Yeah, good morning everyone and welcome to the case district five together know before you go for our upcoming district conference and we appreciate you joining us. As the, this is just one of a series of together's which are complimentary from case both at the district level and across all of our members to have an opportunity to learn and before we dive into the conference I did want to highlight some other upcoming March 20, we will have one about accessibility and advancement with. So look for your emails for that and then case is doing one on the third or the fourth Friday. Let me back up about a career deep dive, it's always held on the fourth Thursday of every month and the next one is developing your career roadmap so we always like to highlight the different ones available, but today our focus is on the upcoming district conference how to make the most of it. Some highlights and time can one of our conference and really district crown jewels the new to the profession program. So, I am going to, I am Sue frost I'm the district vice chair and then I'm going to hand it over to Keely Ashman, who works at the University of Illinois and is our fabulous district five conference chair and district five cabinet member and Billy Falk, who's at St Norbert's University and is does with Courtney Barrett, a lot with our new to the profession and is also a district five member of our cabinet, so I'm going to hand it over to them will do a brief overview of program but the biggest bulk of today will be to answer your questions. And before we start just a quick question for you either by show of hands or in the chat. How many of you will this be the first time that you've attended a district conference. Great. Well, we're excited to thanks for taking the extra step to learn more about it. And throughout this one is you've got questions as some of you are you're welcome to put them in the chat or raise your hand and I will be helping to monitor that so Billy and Courtney. Hello Courtney and Keely take it away. Thanks. Okay Keely let me bring up our beautiful PowerPoint. Fantastic and welcome everyone. I'm so excited to see so many first timers. That's super exciting I remember my first time which was almost 10 years ago. That seems crazy to think about but we're so excited you're here I can't wait to hear all of your different questions will give you kind of a brief overview about the conference and things that you should kind of be aware of before you attend. And then we'll just open it up so that you guys can ask all the questions there are no dumb questions so feel free to ask all the things. Either as we get going, or at the end. So, yay. Welcome. I think first up, if Billy will advance to the next slide. We're going to talk a little bit about our conference program. I will say that I've been on the program side of the house for many of the years that I've been a part of CASE, and I am so excited about our program this year. We had the most session proposals that I've ever seen we had 86 session proposals submitted for this conference. And which is like a lot, and they were all amazing so really excited about our program. But I think what is going to be of a lot of interest to all of you first timers is our new to the profession pre conference workshop and I will pass it over to Billy to tell us more a little bit about that. Thank you very much, Kaylee. It is really an honor to be here with you guys. My name is Billy Falk as Sue and Kaylee shared, I have been involved with CASE for almost 15 years. My first conference was way back in the day in 2008 and at that moment I volunteered and Kaylee will talk about volunteering later in the presentation. But CASE has become like a unique mentor support a family to me away from home. I've been able to transition and use CASE to help me get new jobs grow my career and it's been an honor to serve in both the conference planning committee. I've worked in multiple ways there and volunteer to multiple ways there. I was the actual conference chair, a few years back, I was able to work with Kaylee and then now I am honored to be a part of the cabinet with Sue in terms of leading the district as we work through. The why I'm here today is not because of conference chair or any of that work. It is because of the work that Courtney Barrett, who has joined us today, and I work on. For the last few years, we have done a great program that's called New to the Profession and it's a six month long program that is an option for you to join as you're new to the profession. So this is a sort of a runway, if you will, to talk about the importance of CASE to have a place to talk about just the woes of higher ed right now we are we are in the stretches of it. And it's a place to learn to grow and to hit a ton of learning outcomes that we that I did not put in the slide because it's boring. But I can promise you that they're fun and that Courtney and I are expert facilitators and doing this and we will we will do it. For those of you that have signed up for the pre-con workshop, that's where you will first meet Courtney and I in action at the conference. And that we will be walking through sort of what's on that slide, but disk assessment, expert led experiences, networking opportunities, informal mentor pairing. We'll deep dive into the difference between alumni and advancement and advancement services and how does this marketing communications fit into the overall case. What is CASE? We do a deep dive into that. It's just a ton of fun. And if you're not already signed up for the pre-con workshop, we can still do that. If you do it on your registration, you can just add it. It's just a wonderful way to sort of take a break, get used to get used to have a conference in this nature. We call it a new to the