Letter from the president KEEPING IT
REAL
Greetings CAAE Friends! It is my great pleasure to welcome you to our 2020 CAAE Winter Institute. We are indeed fortunate to be able to come together, connect, and spend time with our colleagues and friends.
Our theme this year, ‘keeping it real,’ is reflective of the honest, transparent and ‘real’ conversations we are all able to have with one another and as community when we gather. We have committed to an intentional culture that provides a space for all of us to gather as peers to create partnerships and working relationships that transcend our two annual institutes – and better enable us to be effective in our roles as the leaders of the most significant alumni organizations in the world. For the 2020 Winter Institute, we will be ‘keeping it real’ by opening our time together with a conversation about how we can build or, in many cases, refresh our collective trust in higher education. What are our lessons learned and strategies moving forward in a time that has challenged our constituents’ level of trust and faith in higher education? For the rest of the program, we have listened to your feedback about what is important to you and what you value about our time together. As a result, we have reimagined several aspects of the Winter Institute and we will be eager to hear what you think. For example: • We will not ‘program’ our reception and meal time together. A colleague from the Institutes Committee or our board will offer brief remarks at the start of our meals – and then encourage us to keep our conversations going. I anticipate that we will succeed! • We have tried to provide time for informal networking and left a few blocks of time open for just that – including a new and additional activity time where we can move and sweat together. • We have identified a time for roundtable conversation with topics to be determined by our real-time conversations, both formal and informal, leading up to that session. • We asked for your feedback and ideas for session content and hope we have been good listeners – the topics we cover have been crafted specifically with you in mind. • We will once again celebrate the future of our profession through our fellows. • We have moved their session to earlier in the institute with hopes that will help shape and frame your dialogue with these rising stars throughout our time together. My deepest thanks go to Julie Sina and Duane Wiles (and Committee) for their dedication and creative energy in putting together this year’s Winter Institute. The team’s vision will come to reality over the next few days, and I personally can’t wait to watch it all come to glorious fruition. Finally, 2020 will be our last Winter Institute in Scottsdale – at least for a little while. Next year we move to the Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa. Please take a moment to remember all the good times we have had here and get ready for an exciting new start in San Diego in 2021! Cheers to you and a toast to three great days together! Hoopes
CAAE WINTER INSTITUTE • FEBRUARY 17–19, 2020
