July 2021 WACUBO News

President’s Message: Ruth’s Ruminations

Happy Summer, fellow WACUBO members. I hope you were able to attend the virtual annual meeting in late May and the recent WACUBO happy hour. We were delighted with the attendance at the annual meeting, and so happy we could share the program’s value with the many institutions who made this option available to their staff. My expectations were certainly exceeded by the program content, engagement of those who attended, our WACUBO staff and wonderful emcee, and the platform. So many of you shared your desire for continued on-line opportunities like this, so we are beginning those conversations with the Annual Program Committee and the Professional Development and Workshops Committees.

I also hope you take some much needed rest this summer, refreshing to begin again with yet another new way of doing business. With CDC and state Departments of Health changing the public health orders, yet with the virus still underway, this is a confusing time! I hope you and your institutions can navigate through, whether it mean continued education and working in an in-person way, hybrid or online way. My hope is that we learn from the pandemic and take the best of what we learned and incorporate that into our future, rather than simply returning to the way it was before.

WACUBO committees and activities are busy as always, with the Business Management Institute soon upon us, an in-person Board meeting in Seattle in early October, and our dedicated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion task force hard at work. We are fortunate to have four new board members to add new perspectives.

Please welcome Steven Schwartz, Fort Lewis College; David Tamanaha, University of Hawaii, Maui College; Sara Reed, Salt Lake Community College; and Nichol Luoma, Arizona State University. We will also deeply miss and thank our departing board members: Dean Calvo, Scripps College; Arch Asawa, Soka University of America; Lynn Valenter, Washington State University, Vancouver; and Lisa Frace, University of California Davis (now Michigan State University). Also special thanks to departing volunteer extraordinaire, Pat Putnam.

Please remember to access the annual meeting recordings if you attended—they are available through the rest of the calendar year. And as usual, send in your ideas for how WACUBO can be of best support to you and your institutions.

Ruth

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