Well, good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us a couple of days before we'll all be together in Madison. I hope you're looking forward to it. My name is Carrie White and I'm the chair of the Summer Institute and Advancement Services and I'm here to give you an overview of what to expect next week. Give you an opportunity to meet my fabulous co facilitators and presenters here that you'll be learning from in the next week. Hopefully give you a chance to really get a flavor of what the conference is so you know how to prepare and then an opportunity for you all to meet your cohorts, which we'll talk to you in a little bit. So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. I'm just so you can see the information I'm speaking about. And Christine mentioned that we will also make sure that the deck is available to everyone in the community once we're done. So give me one sec here. As often happens this morning, my technology was not pleased. So I'm on my husband's computer. So if something wonky pops up, we will we'll just blame it on him. All right. So, again, welcome to the Summer Institute and Advancement Services that we lovingly refer to as science. Again, we're going to talk about who's here, what to expect, and then we'll give you some time to meet the folks in your cohort. So you have a friendly face to join when you are in Madison next week. So first, let's start with some introductions again. My name is Carrie White. I am the vice president of technology Information and Philanthropic Strategy at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. I have been part of this conference for eight years now, and my favorite part of the summer Institute is just the camaraderie and the relaxed nature that comes out of this. I think we will find that there are all kinds of people here who are experiencing the same successes and have the same questions and are facing the same challenges no matter the size of your institution. And I think that's really important to keep in mind as you approach this, is you're going to see folks that are from really big institutions that are raising hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and you're going to see folks from smaller institutions whose fabulous success looks like maybe $5 billion a year. Please don't let that intimidate you because what I can tell you time after time from this institution I've learned is that everybody has the same questions, concerns, successes, all of those things. It's just a matter of of scale. As far as my same favorite summertime thing, I just enjoy a cool breeze at sunset and being outside and kind of enjoying the wonder of it all. I am on vacation right now, so apologize for my casual presentation, but it's actually part of the Summer Institute and we'll talk about that in a minute. As far as words of wisdom, the biggest thing I can tell you is take this opportunity to meet people both in the summer Institute for Advancement Services, but across all of the disciplines, take that time to connect on LinkedIn. These are going to be your people as you move through your career where you can call up and say, Hey, can I talk to you about this? Hey, how are you guys handling this problem? So I really encourage you to connect across the conference as well as with your faculty. The beautiful thing in higher ed fundraising is everybody's willing to share and talk with you and think things through. So this is your opportunity to make those connections so that you can do so. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to another one of my colleagues, Dr. Shalanda Martin from Pomona, Shalanda Good morning, everyone. So excited to be here and to see you all at Summer Institute really soon. So I'll just go through the list. We can keep it moving to the next faculty member. So my favorite part of the summer Institute is really seeing all of you hearing about the things that you're experiencing at your institution and watching people work through in real time, coming to decisions and solutions about what they need to do with their organization and having that realization that you're not alone and whatever it is you're going through. And there's either someone who's been through it who can tell you a story about how they got it through, or somebody who can, you know, commiserate with you in the moment because they are also going through or is somebody who's looking over your shoulder because they might not know exactly, but they're about to hit that same roadblock or experience that you're going through. So just watching those experiences play out and being able to engage with you all and just do that discussion around real time troubleshooting to help people advance their careers and be very thoughtful about the decisions they're making and their institutions might. Favorite summertime thing really going to movie Like it's like I go to movies a lot in the summer, which now they're in danger because of the strike. So I hope that everything turns out well for the writers and the actors as they fight for their rights, for, you know, equal pay and benefits. But that's my favorite summertime thing typically. And then as far as words of wisdom, in addition to echo everything that Carrie said, as far as meeting other people, also expose yourself to learning opportunity. It is that go a little bit outside of what your specific