Jill Creighton:     Welcome to season two of the ASCA Viewpoints Podcast, the podcast where we talk about the student conduct profession in higher education. I'm Jill Creighton, your Viewpoints host. Today's episode features Christine Simone. Christine recently transitioned to the role of Deputy Director for the Association For Student Conduct Administration. Prior to that, she was most recently the Director of Residence Life and Community Standards at College of Saint Mary, located in Omaha, Nebraska, where she remains a doctoral student. Christine has been serving the Association through various leadership roles with the Annual Conference for six years, and is currently an ex-officio member of the ASCA board of directors, serving as the 2019 Annual Conference Chair.

Jill Creighton:     After beginning her professional life as a copy editor and reporter with a regional New York Times affiliate, Christine transitioned into the field of higher education at Florida Southern College, her undergraduate alma mater, in the Office of Community Living. Christine then went on to work with Living Learning Communities at the University of South Florida, where she earned her Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction College Student Affairs. She then served as the Director for Residence Life at Huntington College and the Director of Residence Life and Community Standards at the College of Saint Mary, before shifting into her current ASCA Deputy Director role.

Jill Creighton:     Christine is our fearless leader for our 2019 conference. In today's episode, you'll learn about what to expect from this year's conference, some information on a brand new slate of keynote speakers, and much, much more. If you're heading down to Jacksonville right now, maybe you're listening to this on the plane, hope that you find this helpful. If you're not able to join us in Jacksonville this year, just keep your calendars marked for February of 2020, where we will transition to Washington DC.

Jill Creighton:     Welcome to the podcast, Christine Simone. Christine has the privilege this year of serving as our 2019 ASCA Annual Conference Chair. She also is newly five days into her role as the ASCA Deputy Director. Welcome Christine.

Christine S.:       Thanks, Jill.

Jill Creighton:     I am so excited to hear about this year's conference. This has become a really wonderful annual episode for us. Last year we spoke with Pam Malyk about what to expect for the Lighting The Path Forward Conference. I think this year's theme is Navigating The Journey. Is that correct?

Christine S.:       Yep. That's right.

Jill Creighton:     Well, I'd love to hear all about how we got to the theme, but before we do that, as with all of our guests, we wanna know how you got to your current place in your career and, also, within ASCA into the Conference Chair role.

Christine S.:       Like many others, I started out in the residence life realm, and I worked as a Hall Director at Florida Southern College, which was my alma mater, right after I graduated. In that role, at the time, it was a very unique position in that all of the hall directors were part-time. So, throughout the year of being in that role, I was really enjoying the conduct realm component of my job. Some others weren't as much, so there was an opportunity there where our director at the time, Elizabeth Ching-Bush, created the first full-time positions that would include a higher conduct case load, which was a perfect fit for me.

Christine S.:       I transitioned into that and was really able to lean more on the conduct side of residence life, which has really been the case throughout my career ever since. I, then, went to graduate school, obviously. After that, became the Director of Residence Life at Huntington College, which is in Montgomery, Alabama. I was there for a few years, then I made a cross-country leap to head out to Omaha, Nebraska as the Director or Residence Life and Community Standards at College of Saint Mary, which is where I was until last week.

Jill Creighton:     Last week you made the transition to ASCA, yes?

Christine S.:       Yes. I'm now the Deputy Director of ASCA, which I'm incredibly excited to transition into that role and to continue to give back to the Association, which has really been my professional home throughout my career.

Jill Creighton:     I was joking with Christine earlier that she's always been working for ASCA, just now she gets paid for it.

Christine S.:       Yep. Right.

Jill Creighton:     So excited to have you on staff. We really are. Looking forward to watching you grow into your own shoes in this role and really help the Association flourish. What does it mean to be the deputy director?

Christine S.:       I think some of the things I'm really excited about are this most recent board's strategic vision and strategic plan that we'll be able to begin to implement. I think over the course of time every group of volunteers we've had within the Association throughout the last 30-something years, has added their own touch and really brought the Association forward in a new and different way. This will be an opportunity for me to transition out of some of the volunteer roles that I've been in for the past five or six years to really take it on more full-time, and to be able to commit even more time to some of the projects and strategies that I would've wanted to pursue anyway.