profession for a variety of reasons. Some of you on the call looking at pictures, not to judge a picture by a book by its picture, but it's not about being young. This is about being new to the profession. Right. A lot of people join us from 40 years of sales experience. And then now they're becoming a gift officer. They're becoming a major gift officer. Our program and Courtney and I are here to help you go from that new unseasoned steak to a seasoned veteran in no time. And whether you're a cauliflower steak or a filet mignon, we will accept you and love you the whole way about. Courtney and I are happy to share our LinkedIn and our emails on the chat. I'm assuming if I know Courtney, she's already done that in the chat already. So you can start to chat with us. You can get to know us if you don't. And you can't afford the NTP workshop. Your institution's like, no, we have budget cuts. We're working through this. Do not worry. You send us an email and we will help. We will navigate with you as we work through welcoming you to both case five and to new to the profession. I will pass it back to Keely as we work through the rest of our presentation and I might jump in and out here just to help Keely out. But Keely, you are chair of the conference. Back to you. Yay. Thanks. I also wanted to say that on my very first conference 10 years ago, I also attended the new to the profession pre conference. In fact, I think I met Courtney during that. And I have to say, for those of you who might be on the fence about whether or not to add that to your conference registration, I will say that the conference for your very first time can feel a little overwhelming. There's a lot of people. There's a lot of options. And it is just a great way to feel a part of a group. It really made me feel like I had people when I walked into a session later on in the conference, I was like, oh, hey, I sat next to her at the new to the profession. I know her and now it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming. So just a really great way to kind of dip your toe into the conference before it starts and really kind of get yourself wrapped around other people in a similar situation. So highly I couldn't recommend it enough. But if you are not doing that, that is still OK, because, like I had said earlier, 86 sessions were proposed. We read through all of them. We were only able to choose 46. So I just can't tell you enough how excited I am about this program. There are so many different options to attend, and most of the sessions are arranged by tracks. We have four primary tracks that we kind of try to look through sessions. The lenses we look through that would be kind of alumni engagement, communication and marketing, fundraising and then advancement operations. So there is something for everyone. Just because you're in alumni engagement doesn't mean that you only have to attend the alumni engagement sessions. I for myself, I no longer only look through one track in my job. I do communication. I help with fundraising. I do a little advancement operations. So as I'm looking through those session options, sometimes I'm jumping in and out because I do more than just one thing in my job. So feel free to attend anything that's interesting to you. And then on Monday morning, so sessions are offered throughout all three days of the conference. But then Monday morning for breakfast, we also do table discussions that we call them roundtable discussions. And these are a way for you to get even more information and have those really kind of tough conversations, but more in an intimate, casual environment. You sit, you have a coffee, you have breakfast, and there will be someone leading those 20 different table options. And we encourage you to take advantage of those as well during the conference. Billy, anything to add about our program side of the house? I would also say that sometimes people feel like, you know, you read a program session, and you think it's going to be about one thing. And then all of a sudden, you're sitting in the session, you're like, this is not what I kind of thought or read. I will tell you that the program chairs and the program work really hard to make sure that happens. But what I'm saying is, it is perfectly okay to stand up and get out and go to different sessions. I wouldn't sit in the front if you're going to do that, but I sit in the back or in the middle sections. And I might try to hit, if there are two sessions that really sound awesome to me, I try to hit half and half. Unless one of my partners and my colleagues are there, then we divvy and conquer up the schedule. We meet out for breakfast, or we do the night before, we will download the app and we'll start to talk about who from our areas are going to what thing. But do not feel like if you are going by yourself, and do not feel like if you have to be in that session, that you are dedicated to that chair. Just be mindful as you stand up for others that are in the conference sessions. Perfect. And that is also good to know that a lot of the presenters will, so like to Billy's point, if there were two sessions you were really interested in, and you only were able to go to one, a lot of the time the presenters will upload their presentation slides to the app so that you can view those even after the conference. During the conference, we are giving out three amazing awards to some fantastic colleagues in District 5. These, I won't read them, you can clearly see what we're giving out and who we're giving them to. But we're really excited. We have three kind of keynote plenary for the entire conference to come together throughout the conference. And at each of those, we will give out one award. So those will be spread throughout the conference. And we're really