ACHS State of the Association

1
ACHS State of the Association

• Mission
• To build a visibly cohesive community of national
  and international honor societies, individually
  and collaboratively exhibiting excellence in
  scholarship, service, programs, and governance

2
ACHS Ends

• The association acts as the coordinating agency
  for collegiate honor societies
• Provides facilities for consideration of matters
  of mutual interest
• Defines types of honor societies

• Cooperates with college and university faculties
  and administrative officers in developing
  maintaining high standards and useful functions
• Collects, publishes, and distributes information
  and data

3
Benefits of ACHS Membership

• Nations only certifying agency for collegiate
  honor societies
• Sets standards for organizational excellence and
  scholastic eligibility assures that interests
  of individual members are advanced
• Government employment GS7 level merit
• Internship scholarships available through
  Washington Internship Institute, The Fund for
  American Studies, and the Washington Center of
  Internships and Academic Seminars

4

• Partnerships with professional associations
• Council for the Advancement of Standards in
  Higher Education (CAS)
• National Association of Student Personnel
  Administrators (NASPA)
• The Center for Academic Integrity
• The Center for Ethics
• The National Collegiate Honors Council
• The College Parents of America

5

• ACHS Website promotes each society as well as
  article on How to Judge the Credibility of an
  Honor Society.
• Joint national project A Matter of Ethics
• Annual Meeting for mutually beneficial
  communication, sharing of best practices of each
  organization, answering operational questions,
  performing the governance of ACHS, and for
  challenging each other to be the standard bearer
  and Do Honor
• Collect a body of knowledge that will be of value
  to honors community

6
Accomplishments this year

• Long Range Planning all inclusive and
  incorporating financial planning to implement
  goals
• Web site template on line for use
• Scholarship Search Engine in place
• Management Best practices shared
• Links with affiliated organization and all
  societies on Web site
• Standards of Legitimacy on Web site

7

• Created a community for ready response to
  operational questions
• Provide resources for use with chapters A
  Matter of Ethics suggested bylaws needed for
  suspending chapter officers
• Streamlined annual report on line and increased
  use of Web site for appropriate purposes
• Special resources regarding chapter advisors
• Representation at significant professional
  meetings and associations
• Annual meeting directly addressing stated needs
  of member societies

8
Issues facing ACHS

• Are honor societies relevant?
• How to find and keep campus advisors?
• Changes in institutions and lives of student
  (lack of time, costs, benefits received)
• How to take action on values ethics?
• How to improve the administration of societies
  (technology, marketing, services, financial
  concerns, membership growth) ?

9
Statistics from annual reports

• Classification
• 25 General
• 75 Specialized
• Revenue
• 12 1 million or more
• 27 250-750 thousand
• 61

10
Statistics

• Chapters Conferences
• 0-99 35 - 54 - Annual
• 100-199 22 - 24 - Biennial
• 200-399 26 - 22 - Other
• 400-699 13
• 700-1099 4

11
Statistics Membership Trends

• Significant increase 6
• Increase 43
• Flat 38
• Decrease 11
• Significant decrease 2
• Total New Members 2005-06
• 367,000

12
Statistics Member Benefits

• Job Board/Resume Listing 16
• Internship/Career Information 44
• Leadership Training 64
• Service Chapter - 78
• Service National 36
• Discounted Commercial Products 15

13
Statistics Scholarships

• 0-10 - 19 societies
• 15-25 - 21 societies
• 30-40 - 8 societies
• 45-70 - 4 societies
• 26 of the societies budget 5
• 26 of the societies budget 15

14
Statistics Scholarships

• Average budget for 1 million budgets - 10
• Average budget for 250-750M budgets 20
• Average budget for
• Is there a minimum goal here?
• Or a benchmark goal?

15
Statistics

• 2005-06
• Scholarship Expenditures
• 2,500,000

16
Planning for the future

• What motivates our prospective members?
• Fame and Fortune
• 81 say most 1st or 2nd most important goal is
  getting rich
• Average budget for 250-750M budgets 20
• 51 say it is becoming famous
• 74.5 want to be very well off financially
• (In 1967 only 41.9 thought that important and
  their top goal was to develop a meaningful
  philosophy of life.)

17
Future

• What are the concerns of our prospective members
• 1. 30 cited financial concerns
• 2. 18 said college and education
• 3. 16 claimed careers and jobs

18
Future

• What are the views of 18-29 year olds who will
  lead us into the future?
• -54 use Facebook or MySpace for social
  interaction
• -32 attend church once a week
• (20 have no religious affiliation)
• -48 Democrates - 35 Republicans
• -36 have a tattoo
• -30 have body piercing other than ear
  lobe
• -25 have dyed their hair a non-traditional
  color
• -84 are content with their lives and
  optimistic about the future

19
Where does ACHS need to go?

• Realizing the top goal of prospective members is
  fame or distinction honor society membership
  should be very appealing!
• Knowing that becoming rich is a top priority
  can honor society membership show a correlation
  to future financial success?
• What about the traditions and standards each
  society values can these translate to current
  students in a meaningful way?

20
Long Range Plan

• Each of the four small break out groups offers an
  opportunity for Council members to be part of the
  future plans.
• Your ideas will be recorded and reported back
  before the end of this annual meeting and will be
  a focus for the next Board.