Christine S.:       For me, it's a natural transition. I've really enjoyed the last five days. I'm ready to see what is to come and to continue to give back to the Associate, and to serve our members in different ways.

Jill Creighton:     You have the very distinct honor of being the 31st Annual Conference Chair. How do you get to that seat? Like, if I'm a current volunteer, or even just an interested party and getting more involved in ASCA, how do I ascend to that kind of position?

Christine S.:       Yeah, so the number one thing that I can say to anybody, and the same is true on our college campuses, is just get involved. Just reach out and find somebody that you can connect with. Maybe just tap somebody on the shoulder that looks like they might be volunteering just sort of say, "Well, how did you get there? What can I do to step in a role like that?"

Christine S.:       For myself, it was really interesting because when I was in graduate school was right around the time, I was about to graduate at the same time as Seann Kalagher's 2014 New Horizons Conference. My internship supervisor at the time, Cara Chernoff, was on the conference committee. So, I was interning with her on a local level at University of South Florida, but through that role was able to contribute to the conference committee, because that was a connection that she had. At that time, Sean was very open to allowing me to work on some of the communications associated with that conference. I helped build the first conference app that we had when we first brought GuideBook on board. From there, I just fell in love with the Association and everything that it did.

Jill Creighton:     I remember seeing you in the conference office way back at the Tradewinds, and everyone just pointing at you going, "There's the guidebook guru, ask her."

Christine S.:       My little baby face self just sitting there like, "I'm not sure what's happening, but I'm here."

Jill Creighton:     You're like, "I'm here, and I think I'm doing this thing." And you did an amazing job, so ...

Christine S.:       Well, thank you. I really loved that conference experience, because I got the chance to volunteer in a number of different roles, outside of just doing some of the tech stuff, I was able to really dive in and sit at the registration table for a little while and hang out there and just meet people. That was where Don Gehring walked up to me, and shook my hand and said "hello". To see that much collegial opportunity, to see the interactions that people were having really sparked that interest in continuing to be involved with the association, because it was such a home among all of the members. It didn't feel like a thousand-person conference. It felt like an opportunity to network without it feeling like it's forced networking.

Christine S.:       Everyone's so welcoming, and there was just opportunities for great conversation, great content, and so I continued with that throughout the next several years. After that, I applied to continue on the conference committee, and we moved into a more technology-central focus. After that, I worked on logistics, and then was the assistant chair last year, of course, and, now, the conference chair.

Jill Creighton:     When you talk about this year's conference and navigating the journey, how did we get to this theme?

Christine S.:       There's two sides to it. One is that, particularly for me, Florida has had a very important role in my life. The association has spent the last 31 years in Florida. It's had a number of different conference properties, but throughout its time, the conference has been within the state of Florida, which is also where I was born and where I called home for the first 25 years of my life, even though I've now made my way out to the middle-west. But Florida and the beach and water, and some of those characteristics are something that are very much a part of my own identity. Even in Saint Pete, prior to our move to Jacksonville, we were always near a body of water in some capacity, whether it was the gulf or a river.

Christine S.:       Some of the common characteristics of those are that water is in a constant state of change. It is never stagnant. It's always moving. Just like our association, we need to be willing and able to change to meet the needs of our students, to not allow ourselves to become stagnant or our processes. Obviously, within the legal realm and legislative realm, we're learning that navigating the water and the currents of some of these changes is gonna require a little bit of skill. So, we really lean on each other and we reflect on the routes that others have taken, the journeys that we're on, and we really look to chart some new courses within the field while all working together on that landscape.

Jill Creighton:     How is that playing out in the programming that we're seeing this year?

Christine S.:       We have a really diverse set of programs. This year we have over 180 people who are presenting in concurrent sessions. That's in the number of individual professional who are presenting, whether they're presenting one, or they're presenting two or three, that's a really great number of people to be contributing their voices to the conference in some capacity. So, that's fantastic.

Christine S.:       Because of that, it leans on one of the things I just said where there's that chance to really share and to have those experiences with one another, so that we're able to chart some of those courses and lean on the knowledge based that we have within an organization that is very diverse in and of itself.

