Insights

By Kathy Hargis, Associate Vice President of Risk Management & Compliance for Lipscomb University, President of URMIA

Each year in the September edition of Insights, it seems every URMIA president has commented on how quickly his or her year in office went by. Up until now, I did not fully grasp the scope of that statement. As I draft this letter, I fully understand their meaning as it seems like just yesterday that we were leaving San Diego, and here we are, just a few weeks away from our Orlando Annual Conference. It has definitely been a very busy and productive year for our organization, and I look forward to highlighting our 2016-2017 accomplishments in more detail during the state of the association address in Orlando. However, I would like to share with you a few highlights from the year at this time.

This 2016-2017 term marks the first year of our three-year strategic plan which was drafted by the board of directors in San Diego. One of the key objectives this year was the development of a core competency model for all URMIA members. No matter where you are in your career, this program will help you be more successful in your current role, as well as identify those skill sets needed to move into the next level of career development. We will be unveiling our new core competency model during the annual conference, and I will speak in much more detail about this accomplishment at that time. This was a huge undertaking on the part of many individuals, particularly the Professional Development Committee, Core Competencies Sub-Committee, and Committee Chairs Ruth Rauluk and Brenda Tappan. Special thanks to Christie Koester for her work in editing and publishing this document. I am confident this model will serve as a valuable tool for our members and will be the base on which we will build additional professional development programs and curriculum. 

URMIA continues to increase our brand awareness by collaborating with other peer associations. This year, URMIA partnered with the Association of College and University Auditors (ACUA) by delivering 10 educational sessions during ACUA's 2017 Midyear Conference in Austin. URMIA also partnered with NAFSA, Association of International Educators, with a pre-conference educational session at both association's conferences on Regulatory Compliance for Education Abroad Risk Management. Registration is still available for this session on Sunday, September 24 at the URMIA Annual Conference in Orlando.

Our National Office continues to grow and expand with Glenn Klinksiek taking on a new role as education manager for the association. In this role, Glenn will direct and oversee URMIA's education plan and bring a more strategic approach to our comprehensive educational programming. URMIA was fortunate to hire Lou Drapeau, recently retired risk manager at the University of Kentucky, to fill Glenn's prior role as part-time resource manager. If you have a question on the URMIA website, look for the "Ask Lou" button, and he will be happy to address your questions. In addition to these changes, we have a terrific National Office staff, and it has been my privilege to work closely with them this past year. 

As an association, we continue to have a strong financial statement and solid board leadership. Since San Diego, the board has met, in person or electronically, five times. As part of the efforts of our Leadership Development Committee, we had a record number of votes during our recent election. I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to Luke Figora, our new president-elect, and to our newly elected board members, Keswic Joiner (elected to second term), Julie Groves, Craig McAllister and Pamela Jeffreys.  I look forward to serving with all of you!

I look forward to seeing many of you at URMIA's 48th Annual Conference in the "magical" city of Orlando on September 23-27. It is going to be a special conference with speakers each day from the Disney Institute. We are on track to have our largest attendance in history, including over 500 risk management professionals from colleges and universities and record setting attendance of over 850 individuals. For those of you who are attending, make sure to stop by our resource center, where you will find numerous materials and books, including one which URMIA co-sponsored with NAFSA on Crisis Management for Higher Education. 

In closing, I want to express what an honor and privilege it has been, both professionally and personally, to represent this outstanding organization over the past year. Thank you for instilling your trust and confidence in me. My thanks go out to our National Office staff, board of directors, committee chairs and the many volunteers who drive this organization forward each and every day. In Orlando, I will be passing the gavel to Sam Florio, who I know will provide great leadership going forward. It has been a pleasure working with Sam this past year. I look forward to seeing all of you in Orlando and hope that you will take a moment to say hello so that I can thank you in person.