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NAIA Chief Jim Carr Reviews 'State of NAIA' at Annual Convention
Jim Carr, the CEO of the NAIA, addressed convention attendees earlier this week in Louisville, Ky.

NAIA Chief Jim Carr Reviews 'State of NAIA' at Annual Convention

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Jim Carr, the NAIA's chief executive officer, gave his annual "State of the Association" address at the NAIA's annual convention earlier this week. 

What a wonderful first few days here in Louisville. Yesterday, we balanced the important work of committees with the exciting Thunder over Louisville. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about our convention in the middle of this huge event, but I am so happy we all had the opportunity to participate and be in the heart of Thunder!

Then today, we heard from Dick Barnett. It is fitting that we honor Dick, Coach McClendon and the Tennessee State University teams of the late 1950’s. The annual convention is always a good time to honor our terrific history and the roles played by Coach McClendon’s teams certainly make me proud to be a part of this organization!

However, as we honor the great people and moments from our past, we must do so with the understanding that the past is just that – the past. As leaders of this association, we owe it to our present and future student-athletes to set the course for the future. We all must dig in and create a united front to build the ideal intercollegiate athletic association. We must work together to advance character driven intercollegiate athletics.

In talking with a long time NAIA coach, he told me the story of an interview with a gold medal winning United States swimmer. Moments after popping out of the water, a reporter asked her: “With the defending gold medalist on your left and the world record holder on your right, how were you able to pull this out?” She simply said: “I just stayed in my lane”. At first blush, that statement may not sound that profound or impressive, but the more I thought about the message she was sending, it is a terrific lesson for all of us and the NAIA. We cannot let the gold medalist to our left or the world record holder to our right, change our mission or our values. We cannot let the actions or accomplishments of others steer us off course.

This simple message is helpful but it only tells part of the story. Certainly we all understand that this elite athlete did not just show up on the platform, focus on staying in her lane, and win gold. She trained for years, took advantage of new technology and worked daily to improve. Likewise, we must “stay in our lane” but also work tirelessly to get better. In the same way that a 2008 Olympian is training much differently than he did in the 1990’s or the 1980’s, the NAIA also must operate differently. We must learn from our previous missteps and successes. We also must learn from the missteps and successes of others. Intercollegiate athletics, now more than ever is a dynamic environment, and we must be ready to seize opportunities wherever they exist. On a daily basis, just like an Olympian in training, we must set benchmarks for success and understand what our competition is doing.

As people talk about the future, the unknown can create anxiety and disruption in an organization. It is a natural tendency for people to resist new ways to improve because of this fear of the unknown. We must embrace change because the best way to predict our future is to create it! I am not willing to leave the future of this great organization to chance. I want us all to join together to create the future that our student-athletes deserve.

Last year I focused on the newly adopted strategic plan and the uniqueness that is the NAIA Way. Our philosophy, how we encourage interaction between student-athlete’s and coaches, how we give autonomy and flexibility to members, our commitment to character and the straight forward approach to intercollegiate athletics that is the hallmark of the NAIA.

Today, I feel even more grounded in the NAIA Way. There is a body of work that demonstrates we are defining ourselves, creating the niche and strength that is critical to our future success. If we are to create our niche, to be the best at character driven intercollegiate athletics, we must focus on:

Presidential Leadership
Expanded roles of conferences
Uncompromising Standards
Champions of Character


By making significant progress in these areas, we not only will stay in our lane but also create our own future.

Leadership:

To predict our future we need increased engagement by presidents at the institutional, conference and national levels.

Over the last 12 months I have seen increased involvement by our presidents lead to:

More informed membership decisions by institutions;

A renewed sense of pride on the national level; and

Increased resources for conferences.

We have all witnessed situations where institutions make membership decisions against the recommendations of coaches and athletics administrators. In today’s climate, membership decisions are occurring at the presidential and trustee levels. The engagement of NAIA presidents gives us the opportunity to communicate the benefits of the NAIA and character driven intercollegiate athletics. These conversations are most effective when they are peer to peer, with NAIA presidents who believe strongly in our mission, telling colleagues why the NAIA is the right home for them.

As presidents begin to understand better the NAIA, I have witnessed a willingness to speak out on behalf of the association. I attended the Council of Independent Colleges meeting in January. Rick Artman represented the NAIA on a panel related to the state of intercollegiate athletics in NAIA, Division II and Division III. I was delighted to hear the way in which presidents from NAIA institutions described the NAIA to their colleagues. In addressing presidents representing both associations, Sr. Mary Lea Schneider, president at Cardinal Stritch University, urged her NAIA colleagues to listen to the conversations occurring in NCAA Division III and appreciate the positives we have in the NAIA. She pointed to our unity of purpose around Champions of Character, good access to championships and the various components that make the NAIA unique.