Jill Creighton:     One of the things that I was noting, I just got my conference email the other day, was that we have a huge change in our featured speakers, which it looks extremely exciting. You can talk a little bit about that process and how folks were selected to keynote this year, and how that might look different than previous years.

Christine S.:       Certainly. One of the things that I'm really excited about is that across the board in all of our educational offerings, the Association's made a conscious effort to seek out some new voices, or diverse voices, just in a way of making people feel included in the process. We've opted to have an open call for programs. Several months ago, we put out an open call for speaker nominations. Most of our speakers that we actually have were nominated by a member of the Association who said, "You know what? This person would be a great fit for our association, or have a great message for people who do our type of work." That's where these speakers came from

Christine S.:       One of the great things about that is that it really gives a voice back to all of our membership, whether they're able to be at the conference or not, so that they can share more in the process, so that it allows us to be more inclusive of everybody's opinions and thoughts, and really allow other people to have a say in the conference, even if it's in a minor way, such as submitting an application. Well, now a member who may not have been on the conference committee, who may not have otherwise been involved, has helped us select our featured speaker, which is fantastic.

Jill Creighton:     I also just wanna note that the Association has been making that effort across the board in the last couple of years to really create equity and how we're choosing who's in front of the room. Historically, we had a much smaller field, so it was a lot easier to identify who might be an expert in an area. Now that we've grown so much, it's really important for us to look at the entire slate of who is teaching at Gehring, or who is presenting at the conference, or who might have capacity to offer webinars or host institutes. It's really exciting to see the shift in that philosophy, which I think has really helped our association give really strong educational offerings. So, I appreciate that you're taking that lead as well.

Christine S.:       Thanks. We really got a great response rate, which I think is absolutely wonderful. I'd also encourage people to just continue to put names out there, and to help us facilitate some of those more equitable and inclusive conversations by helping us nominate some of those people along the way when they see those emails go out.

Jill Creighton:     I think one thing that we should talk about, which I should have brought up earlier, is who are our featured speakers this year? Who should I expect to learn from and what about?

Christine S.:       Yeah. Well, obviously, the number one that I'm most excited about is Melissa Harris-Perry is gonna be our featured speaker for our opening session. The fact that we have such a big name coming to our conference, I think, is amazing. It's just very exciting. Because of her background within higher education, actually, when we reached out to her, she expressed an interest in work with us and specifically said, "Here's some of the things that I can talk about." Her higher education background mixed with her experience within journalism is gonna be, I think, a fantastic fit for our members to get to hear from.

Christine S.:       Our other speakers, we're doing a Lunch and Learn, which is a sit-down lunch where we're gonna hear from Clare Cady. She is gonna talk to us about some inclusive topics, but mostly her background has been within higher education and human services. She's worked with emergency aid funds, housing interventions, resource centers, such as food pantries and food bank alliances. She's gonna be a great one. She normally works as a consultant and has done a lot with some of these different non-profits, so we're gonna get to hear from her on how some of these things impact the work that we do.

Christine S.:       Then, we'll also have a legislative panel and a case law panel. The legislative will be two members of NASPA who are on the policy research advocacy and policy analysis side. They'll be sharing some information that they've got with us about recent legislation, which particularly by the time that the conference rolls around, may be continuing to take a little bit of shape. I know there was about 52,000 comments recently on the DOE suggestions.

Jill Creighton:     Is that all?

Christine S.:       So, I'm not sure that they'll get to all those by the time we get to the conference, but it's definitely something that as a field and a profession, we're obviously looking at. Those two will be wonderful resources for us.

Jill Creighton:     That's Teri Lyn Hinds and Diana Ali. I sit with them on the Public Policy Division. If you're interested in hearing from Teri in advance, she was featured on the podcast with Dr. Jill Dunlap just a couple of weeks ago. So, if you go back in the archives, you should be able to find that pretty easily. What about our case law update?

Christine S.:       Yeah. Our case law, we're going to hear from a couple of members of NACUA, the National Association of College and University Attorneys. There'll be a moderator present. Then, she'll actually facilitate the conversation between two of their members who will talk about some different topics. We expect that they'll likely touch on due process, Title IX trends, speech in conduct, such as anonymous speech, and likely some other topics as well. They'll really dive into what they deem, at the time of the conference, the top five legal issues in considerations within the student conduct realm.

