President's Corner

It is with pleasure, humility, and honor that I begin my term as President of CCBO. I am excited to keep the organization on the trajectory established by the leaders who have preceded me. I especially want to thank Susan Clough, Rob Widmer and Ron Rhames for their steady hands, infinite wisdom, and good humor. They are a tough act to follow.

Recently, I was profiled in a Seattle area newspaper and two of the questions I was asked were: what is my favorite quote?; and what advice did I have for someone starting out in this profession?

My answer to the first question was easy since I have it posted on my office door. "Change is good, but cash is better," which is attributed to Ace Jackson. This seems especially relevant during this time of unprecedented change in the community colleges across the nation. Enrollment is up, resources are down and we as business officers are being asked to make it all better! As community college leaders, we are being forced to consider our missions as never before and make difficult choices. As business officers, we are charged with delivering news no one wants to hear. For me, the network of professionals I have established through CCBO has proven invaluable to me during these tough times. I have reached out to many of you for advice or just to have a perspective-setting conversation and I know it has allowed me to be a better leader at my institution.

My answer to the second question above was one word: "Patience" (actually, it was Patience, Patience, Patience, but they only printed it once). This too seems relevant to the current turbulent times. If your institutions are anything like mine, staff, faculty, students, and other stakeholders are looking for quick answers to all of the questions of uncertainty we are experiencing. State budgets are in flux, employees are uneasy and students are having trouble finding jobs, space in classes, etc. It would be easy to make snap decisions, but I believe as business officers, we need to be one of the steady hands and consider the long-term impacts of various decisions. Again, CCBO has been an invaluable resource to me as I have "tested the waters" with numerous ideas with my colleagues and have received great feedback from them.

One of my goals for the coming year is to continue to grow CCBO as an association. I would LOVE to see our network of professionals expand and to set an attendance record at the conference in Louisville. If you receive the value that I do from CCBO, please make it a point to join me and the board members in "spreading the word" of CCBO throughout the land so that we continue to become bigger and better in the years to come. As always, if you have ANY suggestions about how CCBO could serve you and your institutions better, please let me know. Welcome to 2011; let’s have a great year together!