President's Corner

I hope everyone is enjoying Spring – we have certainly had some beautiful weather here in Flagstaff. We had a very productive spring board meeting in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. We took a tour of the new Tropicana and it is very nice and conveniently located. During the board meeting we heard reports from our committee chairs on Membership and Marketing, Awards, Annual Conference, Professional Development, and Audit and Finance. I wanted to take a moment to thank all our committee members; they have lots of energy and great ideas, and we really appreciate all your contributions to growing our programs and expanding member benefits.

Just to highlight one of our committees, the Annual Conference Committee, chaired by Dr. Tangila Dove, is doing a wonderful job pulling all the details together for our September conference. I am looking forward to our general session speakers beginning with Dr. Rufus Glasper who will be opening our conference on Sunday presenting on student success from a business office and leadership perspective. On Monday, Dr. Ken Atwater will be following-up his presentation last year and speaking on the AACC’s Empowering Community Colleges to Build the Nations’ Future implementation guide. On Tuesday, Dr. Dale Henry will be helping to send us off with a few stories to implement all the new ideas we will have learned. We also have a great tour planned. More details will be coming out shortly, please check the registration web page for the latest information. 

Spring also means budget season for me and we are currently putting the finishing touches our college’s FY 16 Budget. We recently began a new budget building process that is driven by student success measures to "move the needle". That means setting goals, identifying gaps in performance, establishing priorities, documenting action plans, finding efficiencies, reallocating resources, and then measuring how our students are performing. Improving student success is what we are all focusing on and I started learning about these budgeting techniques from many of you, my peers at CCBO. Thank you for the information you share and the ideas you bring to CCBO! I look forward to seeing all of you in Las Vegas. 

Thank you, 

Jami Van Ess

CCBO President

Vice President of Business & Administrative Services

Coconino Community College