Christine S.:       I think that's gonna be really important to hear what they have to say, and they're gonna be able to take a little bit different lens, as attorneys, to really dive into that information.

Jill Creighton:     I am so excited to partner with our NACUA folks for the first time. It'll be a really interesting take on the landscape of legal issues in higher ed, and kind of seeing some new folks at the front of the room, I think will give us a bit of a refresh on the conference in a really fun way. Now, if I am a newcomer to the conference, what should I expect?

Christine S.:       You should expect to be greeted with open arms. We have a number of activities and sessions and things to really help people kind of navigate what the layout of the property is, what the Association is. We wholly recognize that just because you're a first-time attendee at the conference does not mean that you're new to the field of higher education or to conduct even, necessarily. I think that's really an important thing for those of us who are returning to conference, always keep in mind as a lens that it may be your first time at the conference, but you may have other connections within the field or have attended other conferences previously.

Christine S.:       We really just wanna be here for those people and to help encourage them to get involved either at the conference, or to get connected to others. On our first night of the conference, we'll have our first-time attendee welcome. That's a great opportunity to be able to look around the room, say here's some other people who are also here for the first time. Every year about a third of our attendants is there at the conference for the first time. That's an amazing number of people, so we wanna make sure that they're connected and that they have all the resources that they need to have an enjoyable conference.

Jill Creighton:     Outside of the first attendee welcome, how might I find connections or find, maybe, structured opportunities to connect with others?

Christine S.:       Yes. So, there's several things. There's our connections team, which is headed up by Mike Fernbacher, has put together a number of opportunities where we'll be doing no-host dinners. So, opportunities just go grab a bite with another colleague that you may or may not know. There'll also be opportunities to participate in some of our entertainment options. We'll be moving our annual karaoke to actually be on-site in the hotel within our property, so we don't have to walk off-site to another location. We'll actually have it in-house, which I'm rather excited about that that'll be so centrally located.

Christine S.:       You can stop in and you can stay for a little while. You could step outside and just continue a conversation with someone in our living room area. It offers a lot of flexibility that you keep more of our people in-house, so that then everyone is more able to be in proximity to each other to continue those conversations, to just have a quick drop in, to meet somebody new, and to really build those connections along the way in a different way than we've been able to offer before.

Christine S.:       We'll also still do our trivia with Seann Kalagher. That's an opportunity as well. But then, also, just looking around the room when you're in different sessions. I mean, we have a number of sessions that are at a round-seated table in our ballroom. That's a great chance to just say, "Hi, I'm Christine. Who are you? Nice to meet you." Just hold a connection very casually one-on-one.

Christine S.:       I found that this conference, of all the conferences I've attended or worked with, is one that a conversation can be very easy. I am very much an introvert. That comes as no shock to anyone who's pretty much ever met me. But it's a good opportunity to be able to do that in those small, comfortable settings too, where people are very relatable and normally very approachable as well. Just use those opportunities, and you'll definitely feel right at home right away.

Jill Creighton:     I'll also just note that the Board of Directors, both the outgoing 18-19 board and the incoming 19-20 board, are absolutely resources for anyone at the conference. So, please come up and say hello to us. Don't be shy about just saying, "Hey, I'm here. I work at so and so. This is my first time," or, "This is my 25th time." All of us are just always down to meet our members and to collaborate and connect. So, please don't hesitate.

Christine S.:       If that's not something that people are comfortable with, there'll also be an opportunity where some of our leadership, whether it's the board or conference, or some of the people who work in other volunteer roles, like committees or COPS, or states, will also be available out in our vendor area to have a discussion. So, if you're not somebody who's super comfortable just walking up to a stranger and saying, "Hi, I'm so and so," that's fine. We'll be seated in an area where you're able to just kind of come up and very casually start that conversation. We'll be waiting to facilitate those conversations as well.

Jill Creighton:     Christine, for our first-time listeners, what's a COP?

Christine S.:       Community of practice.

Jill Creighton:     Tell me more about those.

Christine S.:       These are knowledge based groups where people can really get involved with one another and build relationships with others who might have a similar identity /within the field. For example, prior to my deputy director role of the last week, I was involved with the housing COP. It was an opportunity to ... e few weeks, we would have a conference call, and we would talk through different housing issues or work on some educational things for the organization. It was just a really great touch point to stay connected with people who might have a similar interest.

