Letter from the Executive Director
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Arriving back home after an awesome CCBO Annual Conference in New Orleans left me energized and eager to continue the learning and discussions. It’s no news that enrollment is down at community colleges across the US. While this was certainly part of the conversation at CCBO last month, it was refreshing and inspiring to me was that it was only a small part of the conversation. We did not focus on enrollment numbers. We did not focus on budget cuts. We instead focused on opportunities that community college leaders can embrace.
Dr. Irving, our opening keynote speaker who addressed numerous national trends facing today’s community college, challenged attendees to focus on the "wins" – what makes your colleges unique, what makes your leadership teams strong, what makes your students successful? If administrators rally behind your wins, your communities and your students will see the value in community college education. Hans Weichhart, our Monday keynote speaker, shared his journey of narrative leadership and how telling the story of a community college can have a larger impact than just the facts on paper. Sunjay Nath, the closing keynote speaker, spoke about his 10-80-10 principle, meaning that if leaders focus on further developing the top 10% of their teams, it will create a culture of aspiration among the rest of the team leading to highly desirable results.
The educational sessions also focused on opportunities that business officers can leverage, such as implementing shared services to create greater IT efficiencies, creating a more residential environment on campus to keep students engaged and focused, streamlining campus card programs to provide seamless services for your students, and budget forecasting that can help plan for the future and create a fiscally sustainable campus.
I encourage you to continue these conversations as well as begin taking action on your campus to embrace these opportunities. If you’re interested and don’t know where to begin, use your network of CCBO members to ask how they started a project. Leverage the expertise of our business partners who experience these opportunities across numerous community colleges and can share best practices. And lastly, stay tuned for webinars throughout the year that will focus on opportunities for your college.
Thank you to everyone who came down to New Orleans. We can’t wait to see you next year in Phoenix!
Dr. Irving, our opening keynote speaker who addressed numerous national trends facing today’s community college, challenged attendees to focus on the "wins" – what makes your colleges unique, what makes your leadership teams strong, what makes your students successful? If administrators rally behind your wins, your communities and your students will see the value in community college education. Hans Weichhart, our Monday keynote speaker, shared his journey of narrative leadership and how telling the story of a community college can have a larger impact than just the facts on paper. Sunjay Nath, the closing keynote speaker, spoke about his 10-80-10 principle, meaning that if leaders focus on further developing the top 10% of their teams, it will create a culture of aspiration among the rest of the team leading to highly desirable results.
The educational sessions also focused on opportunities that business officers can leverage, such as implementing shared services to create greater IT efficiencies, creating a more residential environment on campus to keep students engaged and focused, streamlining campus card programs to provide seamless services for your students, and budget forecasting that can help plan for the future and create a fiscally sustainable campus.
I encourage you to continue these conversations as well as begin taking action on your campus to embrace these opportunities. If you’re interested and don’t know where to begin, use your network of CCBO members to ask how they started a project. Leverage the expertise of our business partners who experience these opportunities across numerous community colleges and can share best practices. And lastly, stay tuned for webinars throughout the year that will focus on opportunities for your college.
Thank you to everyone who came down to New Orleans. We can’t wait to see you next year in Phoenix!
