Executive Director's View

As we welcome 2015 and say goodbye to 2014, I wanted to reflect on the good things that were accomplished and the new opportunities that CCBO members can look forward to seeing from us to benefit your institutions and support your professional development.

CCBO is a vibrant association dedicated to the growth of business leadership in community colleges. The 2014 Annual Conference in San Antonio had over 150 attendees and more than 25 attended the Leadership Academy.

The relevance of CCBO is being noticed by Community College Presidents as we annually attend, sponsor programs, and exhibit at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Annual Convention. Our CCBO committees have worked hard the past year to support the annual conference, CCBO webinars, membership activities, and volunteer engagement.

While our overall goal of increasing membership did not meet our 2014 targeted goal, we have seen a renewed interest in CCBO through our outreach activities and travels to visit other community college state association meetings. The new membership and marketing plan is well underway and we expect thorough changes to the CCBO website, with the result that the CCBO brand will have a better visibility in the community college marketplace.

CCBO through its very active volunteer leadership is positioned to provide stability and growth for the Association. We are challenged with important fiscal decisions as it relates to where and when to hold our annual conferences, but we are also looking to leverage relationships with hotels and cities through our affiliation with NACAS.

Community College Business Officers are becoming college presidents. We celebrated another CCBO board member, Dr. Ron Rhames, and his ascension in 2014 to the Presidency at Midlands Technical College. Congratulations, Dr. Ron!

CCBO members are needed in 2015 to continue to support our programs and to bring us your talents and present educational programs for a webinar or at the annual conference. You could be asked to host a professional development program on your campus and provide other learning opportunities to share with us as you participate in other programs you might find of value to share with us.

I look forward to the new opportunities in 2015 that have not presented themselves to us yet, but know that we are open and ready to explore any new benefit or service that improves the value of the work you do every day.