Jill Creighton:     What about if I want to create connections based on my identity of any kind?

Christine S.:       Yeah. So, there's opportunities for that as well. During our conference, our two largest are our summits. The African American Black Male Summit and the Women of Color Summit will take place during the conference. Those are in an evening, kind of the last session of the day, which in many ways can very organically lead into some dinner opportunities or continued conversations, which has been a really great structure for us previously.

Christine S.:       Also, there's COPs that may also be related to identity. That's an opportunity as well. Our state and region meetings will be held, some during the middle of the day, and then the region meetings at another time. That's another opportunity for identity. We really separated those out this year looking at our schedule, because we wanted to have an opportunity where people are gonna run into a conflicting identity. So, if I'm a member of the mid-west region and the state of Nebraska and an LGBTQ woman, I can have all these different opportunities where I can go to these different groups without having to choose, well, am I somebody working in the mid-west, or am I somebody in a same-sex relationship? That gives me the opportunity to really explore all those different areas, rather than having to choose.

Jill Creighton:     How do I find out what region I'm in?

Christine S.:       It's based specifically geographically. You can find these based on our website, but there's only five at the moment. We've got our Canada group, the west, east, south, and mid-west.

Jill Creighton:     So, pretty easy to identify my state, or if I identify as a Canadian professional. What if I am in a different country that's not a state and not Canada?

Christine S.:       You're welcome to join in with any of these groups. We'll normally have between one and two dozen people from outside of our country. I know we have a large group that are coming from the Middle East this year, in particular, so we may just wanna create an opportunity for the rest of our international populations to get together. We'd be happy to facilitate that. Or, there's a chance that someone may find that they've really built a connection with a certain school, or a certain group that they may want to just choose to go to that one as well. There's definitely options there.

Jill Creighton:     Huge shout out to any of our attendees who cross borders to come to the conference. We know what a financial stretch that can be, and we're just really appreciative that you chose us as your professional development for this year. Christine, do you happen to know the institution where our Middle Eastern colleagues are coming from?

Christine S.:       Not off the top of my head. I believe it was Kuwait.

Jill Creighton:     Okay, great. Well, if you're listening, and you're one of our Kuwaiti attendees, we are so excited to have you. I, myself, used to live in the Middle East. I lived in Riyadh for a number of years, so please come say hello. I'd love to get to know you a little better.

Jill Creighton:     Christine, if I am a returner to the conference, and this is maybe my third time in Jacksonville, or my 14th conference, what can I expect that has changed?

Christine S.:       We have really taken a hard look at our schedule and what makes the most sense for our attendees to be able to maximize our time together, while also providing a number of different opportunities. Over the past three years, as we continue to grow into our site in Jacksonville, we're able to continue to offer more opportunities for connection, for engagement, for learning, and teaching and presenting. We're just really excited to have all of those come together and to see our new schedule take hold so that we can really dive in in the content of the conference.

Jill Creighton:     Christine, if I have been coming to Florida since we were back in Clearwater, knowing this is our last year in Florida before we transfer up to DC, is there anything that I can expect to say goodbye to Florida?

Christine S.:       At this point, I'm not gonna really touch on that too much. But do know that with it being our last year in Florida after having 31 conferences within the state of Florida, to many it will be a bittersweet goodbye. I think there's obviously great value in continuing to move the conference as we move our association forward, so that it creates an opportunity for more individuals to attend the conference, whether that's geographically, whether that's the financial constraints of travel, and to really kind of change it up a little bit. At the same time, having been in Florida this whole time, it's definitely something that we need to acknowledge as we get ready to transition to our DC location.

Jill Creighton:     DC in the winter, I know a lot of folks were like, "Uh oh," but I want to reassure folks that the DC location is incredible. It is only two stops on the metro away from Reagan National Airport, and it's in this kind of giant hotel complex. So, if you wanted to enjoy parts of DC without leaving the hotel, you can do that. Or, you can just jump right on public transportation and be at so much free stuff. That would include the Smithsonian Museums, National Mall, all the monuments.

