—for all of these things they deserve praise.
I include special thanks, as well to our corporate members who acted as conference sponsors. Long-time CCUMCers know that they truly are “members” and not only vendors. Their dedication in the form of sponsorship helps keep our conferences affordable for all.
Key qualities in keeping CCUMC vital are agility and responsiveness to your needs.
It was clear from our recent online membership survey (in aid of our strategic planning efforts) that a majority of respondents also participate in EDUCAUSE and/or InfoComm. Just as clearly, CCUMC must be offering all of us opportunities to communicate, to share solutions, experience and insights that we cannot obtain elsewhere. CCUMC should put this reality to good use, and exploit what we learn about mastering emerging challenges and technologies--just as we do in our conference activities--in an organized way visible both to our members and to the larger professional world. The participatory energy that starts with the LISTSERV, the conference, interest groups and committees, can carry through on CCUMC’s web site, whose capabilities are much greater than we’ve tapped thus far.
I welcome you to consider this to be a new “challenge,” as CCUMC strategically plans to keep our organization robust for the next four years.