2001 EDUCAUSE Annual Business Meeting

Westin HotelIndianapolis, Indiana, Capitol Ballroom I/II

Board Chair Ron Bleed called the meeting to order at 7:12 a.m.

Nomination and Election Committee Chair Jeff Noyes reported that Kathy Christoph and Perry Hanson had been elected to the Board of Directors for four-year terms beginning January 1, 2002. He then described the process the committee followed and pointed out that the entire process was conducted electronically. The percentage of ballots received this year was 43.6%, down about 10% from last year. He noted that the previous year did represent a significant spike from previous years. Noyes concluded by thanking the committee for their work through the year.

Board Treasurer Joel Hartman reported on the financial condition of the association. EDUCAUSE is in sound financial condition with a balanced budget and excellent reserves. The association received an unqualified audit for the year 2000. Investments performed as expected during the year, losing some value, but performing better than the S & P index. Staff developed a contingency plan and the Board reaffirmed the 2002 program plan, pending any additional turns in the market, in which case reserves could be used if needed.

President Brian Hawkins recognized the retirement from the board of three board members who were among the original transition board, Bill Graves, Don Riley, and Ron Bleed, who has chaired the board for the past two years.

President Brian Hawkins Reported Issues from past year:

• Consolidation of professional development activities that resulted in hiring of an Executive Director of PD, Cynthia Golden, former CIO of Duquesne University
• EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies series has been renewed, not just for three years but indefinitely
• Web redesign has begun and will be ongoing over the next few years
• Effective Practices and Solutions service was launched
• Seven initiatives are new for next year in the program plan:
• Responsibility for the .edu domain of the Internet
• The Higher Education Bridge Certification Authority (HEBCA) effort will allow experimentation for local certification authorities for the purpose of conducting administrative business with the federal government
• Task force made up of representatives from diverse segments of the membership will evaluate the resurrection of the former CAUSE ID survey, including integrating data from other collection mechanisms
• Continuing efforts to expand the regional conference program, to accommodate those looking for smaller, more intimate conferences as well as younger professionals who aren't likely to attend the annual meeting. New conferences were added this year, Mid-Atlantic Conference (which absorbed the Ubiquitous Computing conference), the Southeast Regional conference, and EduTex. There will be a Midwest Regional in 2003 and a California Regional the following year. Only 11% of attendees at the regional conferences attend the national conference. Statistical analysis of evaluations show no significant differences in age, gender, and other factors of attendees. Results of these analyses and others are available on the EDUCAUSE Web site under the Balanced Scorecard section.
• Communities of Interest and Communities of Practice might be better served through a virtual community activity; this initiative will receive special attention in the coming year.
• EDUCAUSE will partner with Cornell University to establish the Institute for Computer Policy and Law, including an annual institute, special pre-conference seminars, conference presentations, and an electronic collection of campus policies.
• Major new initiative will be launched January 1, the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research.

When EDUCAUSE reviewed the dues structure at the time of the merger, some small colleges that had belonged only to CAUSE saw an increase in dues that made it impossible for them to continue their membership. This past year, after the Carnegie classes changed, we revised the dues structure again. The revised dues structure will decrease many members' dues and grandfather the others who would see an increase because of shifting into different Carnegie classes.

Vice President Carole Barone reported on behalf of the NLII and Teaching and Learning segment of EDUCAUSE.

• The Advisory Committee on Teaching and Learning has been solidified as a standing EDUCAUSE committee.
• The NLII will hold its annual meeting in San Diego January 27-29, 2002.
• The NLII focus session on assessment scheduled for September 14 in Denver was rescheduled for March 15, 2002.
• The READY tool has been rolled out to help campuses assess their readiness for adopting distributed learning programs as well as educate them about all of the issues that need to be addressed.
• NLII Fellows completing their service are John Ittelson and Helen Knibb; the two new Fellows for 2002 are Jeremy Haefner and Colleen Carmean.

Vice President Richard Katz reported on the new ECAR program and the AGAISS activities.

• AGAISS has become a fully developed advisory group on administrative systems, which has hosted two e-business related forums (the first on portals and the second on new business architecture) that have resulted in the publication of three articles and an under-development monograph, as well as a book about to published by Jossey-Bass. More than 15 sessions at conferences have been delivered from the work of this group. Interface between CIOs and CFOs and business assurance/continuity planning are two emerging topics this group will address in the coming year.
• The EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research will be officially launched January 1 with a substantial number of subscribers. A new Web site has been mounted and a major marketing campaign was undertaken. A research pipeline was established and two contractors chosen to develop surveys for the first two projects, one on wireless and one on outsourcing. Diana Oblinger, Mary Beth O'Connor Baker and Bob Albrecht have become Senior Fellows of the ECAR.

Vice President Mark Luker reported on Net@EDU and Policy.

• Net@EDU has been very active, with numerous working group events, both stand-alone and associated with other meetings. The annual member meeting is coming up February 3-5, 2002, in Tempe, Arizona.
• The NSF-supported AN-MSI project has been very successful in working with minority-serving institutions in HBCU's, tribal colleges, and Hispanic serving colleges to plan and implement their IT strategies.
• Since the events of 9/11, much of the policy emphasis in the federal government has concerned network and system security. EDUCAUSE is participating in these developments through the System Security Task Force as well as the policy office.
• The recent award of joint management of the .edu domain to EDUCAUSE is a long-awaited policy victory. Much staff time and effort will be required to make the project a real success.
• The Higher Education Bridge Certification Authority, or HEBCA, has now been demonstrated with the help of EDUCAUSE members, MitreTek, PKI vendors, NIH, and other federal agencies. This project may represent a breakthrough in the implementation of trusted communications between institutions of higher education and federal agencies.

Chair Ron Bleed recognized the efforts of all involved.

There being no other business, Chair Ron Bleed adjourned the meeting at 8:02 a.m.