excited to talk more about these people and the things, the amazing work that they're doing. And so, yeah, I'm super excited for them to receive their awards. And then speaking of, here are two of our keynote speakers. We are super thrilled. Sue Cunningham, the CEO and president of CASE, was only able, due to her schedule, to attend one district conference this year. And we are pretty thrilled that she has picked District 5 to attend. So she will be on site and she will be leading and emceeing the president's panel discussion that will be on the second day of the conference. I'm really excited to hear. I have a feeling that it's going to be those conversations that are top of mind that might be tricky or challenging for higher ed in today's landscape. So I'm really excited to hear from some leaders and kind of hear their thoughts and some insights into things that we're all dealing with. So I think that is going to be a really great discussion. I'm really looking forward to that. And then Marianne Lewis, the dean of the College of Business from University of Cincinnati, will be kicking off the conference on Sunday. She has written, I have read her book, she wrote it, about if and thinking. It's just really captivating to help you kind of think through tensions and all of these things that come up in our jobs that kind of make it hard for us to make those tough decisions. And so she'll be talking about kind of embracing that type of mindset. So really excited to hear from both of those. And then more to come on our closing keynote speaker. We're still finalizing that, but I'm sure it will be a thrilling and captivating closing to our conference as well. So super excited. If you couldn't tell. All right. I am super excited. So truth be told, people, I feel so good about the program. I've said it many times already. And so I feel like because we have such a strong program this year, we were able, with the help of my amazing conference committee and my engagement team, we have really dived in, dived in, dove in to really bring some fun conference engagement for you guys. And I'm really thrilled about that as well. So some of the things that we are going to be doing during the conference are our dine arounds. So what that is, is after the conference ends for the day, usually around six o'clock each day, we will have opportunities for our extroverted friends out there to participate in some dine around, which are basically dinner, engagement, networking opportunities, usually for eight to 10 people. There will be opportunities through the app for you to sign up for those. See where you might be. Some local Chicago restaurants that we've selected for you. Really excited about the offerings that we have for this. It's just a great way to go, go grab dinner, have some drinks, talk with some people, network. Just super fun. So definitely look at those. Each night we will also have Chicago activities. So we realize that a lot of people attending the conference, this might be your first time in Chicago, or this might be a trip that you don't get to take to the Chicago area very often. And you really want to get out there and into the community and do some fun activities. So one of the nights we are doing a tiki bar river drink around. I know sounds super exciting. I might attend because it sounds super fun. But basically we want to give people the opportunity to go have some cocktails on the river and see Chicago kind of from a different perspective. So there will be someone that will lead this group and kind of take you from establishment to establishment. And it's another way for you to connect and network with like minded people. We're also doing an improv comedy club on Monday night. I'm super excited about. We've done this in the past. Super fun. It's their 65th anniversary. So it should be a really fun improv night. Second City is what it's called. And then last but not least, exhibit hall. We are we do a lot of our engagement throughout the conference in the exhibit hall. All of our breaks will be in there. We'll have a reception the first night. So we'll have cocktails. But really make sure that you're taking a moment, introducing yourself to the vendors, seeing what they offer. A lot of the vendors that will be attending are a lot of our institutions are utilizing their products. So really take it. Take a moment. Walk around. See what they have to offer. And there's a lot of vendors that will have like ways that you can sign up for prizes. And then the conference committee is also doing a fun prize that you can take advantage of. And I believe I have that on the next slide. And I'll jump to that in a second. Two things about the dine arounds and the exhibit hall that I want to share with all of you. Exhibit hall can be very it's a it can be a very challenging environment for folks that are not key decision makers. Right. So like if you're walking up and there are modules is there and they want to talk to you about, hey, they really want to sell modules to your institution. You may not be in a position where you're the VP or somebody that is making those decisions. But still have those conversations with them. Understand the products that they offer. Understand. You know, talk about your institution. Talk about the programs that you're offering. They understand that not everybody there can be the key decision maker. But if those are our products and those are things that you think would value your institution, please grab their business card. Take them back as a key decision maker myself. I enjoy when people come back to me with, hey, I went to this booth. I met this person. Here's a here's a product that I think would really help St. Norbert College. I'm happy to have a conversation with that staff member about whether