Jill Creighton:     Christine, is there anything else that you think is important for attendees to know about their trip down to Jacksonville?

Christine S.:       No. I think the main one is just come with the excitement. If you are coming to the conference for the first time, or if you're coming for your 10th or 20th time, we hope that there's gonna be something for you there. We trust that our committee has put something together that will, hopefully, be incredibly beneficial for you within our content, but then, also, obviously, the connections that you make with people are the number one reason that people state that they end up coming back to the conference, is that opportunity to reconnect with our colleagues. I really look forward to building new connections with some of our newcomers and continuing to catch up with those who've attended previously.

Jill Creighton:     I think one of the highlights of our conference that helps it run smoothly is our conference committee. Folks may not know, Christine leads a team of about three dozen volunteers both in a core and extended committee to make this thing go off without a hitch. Would you like to give a shout out to anyone?

Christine S.:       Yes. I have, not to brag, humble brag, best conference committee that I think we've ever had, and I will stand by the quote.

Jill Creighton:     Those are fighting words.

Christine S.:       I know it is, and that's fine. They can come talk to me. But we really have the most incredible group within our conference this year in that everyone has come in with their own perception of ways to improve our conference. They all have such a servant heart in what they're doing with their volunteerism to really create a conference that will be a fantastic experience for everyone who attends.

Christine S.:       For those who don't know about what that structure looks like, we have a core committee, is what we call it, which is our seven people who meet every single week. They all oversee a difference functional area, if you will, of the conference. Those people, my assistant chairs, Erin Dagle, Weston Prisbrey, is doing logistics. Amanda Campbell's doing communications. Andrea Weber is doing our programming. Mike Fernbacher is doing our connections, and AnneMarie Reed is doing our professional development opportunities.

Christine S.:       Then, each of them also have extended committee members so that we have about 25 people who are actually working to put this conference together. We're really looking forward to seeing how that all comes together once we're all able to get together on site.

Jill Creighton:     Erin Daigle has also been selected as our 2020 conference chair for the first DC conference, so it's nice to see that she's getting experience now.

Christine S.:       She's gonna be upset with me if I don't clarify that her new name is Leeper.

Jill Creighton:     Oh. Yes.

Christine S.:       Old habits die hard.

Jill Creighton:     I knew that too. Goodness. We apologize Erin, Erin Leeper. Now, Christine, one of the things that helps the conference run as well is not only that conference committee but, also, on-site volunteers. Can you talk to us about how to sign up for volunteer opportunities and what those might be?

Christine S.:       Yeah. We're always looking for a ton of volunteers. Whether you have an hour to give, or you wanna give a half day of time, we'll take any opportunity that you have. Not only is it fantastic for us and helps the conference move smoothly, but it's also a great opportunity for you to kind of dabble a little bit with the volunteerism roles that are within the Association. We're an association of thousands of members. However, there's only four people who are actually on paid staff. The rest of our association runs entirely on volunteers, so this is a great opportunity to kind of tip toe a little bit into some of that volunteerism opportunities. See where that takes you, see what your interest are, and go from there throughout time. Sort of like I was talking about with my own journey.

Christine S.:       If you're looking to volunteer, there's a couple of different ways to do that. Easiest one is gonna be to go on our website ascaconference.com. Click that volunteer link, and there's gonna be a number of options there to volunteer. If that isn't what you're looking for, you can also definitely reach out on-site, and we can get you connected with something. Even if it's kind of on the fly, and you say, "I've got a little bit of time here, how can I help?" We'd be happy to find you a spot to help out. We'll be kind of color coded. Our central office staff and our conference committee in blue shirts, so grab any of us and ask, "Hey, how can I help," or, "What can I do?" We'd be happy to get you plugged in. Additionally, our newsletter going out has a link to a volunteer form as well. Those are gonna be your best options to get plugged in.

Jill Creighton:     The last thing I wanna touch on is the engagement of the ASCA Foundation with the conference. Our foundation might be new to a lot of listeners, but it is a separate, non-profit organization that helps fundraise dollars to support the educational initiatives of ASCA. They pay for things like scholarships to the conference, scholarships to the Gehring Academy, some publications, and other really fantastic things.

Jill Creighton:     The two initiatives that typically happen at the conference are our silent auction and our fun run. Christine, can you share about how I might donate, how I might bid, or how I might run?

