District Seminars a Success, Grew Again
By Meghan Cooley, District Seminars Committee Co-Chair
Augustana College
Wow! What a year! If you missed the district seminars in 2013 –you missed out! Based on preliminary results we had a 6% increase in attendance with more than 433 attendees (and that’s not counting walk-ins!). 172 of the attendees were non-IACAC members. The reach of these programs far exceeds the general membership and we can be proud of the opportunity to serve colleagues across the state.
The District Seminar Coordinators are true planning gurus. Thank you to all of them for an exceptional job this year. A special shout out to Lincoln College–Normal (Gretchen Bree & her team) for their first opportunity to host a District Seminar. The East Central and North Central District Seminars had the highest attendance in the past 3 years. Thanks to Tammy Celus and Rachel Macon for stepping up as coordinators in 2013!
Due to spring break conflicts, the Chicago & South Suburban District seminar was held on a Thursday with great attendance!
Often District Seminars provide prizes, raffles, and goodies for attendees (like, I said, if you weren’t there – you missed out). This year, through the generosity of the NACAC Imagine Grant, we were able to raffle IACAC memberships for the 2013-2014 year. My faith in the greatness of our colleagues was once again affirmed by the response to these grants. Counselors were enthusiastic and very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this great association. As one district seminar coordinator wrote, “This was a huge hit and a great idea!”
As we have in the past, donations were collected for Project Reach and, like always, our attendees provided an impressive collection of school supplies. We also were able to collect IACAC scholarship donations as well as providing application information to many of our area high school partners.
One other note is to encourage you to check out the photos from the District Seminars. My favorite is the best dressed winner from the Southern District (they have a theme and costume competition)
So, as I said at the beginning – WOW! What a year for District Seminars. We hope you’ll make plans to participate next year.