it's a budget implication that doesn't allow us to do that. Or in some cases, we've gone with that program for a couple of years. So do not feel like you cannot make an impact down in the exhibit hall. And it's a lot of fun. It's a great place to meet people. I also have not that I'm trying to get people out of higher ed, but that is an opportunity. Right. Like there's a lot of folks that worked at Case as a volunteer. And now we're there as exhibitors because they were so enthralled with some of those programs that they went into working for those companies. So you just never know where these partnerships and mentorships can go for the dine arounds. Do not feel like if you don't drink or if you're a vegetarian or if you have other things. Those things are all taken care of. This is a professional conference, so we shouldn't. This is not like a college age gathering here or a football tailgate party. These are we are professionals. We are. We all have those professional boundaries in place. So feel free to join us in on a March tiki. Get yourselves in those spring fever events. Even if you don't feel like you'd like to participate in any of the drinking or eating festivities. We still want your presence and want you to sign up. Take advantage of all of these engagement things. The first conference I went to, you know, I was so I was nervous. Right. And I'm an extrovert, so I can't imagine. So, like, I went up to my hotel room. I took a nap. It felt so I was like, I might, you know, a couple. It was a mistake. Get to know people. Spend that time. Take care of yourself if you need to sleep, sleep. But if otherwise, if you want to be a you want to network and mingle as much as you possibly can now. Thank you, Keely. Here's your. Bingo. Perfect. I am surprised at myself for not putting information on one of these slides. I really thought I had put it on this slide. We do recognize those of us on the engagement committee that not everyone is an extrovert like Billy. And some of us are introverts. And being at a conference can feel draining. We we see you and we hear you. We have purposefully added some engagement opportunities into our program for those that are introverted. One that I'm really excited about on Monday evening, while those extroverts might want to go to the comedy club and laugh and network. We are also doing a it's called our book bliss hour. and it is an opportunity for a group to walk over to the historic Chicago Athletic Association club and we are going to have an hour where you can have a drink or not and read your own book in quiet. If you feel like you want to talk you can, if you feel like you don't want to talk you don't have to. So I'm super excited I'm not gonna lie I would love to do that book hour bliss but alas as the conference chair I don't get to do those quiet things. So yay I'm so excited to see some people in the chat saying yes to that. There are a couple other we're doing a museum sorry my brain would not come up with the word we're doing a museum tour again for those introverts walk around take in some of the Chicago community so yes make sure that you're looking in the app for all of those introverted extroverted engagement opportunities. We are also doing some games back to the slide we're doing an engagement bingo again there's going to be a lot of different options on that bingo card one could be that you talk to a stranger hopefully you are all able to mark that off your bingo list but bingo should be fun if you fill out your bingo card you'll turn those in and you will get a chance to win some prizes so super excited about that. In the exhibit hall we were we are doing a pop a shot basketball game the conference is going on during March Madness so we're leaning into the March Madness theme this year and if you do some different engagement opportunities throughout the conference you will earn some tokens and once you earn three tokens you get to see if you can shoot more baskets in 30 seconds than anyone else and if you do you can win a prize. So I know there's a lot of prize oriented people on this call so this is for you you're gonna you're gonna thrive at the conference this year and then one of the days we're doing a networking lunch and we are going to have some trivia so I hope you know a little bit about Chicago maybe a little bit about March Madness and if if at anything hopefully you know a little bit about advancement so we will have some fun trivia that's going on during lunch. Keely there's a quick question I got as a private one for things like the book bliss hour you're mentioning do people need to register for that or is it just show up head over? Yep so it's actually a little bit of both we would love to know if you can come and through the app which we'll talk about next there will be a place on the app where you can see the different engagement opportunities that you can sign up for so if you wanted to go to one of those dine arounds or you want to go to book our bliss you can sign up for those but that does not mean that if you decide at the last minute that you want to just show up please feel free to still do that. It's just more to let our volunteer who is in charge of kind of making sure that that group gets to where you're going that they kind of know how many people they're expecting and making sure that they're helping everyone get where they need to go so if you can register if you can register that would be great but don't feel like you can't decide at the last minute to come. All right conference app. Billy would you like to speak a little bit about the conference app? Absolutely I can Keely. The conference app is where your number one place for all information right so we if you go online you can see all the programs you can see those all at the