On the national level, the COP continues to lead us by focusing our conversations and actions on the implementation of the strategic plan adopted at the 2007 Convention. I want to thank Rick Artman for his tremendous passion and leadership during the last year. His leadership has been and will continue to be instrumental as we implement the plan.

At the 2008 convention we have 100% of your COP representatives registered. In total, we have more than 50 college presidents here to learn more about this tremendous association. Their engagement and commitment is proof positive that they do not want to leave our future to chance. They want to predict the future of the association by creating it.

Stronger Conferences:
At the conference level, we are seeing presidential involvement result in renewed focus, greater unity of purpose and in many cases, additional resources for the conference, including the hiring of full-time conference commissioners. Earlier this year, I attended a historic first meeting of Cal-Pac presidents. It was clear from the discussions among the presidents that, even with an extremely diverse group of schools represented, the presidents shared many of the same objectives for their athletics programs. In addition, the presidents were able to witness and appreciate the good work of Don Ott, the new Cal-Pac commissioner and the many dedicated athletics administrators. I want to thank Sister Rosemarie Nassif for her persistence in getting her presidents together. I know the conference will benefit from the continuing involvement.

We began to shape the future of strong NAIA conferences through direct qualification. That process, nearing its completion this fall, placed the spotlight – the gateway for entry to postseason play – squarely on conference championships, and I believe we’ll reap the benefits from that decision for years to come.

You heard Dr. Tom Trebon yesterday afternoon outline the leadership role his COP Committee on Presidential Leadership and Conference Standards is taking in developing a very clear set of expectations for presidents’ involvement in conference affairs. A second committee, chaired by GPAC Commissioner Corey Westra, is working in tandem with Dr. Trebon’s committee to develop standards and best practices for conference administration.

I’d also like to take a moment to applaud Rick Sanders and his fellow commissioners for the terrific work they are doing to breathe new life and energy into the network of NAIA commissioners. They are not waiting around until all pieces are in place. In fact, they have been a powerful and exciting force in helping to shape the future. The commissioners have been a key voice in direct qualification, they have worked very hard to build a dynamic communication forum online, and they already have increased in a very substantial way the sharing of information and best practices among their colleagues, and especially to new conference administrators. Thank you all – we look forward to working even more closely with the CCA in the months ahead.

Uncompromising Standards:
As we turn to standards, there is agreement that we need to raise the bar. We now are sorting through what that means. We have committees who are working to establish standards and best practices in the following areas:

Rules education and accountability
Conduct in Competition
Champions of Character
Administration of conferences

These are complex issues and in some cases we are testing decade long principles of the NAIA, including our trust based system. We are taking time because we want association wide input and involvement. As we demonstrated with the strategic planning process and direct qualification, we want feedback from you before we implement major change.

As an organization we are seeking to define ourselves by creating a very distinct “niche” – the NAIA as the character-driven association in intercollegiate athletics. In doing so, we will not be tested by our statements, but by our actions. People outside our organization, those we want to join and support us – will be attracted initially by what we say. But they will decide to offer their support based on what we do. If we say we are character-driven, then when people outside this organization see us in action – on the field, in recruiting, in our interactions with others – they must see that difference.

I want to share with you a time in my life when I saw this kind of difference. I was fifteen years old and playing junior varsity basketball in Gulfport, Miss. The varsity coach, Bert Jenkins, was a legend in Mississippi. His teams frequently won state championships. What was always amazing to me about Coach Jenkins was that he lost a leg in World War II but you could not find anyone in our town who had heard him complain about it. It never was a factor in his coaching.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend during my sophomore year, Coach Jenkins dismissed the best player from the varsity team. That same guy went on to star at Lamar University. The following Monday, eight of the top ten players told Coach Jenkins that they would not practice until the dismissed player returned to the team. Coach Jenkins simply stated that practice would start in ten minutes and those players who do not practice are no longer with the team.

We practiced that day with one senior, one junior and a dozen sophomores. We played the rest of that season with that group. We took our lumps on the court and Coach Jenkins took his share of criticism off the court. The dismissed players sued Coach and the school district and Coach Jenkins was threatened on many occasions. But Coach Jenkins stayed in his lane – he never waivered.

