Annual Business Meeting Minutes, November 7, 2003, Anaheim, CA

2003 EDUCAUSE Annual Business Meeting

The EDUCAUSE annual business meeting was called to order by Chair of the Board Joel Hartman at 7:15 a.m. on November 7, 2003, in Anaheim, California

Nomination and Election Committee Report–Marianne Colgrove

Newly elected Board members are John Bucher of Oberlin College and Ellen Waite-Franzen of Brown University. The process began with 88 nominees; the field was reduced by the committee to seven. Those seven names were sent to the Board for determination of the final slate of four. EDUCAUSE is dependent upon a strong Board for leadership and diversity. The community may participate by providing nominations or by self-nominating. It is important that the members vote. Only 38% of eligible members did vote and that is surprising in view of the ease of the process. Thanks to the EDUCAUSE staff for support through the year. The auditors continue to be pleased with the reliability and security of our voting system.

Treasurer’s Report–Perry O. Hanson

EDUCAUSE continues to be in sound fiscal condition with operating costs in line with the annual budget, and with substantial reserves. EDUCAUSE operates with appropriate accounting practices, policies, and controls. In the audit report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2002, the auditors rendered an unqualified opinion, finding no material weaknesses in the internal controls or procedures of the organization. The past year has been a time for fiscal caution, and the next 12 to 24 months may be a time for caution in  spite of the recent positive economic indicators. What appears to be some robustness in the economy will still require careful monitoring of all the organization’s programs and expenditures throughout the months ahead. EDUCAUSE investments have improved dramatically as the market has picked up since March. The portfolio’s value improvement is in line with the overall equities market. Reserves remain strong because the association has only a small portion of its reserve funds in mutual funds with the remainder in bonds and CDs. The annual conference provides a substantial portion of the association’s annual revenue and it is a success again this year. In summary, the organization’s fiscal performance year-to-date is better than the approved budget, and the Board, at its meeting this past Monday, reaffirmed the proposed 2004 operating budget and Program Plan, subject to adjustments as may be required. EDUCAUSE continues to operate prudently and efficiently, seeking to maximize services and programs for members, while operating in a fiscally responsible manner.

Presidents Report–Brian L. Hawkins

Major issues and accomplishments for 2003 were as follows:

Six major initiatives:

• Core Data Service was launched in May. Next year, the survey will go to members pre-loaded with all the information they supplied this year.
• Electronic Professional Development was started with EDUCAUSE Live as the first product and it will be followed by other new programs.
• Presidential Professional Development consists of seminars dealing with what presidents need to know. We have met with nine different groups of presidents in an attempt to help presidents understand the challenges of IT.
• Security is a huge issue for all of us. EDUCAUSE has released a new book and ECAR has released a new study.
• The regional conference strategy has proven to be an amazing success. The first Midwestern Regional was held in Chicago in March. The first Western Regional will be held next spring. Attendance has been very solid and only about 20% of attendees have been to an annual conference. Regionals are serving a different audience.
• E-Content Strategy has been undertaken to make it easier to find the needed data on the EDUCAUSE Web site. We will employ a Google search engine that will provide links to other resources. There will be a redesigned site with new search tools and new methods of navigating. There will be a new ezine coming out in the early part of the calendar year and it will be published about every two weeks. We will be hiring a new Director of Information Management Strategy. This person will be pulling all our various sources of information together.

We continue to receive indications of high satisfaction from our members, but we always

encourage your input and suggestions.

Jack McCredie congratulated EDUCAUSE on the Core Data Service.

Vice Presidents' Reports

Carole A. Barone

NLII is enjoying and being challenged by several successful years. One of the things the evaluation survey has indicated is that our small meetings are very valuable. We’re challenged by the fact that all our meetings have been fully subscribed. Another item that emerged from the survey is that the members value the treatment of the emerging issues. NLII focus is the leading edge and identifying those activities where technology and pedagogy converge and making them known to our members with a deeper analysis of the issues. This year, for the first time, we produced an NLII Annual Review, both in print and on the Web. This is a rich resource for those interested in the type of issues NLII feels we should be addressing. Two new NLII Fellows have been selected for 2004. They are Cyprian Lomas from the University of British Columbia and Jean Kreis from the University of Arizona. Collaborative efforts continue with the Coalition for Networked Information, AAHE, Merlot, and others. The outcome of these efforts will be an NLII Focus Session at MIT next September. Four virtual communities are in operation and we are studying them to determine how they operate and why people join them. Virtual communities exist for PD opportunities, collaboration, and knowledge generation. The NLII annual meeting will be held in San Diego on Jan. 25-27, 2004.