district five conference website but a few weeks before the conference our case colleagues over at case headquarters in DC will populate the app and all of the program materials and then an email will be sent to all registered attendees letting them know that the app is available to download. You're more than welcome to download it in advance like I do right and wait patiently wait for it but this is the screen you can go into I don't use an android phone so my apologies but if you go into the app store you can type in case and counsel and support and you and you can find it and then you can search for an event. I will tell you you don't need to do this now because ours is not out there yet because we're still about a little over a month and changes are being made as the programming and Keely's team still put details together but I'm assuming this group and all groups nowadays right there's even apps to get guests you know discounts at the gas station so we would download the app for your notifications to make sure that if there's a scheduling change that this is where you'd find it. Let's say two presenters go down with the flu we would alert people through the app that that that is not happening or it went virtual or however Keely and her team are handling those things as it depends on those cancellations. In the app you'll be able to look at the full schedule you'll be able to like register for different things you can let us know which ones you're coming to it's very helpful if you can do that. It helps it helps the conference planning committee know what who what kind of what what sessions are popular what what they how big the rooms need to be as we start to work through programming and space areas. So look for it like I said an email will come a couple days a couple weeks before and then you'll also be able to if you don't want to do that and you want to just show up at the conference we'll give you directions at registration desk on how to download the app and get it going so it's nothing that you'll miss out on. Yes one more thing about the app that I wanted to mention is that one of the features that I love about the app is that you can see the entire schedule but then you can build your own schedule and if you're like me who is a pre-planner when I get the email that it's live I go in and I start kind of building oh I want to make sure I go to that reception I really want to make sure I sign up for that engagement opportunity you know on Sunday these are the sessions that I'm the most interested in and so then you can still see the full schedule but then on another screen you can see the ones that you know you really want to go to and it just helps me kind of plan my time or you can just wing it whichever works for you is totally fine there are going to be a lot of things in the app such as maybe you decide that you don't want to take advantage of some of the evening engagement opportunities but you want to go explore Chicago on your own or with other colleagues there will be a section in the app that has other Chicago things that we recommend you check out if you have time there will be all of the conference evaluations are through the app so at the end of each session someone will remind you that if you could do a session evaluation for that speaker that helps us plan for the next year's conference so all of it's in the app can't recommend it enough it's right there at your fingertips you can also see other people that are attending you can also reach out to other people so as you're connecting with new friends you guys can also connect and talk to each other through the app if you so choose if you guys have any questions about the app feel free to put them in the chat we can always come back to that and talk more about it but let's talk about conference volunteers because they're amazing and we can't run the conference without them as Billy said earlier in the session he volunteered his very first conference as did I I believe that I have now successfully volunteered in every role available as a volunteer for CASE and I will say it has been wonderful to meet people that way it's a kind of an meet people that way it's a kind of an easy dip your toe into being more involved that's very you know doesn't feel overwhelming so lots of opportunities here are a few of them you will be as having signed up for the conference you will be getting some email information about these opportunities and how to sign up that has not gone up out yet but it is coming and we will also make sure that you leave today with the ability to sign up right here so make sure you're keeping an eye out for that but here are some volunteer opportunities I feel like my words are not coming out as smoothly as I would like them to all right conference volunteer opportunities one of the biggest ones is being a session host and what that means is that you decide that you're going to attend let's say an alumni engagement session you're like oh I'm going to that anyway I'm super excited but maybe I'll sign up to be the session host and what that means is that you are going to just greet people as they're coming to that session make sure that they people that are coming up to the door realize what session you were there for we'll have you count how many people end up attending the session and this again is just for our records for helping next year and then as the session starts we just ask you to go up front say hey this is the session that you're attending you're going to hear some awesome speakers that their names are so on and so on at the end make sure you fill out the evaluation and guess what right after this I hope you guys head to the exhibit hall and talk to some exhibitors so just really easy welcome for everyone coming and then we ask you