September 2011 ACA General Meeting

Sharing Our Voice 

The September 14, 2011 ACA General Meeting, sponsored by the Academic Counselors Association, featured the beginning of the year address from in-coming President Theresa Thomas (Happy Birthday T!),  updates from the Office of the Registrar, a brief presentation from the new Staff Ombuds - Jennifer Sims, and an open call for participation on ACA standing committees.

A BIG thank you to the paying membership of ACA for providing nourishment to attendees (kolachees, fruit, cofffee and water)!


ACA President
Theresa Thomas welcomed everyone and acknowledged the hard work of our members, as well as past and present executives, that has made our organization's voice heard and valued on campus.On that note, Theresa announced the new ACA theme for this year: “Sharing Our Voice.” She spoke about communicating our collective experiences and expertise in order to postiviely affect changes on campus.

Updates from the Office of the Registrar - Brenda Schumann and Dan Knauft
Discussion on One-Time-Exception Drop/Withdrawal, mid-semester deadline change, and on-line grade change form. Please review the minutes from the meeting for detailed information on these topics.

Staff Ombudsperson - Jennifer Sims
Jennifer spoke about her new position as Staff Ombudsperson, where she acts as a resource for staff members to speak confidentially and openly about concerns they have concerning their jobs at the University. Her office reports to the Office of the President
Phone: 512-232-8010
E-mail: staffombuds@austin.utexas.edu

ACA Committee Recruitment
Former chairs spoke about their committee involvement last year to encourage members to join and participate this year. Clipboards were available for members to sign up for different committees at the end of the presentation.

Please take some time to consider how you want to be involved in ACA!  For descriptions of the ACA Standing Committees, please visit the following website:  http://www.utexas.edu/staff/aca/bylaws#Standing

The contact information for previous committee chairs can be found on the ACA website.  Please do not hesitate to contact the former chair or a current Executive Commitee member for additional information.


Movin' On Up & Movin' Out
Program Chair/Vice President Valeri Nichols-Keller opened up the floor to recognize new ACA members.  Several new members introduced themselves (be on the look-out for profiles of some of our new members), plus even more "old" members updated us on their job changes including a few who are leaving campus. 

Although we can't list all the movement on campus in this blog entry, we did want to wish ACA Luck and Good Wishes to two of our departing members who have given alot to our campus and to ACA by serving as officers:
* Ciao to Jeff Hallock - Biomedical Engineering; ACA Historian 2007-2008
 *Hasta la vista to Brad Popiolek - Center for Strategic Advising; ACA Co-Public Relations 2010-2011