Dear MIACADA Members,

It is an honor to serve you this year as President of MIACADA. Over the past several years, I have volunteered in a variety of capacities such as working on a state conference committee, as a Member-At-Large, and most recently, as the President-Elect. With each increasing role of involvement and responsibility, I've networked with people across Michigan that work in a similar role as myself at institutions of higher education. We continue to talk about the needs of our students at our institutions and the needs of faculty and staff in our professions. It is my hope that MIACADA can help you with your role as a faculty or staff member to assist you with your professional development.

We continue to provide low-cost—and sometimes no-cost—professional development programming. In the past, MIACADA has sponsored two NACADA webinars each year at locations around the state to help you with your professional development. We recognize that budgets continue to get slashed, so these are a free service to our members. Our next webinar, Legal Implications of Academic Advising, will be on March 6, 2012. Stay tuned to the website in the spring to learn how to register.

Our State Conference will be held on Friday, May 18, 2012 at Davenport University in Grand Rapids. The theme for the conference is "Advising from All Angles: A Holistic Approach." I encourage you to think about presenting a workshop from YOUR angle. No two students are exactly alike and we need to be prepared to help them from whatever angle they are coming from in life.

Be on the lookout for a Membership Needs Assessment Survey that will be coming out in the spring. Please provide us with information that can help us to better meet your needs and understand our profile as an organization.

The Board is thinking about creating a one-day Research Symposium—a smaller scale of the national version. The intent would be to bring people together that have a research background with those that have research interests to help get them started. If this interests you, please let us know.

We continue to offer grants to attend the State and Regional Conferences as well as the National Conference. I encourage you to apply for these grants, or nominate a staff member.

Speaking of nominations, we continue to offer awards for Outstanding Graduate Student, Outstanding Faculty Academic Advisor, Outstanding Staff Academic Advisor, and Outstanding Academic Advising Administrator. Think about who shines on your campus and nominate a colleague. The applications will be announced and available in the spring. Awards will be presented at our State Conference in May.

Would you like to meet colleagues on other campuses? If so, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved and meet new people. You could offer to let someone job shadow you, or you could job shadow another staff member. You could volunteer for the State Conference, the Research Symposium, or participate in the events. Whatever your involvement will be, I look forward to meeting you soon. May the 2011-12 year be your best year from every angle!

Sincerely,

Molly Duggan Weir
MIACADA President