to maybe take a photo of the session so we can post it on our social media platforms and then after the session we just have you flip the sign outside for the next session so really easy and if you sign up for any of these volunteer opportunities there is a pre-conference zoom to help answer any of the questions that you have about your volunteer role so don't feel overwhelmed with all the things that I'm going to say about this slide you can also volunteer to help at the registration desk you can be a host of a dine-around and that basically just means getting everyone together in the lobby walking everyone over to whatever restaurant you're headed to and then maybe doing some conversation starters while you're at dinner making sure that conversation and networking is flowing or you can host a Chicago networking experience so lots of options there are some more volunteer opportunities that you will see once you get the email or if you guys wanted to look at it right now you could go and scan this QR code and you could go ahead and be one of the first people to sign up to volunteer and you would be awesome I mean you're already awesome but you would be more awesome if you sign up to volunteer and I think that is the end unless Billy has more things he wants to say well just because I know that we do want to dedicate time to questions and Sue is making sure that we're already five minutes over our allotted time my apologies Sue but I will say every most of us started I think with all of us with cameras on with Courtney myself and Sue I can I believe I can speak for all of us that we started as a conference volunteer we we all did a shift and it's all we train you up at the registration desk it's a great way to meet people we've done session hosts we've done all those things we still do them in our current roles it's a great way to meet people and be part of the conference remember there are I'll end with there are two reasons to come to a conference and that's one for the great program and the information and number two is to network and build your own personal network in your areas so that when you do have things that are going really great or really sort of rough you can call friends and colleagues at like schools or peer and aspirin institutions or big schools or big 10 schools and you can talk about how to handle and how to praise and how to work through some of those things so with that I'll pass it back to Sue I'm going to leave the QR code up though so you can keep scanning it thanks Billy thanks Keely thank Courtney just before we wrap up I just want to check are there other questions that you may have and it's that this is not the end of being able to ask questions this will be a recorded webinar available to you others and you're also welcome to reach out to any of us and I think as everyone said here more than ever it's time it's important to take care of ourselves which can be challenging in higher ed these days with everything we're facing but thank you for learning more about it today and I really as everyone else has said here I encourage you take the chance to get what you need out of the case district 5 conference because it's the perfect combination of having all that but at a scale that can still feel personalized take advantage of the roundtables coffee with people and all of us not just are here to help you with your journey with the district conference but just your interest in case as well so this is a great way to start and you'll see in the chat district conference is one way and we will continue to have other togethers like this so thank you and said we look forward to seeing you there bye everyone thanks everyone thank you hey keely do you have a second yeah hey marybeth if you want to hang out we can answer your question yes i'm still here yeah sorry um i'll let keely answer your question they saying it's your first case conference but your colleague went last year so curious if it's similar or different i think a little bit of both so the format the layout of the conference itself is going to be very similar but all of the programming and the engagement is going to feel very similar to what we're doing right now is going to feel very different because the things that people are working on are sometimes very relevant to kind of what's going on in the world and i feel like now is a lot different than it was a year ago and so a lot of the those topics are going to look a lot different and then the engagement opportunities this year are going to be different than last year so a little bit of both if that answers your question yeah no no that does okay all right i appreciate it and we're back at the sheraton we were at a different hotel last year okay so i like the sheraton layout way better than okay or last year all right wonderful well i'm from chicago and so this makes it really easy for me to like get to except i wish it was closer to ogilvy train station but that's okay um but i'm looking forward to it the nice thing is if the weather is nicer now we can walk from the l i remember my very first case conference i made the mistake of taking the train from o'hare i came in from minnesota and um it was snowing and i was like oh it's just a few blocks on the map it was not fun yeah i know i was dripping wet and sweating well at least you're from minnesota so the snow shouldn't really my boots were ruined like my cute my cute boots they weren't real boots they were cute boots and i was like a plow with my suitcase behind exactly same and i was like i am i am gonna pay for a taxi next time i do not care well thanks for answering my question i look forward to it you'll be seeing me there so um are you signed up for the new to the profession conference are you new to the profession or are you just