realm is a big differentiator and something that will help you advance your career and just be more effective in your role is the more you understand about different pieces of the advancement operation. So if you are a gift processor, go to a session on Prospect management also, because that will help inform the work that you do and help you think of ways to better work through solutions. And you think about how all of these different pieces connect, which is a great benefit of coming to Summer Institute because you have access to learn about all of these different pieces of the work. Because Advancement Services is very broad when we think about it. So there's a lot of opportunity and so there's said there is something you want to learn about that specific to your area because maybe you're working through something, definitely go to that. Don't skip the sessions and that opportunity. But when the schedule allows for you to take that leap into learning something that's not necessarily your specific thing, I encourage you to lean into those opportunities. And now I should know I'm passing it to you. But very I'm curious to hear Katie was not able to join us today. Is that correct? Kristy I'm just looking, Yeah. Yep, that's correct. Yeah. Yeah. She had another commitment today, but Katie from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she's just delightful and this will be her second year joining us. So I look forward for you all to meet her. Sarah, you're up next. Hello, everybody. My name is Sarah Lawler and no Longer nor University of Chicago. Wilmington. I am now at North Carolina State University. I work for the engine at the College of Engineering and the Engineering Foundation. I'm the director of Filament Programing operations here at Summer Institute. This is my second year doing it. So I love the fact that it's like the best summer camp for adults where you get to learn things and be with people as we've talked about in a relaxed environment. But you're with your peers and your you're with people that are either on the same level as you up or down a little bit. But it's a learning opportunity in an environment where, you know, we're allowed to have a little bit of fun, laugh at ourselves, at the situations we find ourselves in sometimes, and gain knowledge where we can. My favorite summertime thing, I love going to the beach. I'm originally from Massachusetts, so I live in North Carolina now, but there's nothing like a beach in Rhode Island in New England in the summer just to smell the ocean. And I do miss living in Wilmington. I was 5 minutes from the beach when I lived there. So that's the one downside to moving back to Raleigh. Sometimes you have to go where the opportunities move you words of wisdom. Gosh, having to follow Carrie and Linda as we talked about everything at this point, just my favorite thing. And I did work. I volunteered a summer camp a lot is I really want everybody to stretch yourselves. So we all have kind of like a safe zone and you have a stretch zone, panic zone. And when were you in panic zone doing anything here? But try and find those places where you can step into that stretch zone where you're doing a little bit more than you thought you were going to, because it's in those moments. And I think you really learn to grow and you learn some more things about yourself and what you can do if you stop the negative talk that I think all of us have. And I will say for myself, my first year here last year, imposter syndrome was like, I was like, I don't belong here. I don't have any knowledge. I know nothing. Especially with my my fellow panelists. So understand. And Kerry said that said something to me that has stuck with me was that we are all just trying to figure it out. So it doesn't matter what level you're at. We are all just trying to figure it out. And I think if you just take that little pearl of knowledge with you, I think it will help inform your experience going forward. And so Jamie is next, I'm assuming. Yeah. Thank you for was great. Yeah. So my favorite part of the summer and so it's new and I really like the conversations that take place in between sessions. Like nothing like when a presenter is done speaking and I assure you we are all, like, nervous. Nobody is ever not nervous when they present. A lot of times you'll see me sneak pictures of my dog in my presentation. That is a coping mechanism because, you know, it's my blood pressure when I see her. Right. But, you know, after a session, when people come up and talk to you or like you're in a hall and I see people talking to each other, like, you know, how how would you implement that? That's that's to me, that's the exciting part. That's where you might hear theory or you might hear how like somebody at the University of Chicago is doing something, but you're like, how it might implement that at like my Humane Society, you know, that came up last year and just that like energy around, like sharing those ideas is really exciting. So that's what I look forward to. And truly you said this. You do talk to those people actually, like I think two weeks ago somebody reached out on LinkedIn Messenger was like, Hey, remember you said this thing like, can you send me that deck? Like, I want to revisit something. And it really does. Like you will make connections that you will come back to my favorite summer time. So I