Association of College & University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I)

Associatoin of College & University Housing OFficers - International
941 Chatham Lane, Suite 318
Columbus, OH 43221-2416
614.292.0099
[www.acuho-i.org]
Contact: Gary J. Schwarzmueller, Executive Director


CEO: Frederick L Webber, CMIA
Budget: $25 Million
Staff Size: 251 - 500 Employees

Plexus Consulting Group, LLC
1620 Eye Street, NW
Suite 210
Washington, DC 20006
Phone:  202-785-8940
Fax:      202-785-8949
Email:   info@plexusconsulting.com

Vital Stats:

The Association of College and University Housing Officers - International (ACUHO-I) boasts a membership of over 5,800 individuals, over 900 colleges and universities, serving 1.8 million students worldwide, and over 165 companies.

The Challenge | The Solution | The Processs | Unintended Consequences | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned

The Challenge

How to develop participation between senior staff and Board Members in order to create an atmosphere of partnership and involvement?

Several years ago, ACUHO-I felt a need to engage an outside entity to evaluate the association's structure and procedures. At ACUHO-I's request, ASAE conducted a peer review and reached the conclusion that an updated strategic plan was needed to help management follow through on its commitment to meet member needs. A main challenge was how to include staff members in strategic planning and to make them feel like stakeholders in the process of creating the vision for the association.

The Solution

To integrate senior staff members into the association's ongoing communication and strategic planning process.

The Process

Regular communication between the Board and staff was improved by including the staff members on the Board listserv. However, including senior staff in strategic planning sessions at every Board meeting required an important decision. There were two choices:

Bring staff members to the Board meetings
Bring the Board meetings to staff members
The easier and more cost efficient solution was to bring the Board meetings to staff members in their Columbus, Ohio, headquarters. The ACUHO-I Executive Board meets four times per year. It used to meet in the fall at a central site such as Chicago, in the winter at the annual conference site with host and program planning groups, in the spring near the central office in Columbus, Ohio and in the summer in conjunction with the annual conference.

The decision was made to hold fall, winter and spring meetings near the central office in Columbus. The downside to this decision was that the entire Board did not meet with the annual conference host and program committees at their winter planning meeting. The President and Executive Director now represent the Board at that meeting.

Background
The first step in the process was the selection of the ASAE Association Peer Review Program to provide an outside, objective view of the association.

The Peer Review Team examined ten criteria:

• Mission and objectives
• Governing body, officers and directors, organizational structure and documents
• Programs, services and activities
• Association staff
• Financial planning and reporting
• Membership development and retention
• Communications
• Government affairs
• Office automation and information management

A prime conclusion from the review was the need for an updated strategic plan. They also suggested engaging the services of an outside consultant in beginning development of the plan.

Several potential consultants were suggested and the Board chose Donald M. Norris from Strategic Initiatives, Inc. Don provided guidance on how to plan strategically in the Knowledge Age. The Board then began the planning process.

In the early stages of developing the new strategic plan, the need for additional analysis of the structure and staffing of ACUHO-I was identified. Allen Liff from Ronin Marketing was chosen to conduct a "Knowledge Age Transition Audit" which resulted in many excellent recommendations. Among them he identified three areas that needed to be addressed first:

1. Development of a vision
   
2. Implementation of a transition process to move the Board to a culture of spending 70 percent of each Board meeting thinking and planning strategically
   
3. Development of a plan to foster improved Board/staff relationships

Each Board member was assigned to a task group dealing with one of the three topics.

The Board/staff group made the recommendation that senior staff be included in the strategic planning sessions at each Board meeting. The decision to meet in Columbus was made to facilitate that ongoing commitment.

Budget
The idea proposed by the Board/staff task group, having the meetings in Columbus, was beneficial for budgeting purposes. There were minimal costs incurred due to the fact that no staff members had to travel to participate in the meeting.

Conclusion at the End of the First "Pilot" Meeting
Involving senior staff in strategic planning sessions at every Board meeting was very valuable and should be continued. Having fall, winter and spring meetings in Columbus was a reasonable way to minimize the cost of implementing this activity.

Unintended Consequences

To date, things have been "so far so good" according to Mr. Schwarzmueller. After the "fall completion of the cycle," ACUHO-I will undertake an in-house assessment to ensure that the communication plan continues to be implemented effectively. Upon completion of this "next step" assessment, ACUHO-I will measure the program's results.

ACUHO-I Executive Board members come from all over North America. One disadvantage of meeting in Columbus three times per year is that Board members from the Western US and Canada have to travel through two and three time zones for every meeting. To minimize the impact on them, the meeting schedule was changed from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.. This small schedule adjustment was very much appreciated by everyone involved.

Lessons Learned

Since this project is quite new, it is difficult to measure the results in a tangible way. The "concept will work" because the staff members responsible for implementing the plan feel much more "engaged" in what they do. As a result of the self-assessment and implementation of a planning process that helped to improve communications among different segments of the association, staff members now have a sense of ownership and partnership that will serve not only to improve communication within the organization, but also improve the overall ability of ACUHO-I to serve its members.