new to the profession um but i'm so i came from secondary ed to higher ed so um so secondary there was no cost for me to do anything um professional development wise so now i have an opportunity so and i've been following case for a few years now so um i'm excited to be there i've done some free webinars and things like that so i'm looking forward to it look forward to connecting yeah so thanks everybody thanks marybeth take care got a question yolanda are you just i do yeah i do so i'm very excited for this new to the profession uh pre-conference so i definitely have to sign up for it because i am also a presenter who is presenting about my first year in higher education i love that my presentation is actually on um on april 1st like early in the morning it's the moment at a conference where you're like oh i'm the morning conference on the last day that's okay that's okay it'll be good you're you might be new to the profession but you're not new to conference life so that's absolutely right that's a great spot to be yeah um and so um i'm really really excited because all all of my work has been in academic affairs and i had this uh strange idea uh two years ago after doing some consulting for the center that i'm working on now to um maybe shift into the advancement side of things and see um that side of work in higher education because oftentimes as an academic dean i'd be connecting with our foundation to be able to write grants and see what other resources are there connect with alumni um so this year has been a whirlwind and so i am i submitted a conference proposal about the ebbs and flows if you will of year one i love it what i what i call the uh flops finesse and um fundraising fortitude that was really required in this first year so i'm looking forward to the new to the profession because um there are so many there are some resources in this first year that i just found by myself um i was fortunate that i had a because of my academic um affairs experience i had a professional relationship with our vp of advancement so before even launching into this career path i asked her like do you think i have what it takes do i have skills to make it happen but a lot of the information that i found was just on myself um by myself doing my own research and then she was like the university has a case membership you need to sign up um and it's been so helpful i attended the first webinar and i was like maybe i should just submit a proposal about what this first year has been for me i love it when i got the email like your proposal has been accepted i was like what now you have to do it so i'm i'm really looking forward to um the pre-conference because um there are i i recognize in the first year there's still a lot of not blind spots but just areas that i can get a lot more information and really begin to use case as a tool and then bring it back to my team and kind of do like a teach back here um because people think that just because one person is like has fundraising or an advancement in their title it's an entire team thing so i really want to kind of bring those tools back so i'm really looking forward um and was really really happy when i logged on it was like new to the profession and i was like let me write this down um so i'm i'm really looking forward to this is my first case conference i'm literally in my second year in this role like october made it in 2024 made it a year um and then of course so many things have changed in the profession of higher education in such a short period of time um and a lot of the programs in my center are federally funded so my emails every day and the webinar is every day about information so i just wanted to thank you all for this time and just say i'm looking forward to meeting all of you and joining the new to the profession uh pre-conference we look forward to having you and even though i'm presenting i feel like there's still so much for me to learn oh i think you know what i think you'll be uh it'll be great to have you because we always have this really great group of folks where sometimes we have people who have 20 30 years of like professional experience and then they do that career switch so it's really great to see that and then you have people who are like two three four years out of undergrad or you know and maybe they started somewhere else and then they got into advancement and everything in between so it's so much fun to have like folks come together and we really use it as an opportunity and encourage people like this is your like crew like connect with these people yeah so you have a support group like you know i look at keely i look at soon i look at billy and i've known these these folks for 10 years now and it's like we see each other once a year in person but the number of times i text billy and i'm like yo like just saw northland college in wisconsin close yesterday i text him i'm like what's the word in small private liberal arts institutions right now right like what's going on because he's over in uh dupere and at saint gilbert so it's like you know all of those things are happening so i appreciate your input and if you have any issues signing up just let us know but um we'll we'll have a pre-conference zoom that will also record if folks can't make it and then we'll uh you know that'll kind of be the the no before you go for the profession stuff um and yeah it'll be great so far we got about 20 something signed up we'll probably get another 20 something is usually kind of people are like starting right now and they find out about the conference next month so yeah looking forward to it looking for that

CASE District 5 conference

alumni engagement

fundraising

networking opportunities

career transitions

Sue Cunningham

professional learning

conference app