Cynthia Golden

Regional conference strategy will conclude next year with the introduction of the Western Regional. One of the benefits of the new regional conference strategy is the introduction of six new program committees. This provides many new opportunities for our volunteer members to serve on advisory committees. The partnerships are continuing with SAC, CUMREC and NERCOMP and they are all successful. EDUCAUSE Live was launched this year, the offerings are approximately once per month, and you can participate from the comfort of your office. Leadership and Management Institutes continue to thrive and are highly popular.

Richard Katz

ECAR is an extraordinary success, we now have 256 subscribers, and it should be economically self-sufficient during the coming year. The most recent study on IT security was released during this conference. We will produce five major studies this year, ERP, Faculty Use, Support for E-Learning, IT Security, and IT Leadership in Higher Education: The Condition of the Community. Under Toby Sitko’s leadership, we will publish 25 research studies by the end of the year. The first ECAR symposium was successful and the second one will be held in ten days in San Diego.

Mark Luker

Net@EDU operates with working groups designed by members. One is the Broadband Pricing Group that started trying years ago to get to get telecom companies to provide better deals to universities for their Internet services. Their focus now is on community fiber builds. The PKI group has changed focus from “what could be possible and what still needs to be done?” to “who is doing it and has it up and running?” The Integrated Communications Strategy Group will work with ECAR on a study in that field. The Net@ EDU annual meeting will be Feb. 1-3 in Tempe, AZ. Vint Cerf will be the keynote speaker. Some of the most important policy work during the year resulted in the acceptance of higher education as a central player in the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. We have commissioned a security expert from higher education to gather effective practices and share them in the EDUCAUSE library. We have started an annual conference for security practitioners. A new group called the Higher Education Industry Cyber Security Forum was formed and announced this past Monday. It is an organization of top higher education security leaders that will meet with the security architects of the various corporations we work with. One goal is for corporations to deliver to us products that are more secure right out of the box. Industry will also be giving us advice on topics such as security management. Companies involved so far include Apple, Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Network Associates, Oracle, Microsoft, Sun, and Verisign. 

We continue our development and experimentation with the Higher Education Bridge working with the Federal government and others. We formed a new PKI council to give related advice at the executive level; it will be chaired by Jack McCredie.

On the subject of peer-to-peer file sharing, we are all now more than aware that it is an important issue in higher education. About a year ago, at the request of ACE, AAU, and NASULGC, we began to staff a technology task force for the Joint Committee of Higher Education and the Entertainment Industry. The technology task force is in a neutral information gathering mode. We issued a request for information on technology services to control illegal file sharing. We issued second RFI for legal, online music services.

With the NSF, we are wrapping up work on AN-MSI, working on an NSF Network Middleware Initiative, and trying to help shape the new Cyber infrastructure Program that will at least partly determine how NSF funds infrastructure for years to come.

In .edu, we’re working with the Department of Commerce on the WHOIS cleanup, which requires going through each institution that has a .edu address from the legacy days and categorizing them according to the current criteria for eligibility.

The policy initiatives of EDUCAUSE have been very productive in this period. Discussions and letters of comment have been exchanged with Congress, FTC, NSF, NIA, DoC, and the Departments of Education and Homeland Security.

New Business–Joel Hartman

Chair Hartman announced the newly elected Board officers: Kathy Christoph, Chair; Perry Hanson, Vice Chair; Robyn Render, Secretary; and William Pritchard, Treasurer.

Marty Ringle congratulated EDUCAUSE on its growth and accomplishments during its five years of existence.

Adjourned at 8:00 a.m.