am not a summer person. I am a fall person. I like things off. I like cooler weather. I like the spookiness around Halloween. But what I do love about the summer time is the effect it seems to have on the majority of like my friends and just people around me. People seem to be more relaxed, like I'm on summer Fridays, but it's a vibe that I can vibe with. So while I personally don't love the Heat or that mean not even today, I'm wearing all black like head to toe, but I love kind of what it does just to the environment around me. So that's always fun. Words of wisdom. One practical thing wear comfortable shoes. I thought I tried wearing comfortable shoes, but I was like, Well, I'm gonna buy new sneakers for this relaxed conference. That was a bad idea because apparently those new sneakers are not that comfortable. And I got blisters on my first day, and that was very frustrating. So I'm practical to thus a little bit more in theory, you know, it's hard. It is hard to kind of build on all of these great points that people had already kind of talked about, but something that like I have noticed, especially with folks in Advancement Services compared to this, is an interesting institute, right? We get to see alumni relations, we get to see fundraisers. We can see these different cohorts of people come together. And I personally, I like to people lot, so I like to play a game. I'm like, I bet your alumni relations and most of the time I'm correct. Like you can paint. Everyone kind of has their like niche that they fit into. And historically, advancement services tend to be a little bit more like the reserved or like introverted group. And so just one word of advice when you're here hearing about, you know, like go out and meet people and like stretch yourself, that that is advice like that's 100%. But to do it in a way that is authentic to you is something that I like to do. I encourage my team to do is to imagine like you're on a stage and that you're get to play a character. And we always name our characters. So like maybe your character that you want to play and test a little bit at the Institute is like the outgoing one or the curious one, like the one that asks a lot of questions and just trying to play that one. Like, how might you think like an outgoing person, like might go out and introduce themselves to like another group of people who are all excited talking after a session and just give it a try? It is a different way of kind of looking and like it's kind of take some pressure off or it's not. You personally, you're playing a character, right? You're like trying on a different hat and trying to do that. So that is but that's something that I might encourage folks to do. If you're hearing some of this advice or you're intimidated at all by like, you know, groups of people excitedly running around and talking about things at their sessions and stuff, just a quick a character and try to play it perfect. Perfect. Thank you so much, Jamie and Sarah and Sheila, and I appreciate it. I will take full, responsible liberty for putting the wrong institute on institution. On Sarah's slide, what you will learn. So we're all going to give each other a little grace through this conference and know that this is the end of the fiscal year for many of us. And we might be coming in on two wheels trying to get everything done at work and then into this conference. So I hope you can take that vibe of we're all just doing the best we can. And I, along with my colleagues, are volunteers here, and we want you to have a great, wonderful institute and we hope we can laugh a little bit at each other and have some fun while we're at it. So I have this beautiful mint two meter slide set up where we were going to have live interactions and it was going to be great. And then I'm on my computer, my husband's computer, and it would let the plug in work. So now we're just going to shift gears a little bit and if you can open up your chat, what we're going to do is when I say go, we're going to do the first question and everybody's going to have put it in the chat. And when I say go, you'll hit enter and we'll see everybody's location come from. So we're just going to do the first one. You can type it in, but don't hit enter until I say go. And I'm going to present the chat here up on on my slides so we can see it. All right. So when you're ready, go ahead and type. Where are you from in your chat and then give everybody one more second in 3 to 1. Go ahead and press enter and let's look where everybody's from. I got to scroll down here. So we've got Texas Rod Chester, Michigan, Wisconsin. Somebody doesn't have to travel so far. So we've got people from all over the south, all over the place. It's wonderful, big schools, small schools, all the places. So I really look forward to you all reaching out, Alina. I'm in Cape Cod right now, so shout out to Massachusetts. Can't wait to meet everybody. So you all should be able to scroll through that as well and see if there's anybody in particular that you would love to connect with at the at the conference. So the next one is, is this your next conference? We see a lot of people that this might be their very first time and a lot of people that are seasoned conference goers. So if you want to drop that in same deal, yes or no, if you want to add any color to it, that's for you. Excellent. We're seeing a