In the end, his legendary status grew when that same group of players went on to win the state championship the next season. But even if we had not achieved success on the court, we all knew we had witnessed a man who stood up for what he believed was right. As I think back on it, the most courageous two people probably were the junior and senior who refused to bow to peer pressure and practiced when their friends refused. When I am faced with a tough decision about what is right, when it takes courage to stay in my lane, I typically think of Steve Hershey, David Hawthorne and Coach Jenkins and how they showed the strength to do the right thing.

So as we continue the discussions about standards and you are placed in a difficult position, when you see something that does not seem right, does not pass the smell test, think about someone in your life who showed the courage to do what is right.

It has to start internally. Once we are living it, people will take notice. Remember: the best way to predict the future is to create it. When it comes to standards, the best way to predict the future is to live it.

Champions of Character:
As we focus on presidential leadership, stronger conferences and uncompromising standards, Champions of Character continues to define the NAIA. It is our point of distinction, the characteristic by which this organization has said it wishes to be measured.

We have had passionate and extraordinary leadership from a dedicated group of individuals who have shaped the Champions of Character program in its early years. My predecessor, Steve Baker, helped to create and nurture the concept initially, Bruce Brown brought the fundamental messages and content that continue to make this such a compelling initiative, and Rob Miller and members of the NAIA Character Committee and Task Force on Champions of Character have created a network of campus-based Champions of Character Program Centers and helped deliver the message to many coaches and student-athletes, both on NAIA campuses and in surrounding communities. I hope you’ll join me in offering our congratulations and thanks to these outstanding leaders.

The Council of Presidents has embraced Champions of Character and, through the strategic plan, has challenged this program and this association to expand the reach well beyond its current boundaries – to deliver meaningful character education to every NAIA coach on every NAIA campus.

This is a tall order. It will require new ways of looking at Champions of Character, new ways of delivering the program, and new contributions to build on the solid foundation that has been laid.

This year – again, as part of the strategic plan – we began a more deliberate evaluation of Champions of Character, in order to establish benchmarks from which to measure progress. What we found in a survey of NAIA coaches, was that those coaches we’ve reached have a very positive impression of the program, believe in its value, and agree that there is a strong relationship between team character building and team performance.

What we also found is that only about one in four of our coaches have received Champions of Character education. After more than five years on the job, it’s clear that we have a very significant challenge to hit the target set by our presidents. For this reason and with the help of those people most invested in the program, I have advocated a number of additional elements to Champions of Character:

As our flagship initiative, I believe it is critically important that the program have the benefit of strategic planning and ongoing oversight by an entity formally placed in the association’s administrative structure, with presidential leadership and representation of key constituents. I am pleased that Martin Methodist College President Ted Brown has agreed to chair a Committee on Champions of Character Integration soon to be formed.
We must develop additional means for delivering Champions of Character, given our goal to provide character education to every NAIA coach. As a result, we are moving forward with development of an online educational component for coaches.
Given the scope of our educational objectives, we cannot continue to rely primarily on presentations from the national office or our institutions’ coaches and student-athletes. We will rely – consistent with our strategic plan – on more involvement from campus and conference administrators to engage their peers in meaningful discussions on character-related issues (conduct at NAIA events first among them). We will be developing additional resources for campus-based Program Centers and facilitators at the conference level to permit self-guided discussions of Champions of Character.


As we continue to carve our niche, as we stay in our lane, we also are in a position to explore our relationship with the NCAA, to learn from them and potentially take advantage of new resources. Before I talk about the specifics of those conversations, let’s retrace the reasons why these conversations are vital to the NAIA’s interests.

The perception has been that the NCAA is going to do something to the NAIA, and that we only can stand by, wring our hands about what the NCAA may intend, essentially staying in a passive, reactive posture, allowing others at the conference and national levels to drive the agenda.

This approach – allowing ourselves simply to be acted upon – is a mistake. We will be hurt and weakened as an association. If we allow these conversations to be conducted in the back channels, the dynamics shaped primarily by the individual actions and small pockets of self interest at the conference level, we will have only ourselves to blame. If we wish to predict the future, we must shape it. We must be unafraid to engage it.

As a result, we have worked purposefully and in a sustained way in the last two years to engage the NCAA directly, to state its intentions, its position with regard to the NAIA in intercollegiate athletics, to help the NCAA gain a better understanding of the unique character of the NAIA, to make clear the implications of various NCAA policies – in short, to create intentional discussion with the NCAA about the interests and agenda of the NAIA.

The result has been a sustained, meaningful and important dialogue between the NCAA and NAIA on a whole range of issues of mutual concern. Those conversations began at the level of senior members of the two national office staffs (including Myles Brand and myself), and in recent months the circle has extended to include several presidents representing the NCAA’s three divisions and a similar number from the NAIA.

