Creating a Culture of Recognition

Higher education as an industry has perservered through many critical shifts and transformations. Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of alternative work schedules, maximizing employee wants (and needs) can be paramount to leverage and understand how to retain employees. 

Accepting realities that employees leave the field, shift to new roles, assume additional roles, and everything in between, as a supervisor, manager or leader, how can we create spaces that recognize one another as we are ALL employees? And, how do we ensure equitable opportunites that meet staff strengths and interests across the board. Not just the employees who need a little help. Not just the stellar ones but the ones with potential. Not just the ones with potential but the ones we have not provided sufficient feedback to who could develop and retool. 

Everyone can develop and retool to continually build their resumes and provide resources to expand their perspectives on the work that they do daily. And everyone desires and deserves to be engaged from their world view within the constructs of it's connection to the timing, budget and relationship to the mission and vision of the organization/unit. Budgets may be tight, but there are multiple ways to celebrate, stretch and recognize staff that are mutually beneficial. CAPACRAO recognizes the stregnths of our membership and we here to help! Learn the perks of CAPACRAO membership. 

As institutional members of CAPACRAO there are so many opportunities to capitalize on the benefits of membership:

1. A local connection to the field of enrollment management.
2. Get featured as our monthly Member Spotlight - complete our survey.
3. Utilize the listserves to communicate with various colleagues on time sensitive issues with a local focus to Maryland and DC. Did you know we have over 10 listserves? Don't see a listserve that meets your needs, just send us a request.
4. Recieve state wide recognition as an emerging and seasoned staff - we are accepting nominations for our annual awards now. The deadline has been extended to May 13, 2022. You can nominate yourself or a colleague. Submit one today.
5. Get involved in leadership opportunities through our Standing Committees & Executive Board to retool, leverage and upskill knowledge that may be under utilized in current role, or a really great strength of yours.
6. Expand your enrollment management network by attending our Annual Meeting and other events.
7. Launch or re-engage your public speaking and presentation skills while facilitating workshops on high impact and best practices. We are accepting proposals for our Annual Meeting. Submit your proposal today.
8. Explore local job opportunities through our job board.
9. Learn about other professional development workshops through our monthly curated calendar of events. 
10. Submit your ideas for professional development engagement opportunities CAPACRAO should consider and lead by joining us on a Standing Committee to execute it. Last year, Johnika Dreher and her colleague, Caitlin Minch launched a Dual Enrollment listserve and our first Special Interest Group. It's a bi-monthly informal meet up to engage in dialouge about changing needs for serving early college access and dual enrollment students. Email [email protected]. 

This is your organization! And the Executive Board wants to redefine volunteerism that supports the strengths of our membership while also ensuring the highest level of engagement. As an institutional member, your college or university has unlimited individual memberships offered to colleagues across the enrollment services division. Encourage and share CAPACRAO information to allow us actualize our mission and vision to create a culture of recognition and engagement.

If you have other ways in which CAPACRAO could assist you in creating a culture of recognition through professional development, please submit your ideas to our Vice President for Programming via [email protected]. We look forward to engaging with you more to sustain CAPACRAO as an organization. Let us know how we can help you - our members.