lot of folks that are new to the conference. So for those people that are new, we'll talk a little bit about what to expect and what might make this difference from other conferences you may attend in the future. Looks like we've got got a nice balance here. So I'll talk a little bit about this. The first conference versus in this conference versus more traditional conferences that you might attend in a minute here. But last quick question. If you were on vacation right now, where would you be? And go ahead and hit enter whenever you're ready. I love people that think big, nice. Any day I'm with you. Don't quit Maine. Look at that. Very, very specific. I've wanted to do the National Park tour myself. That sounds like a ton of fun. All right, so I'm going to minimize this, but I encourage you all to keep sharing with one another, because getting to know each other is is the best thing that you can do for this conference. Okay. So now let's move into what to expect. Oops. So as several of my colleagues mentioned that this is a very casual conference, this is not even business casual conference. People wear tennis shoes, shorts, a flip flops. I mean, whatever is going to make you comfortable both attending the session as well as meeting other colleagues. And we leave that all to your best discretion of what's appropriate in that space. But truly, it is quite casual compared to other conferences that you want. Part of that is we just want people to feel as though they're immersed in a learning experience that's not putting on airs of, you know, who's got the best dress or who's going to network with who in a formal business. This is just get to know each other, learn the content and have some fun and relax while we're at it. As Jamie mentioned, there is a lot of walking that we do between where we're staying in either the hotels or the dorms to our space that we go to for our our classes. So just be prepared to do that. Know that case will keep you fed. There are plenty of opportunities for meals and snacks, and between sessions they put out very generous snacks for us to have. So you don't feel like you need to add a lot of thought into what you're going to eat during the day. In particular, I know that there's dinners that are on your own, but during the day while we're in session, plenty of food. Any kind of support that you need, the space that we do use is lovely. It's a classroom building, so it's air conditioned, climate controlled, all of that sort of thing and of course, accessible. If you do need any accommodations for walking, I would just encourage you to reach out to our case colleague, Christine Grimm, who is helping us facilitate with with case if walking's going to be a challenge for you to my fellow colleagues, is there anything else that you would like to add on just what to expect? The lake is pretty close by, so it's maybe not an ocean beach, but it is beautiful. So for those of you who are like looking the way it is to get away at a beach, I really recommend finding some time out, some time to get to get to the lake and relax. Excellent. So the last thing that I will share is the cross discipline opportunities. So when this institute started, when I was part of it, it was a standalone conference. It was just advanced and services would come together and have their own conference. And over the past several years we've evolved into all of the conferences meeting at one time, and that's presented us some really great opportunities where you can go to there are specific times where you can go to different disciplines. So we have development, alumni, advancement services and marketing and communications. And when you get the information, when you when you come to the institute, there will be specific opportunities that if you want to go to a fundraising session, you're more than invited to do that. One of my colleagues mentioned just how important it is to see the world through our our colleagues eyes. And this is an opportunity for you to do that. And yes, to whoever said you can always spot the alumni people. They are very excited and very willing to chat and they're always dressed to a tee and we love them. And it cracks me up every year when I can, you know, pick out the people that I know I suspect belong in in one discipline or another. So reach out, have fun dressed casually. You're going to be well fed as far as the lodging and accommodations. If you have any questions about that, specifically the dorms, I would encourage you to reach out to Kristi. If there's anything that's not clear in the information that you've been provided so she can fill you in on any of those details. All right. I'm going to pop up here. Can Salina, can you and Sara and Jamie, can you guys monitor the chat in case any questions come up? That would be great. I appreciate it. Thank you. And feel free to to drop questions in the chat if there's anything that we can address specifically. All right. So every day we have the opportunity to, at the end of the day, have a cohort meeting. And we have done cohorts 27 different ways to Sunday where we've had projects, where we've had system based core cohorts, where we've had, you know, just teams that came together and did their own thing. What we've decided this year is that we're going to use that cohort time is almost large opportunities for office hours, so they will be informal