The results have been encouraging – and in some respect intriguing.

At this point, each association has committed to support one another publicly and continue to share information. In addition, senior staffs will analyze various programmatic partnerships, including, but not limited to, encouraging competition between NAIA and Division II and Division III members, combining catastrophic insurance plans, sharing resources related to eligibility certification and letter of intent and creating joint “academies” for gender equity, leadership, character and inclusion. These specific partnerships will move forward only if the benefits to each association justify a partnership.

As we explore these specific joint programs, we also will continue to discuss the NAIA/NCAA relationship. Representatives of both organizations agree that we should explore all means by which the NAIA and NCAA can work together for the mutual benefit of our two associations and the common good of intercollegiate athletics and the student-athletes we serve. We have a window of opportunity to work with the leadership of the NCAA to develop alternatives. We need to be explicit about how we work together and put the conversation into the context of where we want to be in ten to fifteen years. In other words, how can the NAIA and NCAA create a landscape that benefits all intercollegiate student-athletes?

As we continue our discussions with the NCAA, we want your input. Help us examine the relationship as it currently exists and where you would like to see it go. What are the specific benefits to the NAIA and our members if we join forces in specific areas? How do we best partner with them and retain our identity?

My final comments on our relationship with the NCAA is that you need to know that representatives of the COP have made it clear in every discussion that retaining our identity, keeping the NAIA in tact, is a priority. NCAA representatives understand our position and are willing to proceed.

Current Successes:
As we look to the future, it also is critical that we continue to provide the benefits and services you want from an athletics association. We have had many successes in our primary areas of business this year. Your championships staff and our hosts continue to provide terrific experiences for student-athletes. As previously mentioned Champions of Character continues to expand. Of equal importance, most conversations about issues or challenges among our various constituencies incorporate Champions of Character. In other words Champions of Character has become our compass as we work to improve. Champions of Character is who we want to be as an association.

In terms of national recognition, we continue to gain traction with USA Today, CBS College Sports and other national outlets. In addition the NACMA partnership provides terrific tools for institutions and campuses. I want to thank Jeff Bain and the other administrators who have been instrumental in creating the NACMA partnership.

I have stated on many occasions that increased resources are necessary to advance our plan. We are making progress in raising dollars and on target to match the $300,000 challenge grant of Buffalo Funds President John Kornitzer. This $600,000 is being placed into the newly formed NAIA Foundation and will be disbursed to support the outreach portion of the program. John Kornitzer and I also will meet next week to finalize his commitment for the future and continue our efforts to broaden our base of support.

As a tangible indicator that our plan is resonating with people, we have welcomed 11 new members into the NAIA in 2007-08. New members include: Indiana University East, Life University (Ga.), St. Catherine College (Ky.), Soka University (Calif.), Ave Maria University (Fla.), Cincinnati Christian College (Ohio), Kentucky Christian University, University of Maine, Presque Isle, College of Santa Fe (N.M), Southeastern University (Fla.), Talladega College (Ala.).

These institutions bring our total membership to 291. We anticipate a net gain in members in 07-08, the second consecutive year for growth. These institutions see value in our association and believe in the NAIA Way. They are committed to Champions of Character and the values we hold dear. Please join me in welcoming our new members.

These are but a few of our many accomplishments of 07-08. None of these or others would be possible without the hard work and dedication of your staff. Your staff is being pushed like never before with aggressive goals and benchmarks to hold us accountable. The staff is responding and I hope you see their effort and commitment as you work with us. Please understand that each of us on staff has one objective – do whatever we can today, tomorrow and into the future to make the NAIA the ideal intercollegiate athletic association.

Where does all of this place the NAIA in 2008? In a position of strength.

We have a unique niche that is the NAIA Way – we are in the right lane. Let’s resist the temptation to look over our shoulders and focus on creating our future. We have many opportunities to take advantage in our ever-changing landscape. We must act in a way that embraces our strengths and build on them. We must have a unity of purpose if we truly are to control our destiny.

Our resolve and commitment to the ideals of the NAIA will be tested in the coming months. We must stay in our lane as we work together to reset the standards of the organization, as we hold each other accountable and as we explore the opportunities a partnership with the NCAA would bring. We must commit to something bigger than ourselves and our personal situations if we truly want the NAIA to advance character driven intercollegiate athletics and be the ideal intercollegiate athletics association.

The staff and I look forward to continuing the journey with each of you. Together, we can become who we say we want to be. Together we can predict the future of the NAIA.



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