Christine S.:       Certainly. Our fun run does not have to be a run by any means. It's open to the people of any ability who are welcome to participate. It's a loop that goes around the Jacksonville area, kind of across the bridge and back another one. That'll be facilitated on Saturday morning. To sign up for that, there's a registration fee in that application you can find through ... the ASCA website has a link to it, the conference website has a link to it, and then some of our social media recently went live with that link as well.

Christine S.:       That's a great way to do something, kind of get out there, get some exercise, go have a nice social interaction with people, but also get back to that foundation. Additionally, the silent auction is a fantastic opportunity to donate to the foundation in a different way, whether that is bringing an item that you'd like to donate to the auction. You know, a lot of time people will bring maybe some swag related to their home institution, or something that might be related to a hobby that they do, or something makes you wanna put out there as an auction for people to bid on. That's one way. Be looking for items that you could bring. Also, bid high, bid often. Look for an opportunity to check out what those items are and to put in your own bid.

Jill Creighton:     Donations are tax deductible. Jennifer Waller, our executive director, works with her team every year to make sure that folks get those tax deductible itemized receipts for your itemized taxes. I will just give a small teaser that I live in Oregon this year, so I'm going to be bringing an Oregon Pinot Noir package for bidding for those of you who are wine drinkers. Anything else, Christine, that's on your mind about the conference?

Christine S.:       No. I'm just excited. We're in our final weeks here before we get on site. We're just ready to kind of wrap some stuff up and get down there to welcome about 1000 of our closest friends.

Jill Creighton:     Is there any way that I can register on site if I haven't done it yet?

Christine S.:       Certainly. You can register on site. However, I would recommend registering in advance if possible. There's a price difference between registering now versus registering on-site. It'll save you a little bit of money if you're able to register in advance. Some of the reasons for that are, it's not that we're trying to be mean, it's that we're looking to finalize some of our room setups, banquet orders, food, and some of those items as well. So, we need to be able to plan accordingly for numbers. You're welcome to register now or register on site.

Jill Creighton:     Well, Christine, we always like to close out our show by talking about what our guest are reading.

Christine S.:       Sure. I'm reading whatever my professors tell me to. I am in a doctoral program right now working on my EdD in educational leadership at College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska. Right now I have a semester that just started this week, so I'm reading all the articles and textbooks and such that they have told me to read. So, that's where most of my reading goes these days.

Jill Creighton:     I feel you on that. Christine, if folks would like to get ahold of you about questions for the conference or general ASCA information, how can they do that?

Christine S.:       Sure. There's several ways that you can reach out to me. You can call the central office line. My extension from there is 104, or depending on whoever else answers that phone, they can help you get in contact with me. My email is Christine, that's C-H-R-I-S-T-I-N-E, at theASCA.org. Or, you can reach out via Twitter, even, if you wanted. @CSimone11.

Jill Creighton:     As always, if you'd like to reach the podcast, you can find us on Twitter @ASCAPodcast. That's at A-S-C-A P-O-D-C-A-S-T, or you can email us at ascapodcast@gmail.com thank you so much, Christine, for sharing your viewpoint.

Jill Creighton:     Next time on the ASCA Viewpoints Podcast, I'm not quite sure which episode we're gonna drop next. I've got a couple in the can waiting to be shared with you all, one on diversity and inclusion with Kateeka Harris, one with Beth Devonshire on public policy and student conduct. I'm trying to collect some conference experiences for those who are able to make it to Jacksonville. It'll be a surprise in your feed in the next episode, but it won't be until a couple weeks after the conference. Hope you'll come back and join us.

Jill Creighton:     This episode was produced and hosted by Jill Creighton. That's me. Produced, edited, and mixed by Colleen Maeder. Special thanks to New York University's Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards and to the University of Oregon's Dean of Students team for allowing us the time and space to create this project. If you're enjoying the podcast, we ask that you please like, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps others discover us and helps us become more visible in the general podcasting community.

Jill Creighton:     If you have suggestions for future guests, or would like to be featured on the podcast yourself, please feel free to reach out to us on Twitter, @ASCAPodcast, or by email at ascapodacst@gmail.com.