debriefs of the day, check ins and follow ups. If there's any topic folks want to dig into a little bit deeper and we will all be together. But we're going to break you into different groups and encourage you to sit with that group. When we all come together. At the end of the day, it's your opportunity to build a network. It's your opportunity to reach out of your comfort zone a little bit and meet those cross teams. Nothing in this institute is mandatory. If you don't want to come, that's fine. But I really, really strongly encourage you to attend this. This part, it tends to be the most valuable time that we spend at the Summer Institute because it allows for the time to dig into some of those nitty gritty and learn from the faculty that have likely lived through or at least provide you some framework of how to think about the cohort. The question at hand within the cohort time. So really encourage you to attend. And as such, we're going to spend some time now breaking into our cohorts that Christi has assigned us to well welcome back everybody is folks come back into the session. Just one again, thank you for your time today and encourage I'm not going to share my screen again. Couple of things I would just encourage you between now and Monday, if you can take a look at the community page and engage in it. It's a great resource for folks to go in, ask questions, connect with one another, share resources, etc. So if you have not gotten an invitation to that, Kristy, can you drop the link in the chat for us? Yep, I will grab it right now and drop it in the chat for you. Great. Thank you. So that's where you'll get the community board link. The other thing is as you go through the community board and you see your colleagues that are going to be attending this, reach out on LinkedIn, it's a great way to kind of learn a little bit about the background and see who you might specifically want to make sure you find and ask those key questions. If you're at a similar institution. So with all of that, we're at about 10 minutes before the hour. I do want to hold space. If there's anybody that has questions, but I also don't want to make everybody sit through questions if you're good. So why don't we plan on keeping the session open until noon? But this is your invitation. If you're ready to drop off, you're good. Please feel free. No harm, no foul. But if there's anybody that would like to stay and ask questions, I'm happy to do that. So thank you to those that are headed out and feel free to just shout out a question if you're interested. See, I'm seeing a couple of things. Oh, thank you, Lauren. No problem. Any questions from the folks that are still on? And just so everybody knows, there will be an email going out from our event experience team on Friday with some sort of final note before you go. So look for that email coming from them. And then I don't know if anybody has questions, jump in, but I just I'm going to outloud address a couple that were asked in the chat because that won't carry over to the recording for people who may someone asked about where on campus this would be located. Almost all of the sessions for this crew will be in the Granger School of Business. The only exception is the plenaries that are all Institute will be in Shannon Hall, which is this really beautiful building right on the lake. So it's a little bit of a walk, but but just know that all of your breakouts and your institute specific plenaries will be in that Granger School of business while she's looking at that next question, let me just frame something up. So every morning all of the institutions come together. That's the All Institute plenary and that's in the larger hall and we'll get you there. Don't worry about that. We also have smaller plan areas that are just for advancement services on a daily basis as well. So sometimes that word can give a little which what are we doing here? So that's the difference between the two. No, no worries. Yeah. So someone asked where the on demand training is if you are here, then you know where that was. So the learning platform that you came through to get the link for this session, there are three tabs when you get to that link. One of them is an overview. It just has some basic details. The next one is event detail. That's where you found this event. Right next to that in detail is a course tab. And if you go to the course tab and hit access the on demand intro, the advancement is there as well as cohort lists are put there and we'll pop additional resources. And I know someone had also asked about slides those will be uploaded to the community. I'll also upload them to the learning platform so you have plenty of places to find them. We typically do that at the end of each day, so you'll see them there. Following the sessions that you've attended and the other questions. All right. Well, thank you all for your time today. The airport is wonderful and small and quick. You can get through it, so look forward to that. It is not a big crazy Boston or anything like that. And again, connect feel free to reach out. We're all here to help. We want you to have a great session and a great experience. Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week. Take care of everybody. All right, Everyone.

Carrie White

Summer Institute

Advancement Services

conference overview

networking

cohort meetings