Why I love UCDA

Hey folks! I'm sitting in a hotel in Champaign, Illinois and I woke up just inspired and in love with this organization for which you've all given me the honor of being president this year.

Why, may you ask, am I in love with an organization while sitting in a hotel room? And why am I in Champaign, Illinois in the first place, a 1,000 miles from home?

(BTW, if you wanna skip all the gushy stuff here, you can skip to the bottom and get to the homework assignment.)

In short, we have this insane bid system that means one of the most important jobs I do all year -- the major undergraduate piece -- may be sent anywhere. When I started having to press check this job 10 years ago, I frequently was bored and restless, lonely and anxious for the experience to end. The past two years, I've been in Nashville and Champaign. I'm happy to say that both experiences were good, with a chance to see some old UCDA friends. (And the print piece came out nicely too, btw.)

This year, I've really gotten to know a LOT of UCDA members on Twitter: Ryan Zundell, Jason Mayeu, Stacy Herrick, Penny Frank, Steve Hartmann, Andrew Volk, Kevin Garcia, Jes Gagnon, Erica Endicott and Rex Whisman, along with others who I'm just overlooking. Through this, I've gotten to be a brand champion (via @rwhisman.) I've found an ear when I needed to vent about the buyers of my house (thanks @kg_creative) and support when I needed it (thanks @stacialynch, @ckilgore and @jasonmayeu for last Sunday!) I've even ended up with a Stuckey's Pecan Roll on my wall (thanks @creativille.) And there's loads more too.

An overnight press check so far away could be a nightmare of boredom or restlessness. But instead, I contacted some of my best Twitter buddies, Stacia Lynch and Christy Kilgore-Hadley of Eastern Illinois University. And they drove up from Charleston (Illinois, not SC) and we ended up at a place called KoFusion. It may be the first time I ate sushi on fire, but it was very good. And we ended up closing the place. Seriously, it was one of those nights where they're wiping down the tables and stacking chairs and stuff like that. We're like "oh, I think they want us to go" because for 3.5 hours, we talked about everything. We talked about our kids, in which we have cover the gamut, from college student down to pre-K. We talked about running, which Stacia is doing Team in Training and running a marathon and I was so inspired, I started running and plan to run a half marathon in October. We even talked about sticky bras and back fat and all that girl stuff that you can only do with the closest of friends. And we talked a LOT about design and designing in education and all that goes with that.

So I'm so grateful to UCDA for giving me so many colleagues, all over North America (talking to you @jesgagnon) along with the multitude of ways to converse with them. And I hope and hope and hope they can come to our 40th anniversary too, so I can give them a hug and tell them how much they've meant to me. I want to tell them that in my 15 years of designing for higher education, it's because of them and UCDA that I'm the designer I've become. (I mean this in a positive way, I promise.) I want to say "thanks so much for telling me I could run an hour after all and with you at my back, I did it." I want to stay up too late talking about design and uptight administrators and crazy faculty and nutty bid systems and commiserating about our challenges, just like Lee Kline, Bud Diehl and Gene Church used to do. It was a big big reason for them to create UCDA: so we could all sit around over a beer and compare our experiences. (I'm happy to say that is still an important part of UCDA and we've kept true to our core beliefs.)

SO, it wouldn't be a good entry if I didn't end with a call to action, would it. So I have a few homework assignments for you:
1. Get on the listserv if you're an email junkie. Loads of support and love out there too. You'll learn a lot, I promise. If you're an educator, find the educator listserv.
2. Tweet me that you're a UCDA member and you're on Twitter. I'll add you to the list. And you can find lots of UCDA members at the UCDA member list.
3. Come to the conference. I could push content in this post, because there's a ton of content to see this year. Some really awesome programming, I promise, and so relevant. Seriously, give it another look if you haven't. But come to the conference and meet the people who started this great little organization, as well as the newest of members. And come dance with me on Saturday night, but you have to wait. My first dances are going to be with my Twitter buddies.
4. Follow us on FB too. If you enjoyed the post, you'll like the Facebook page, because it's a lot of me posting UCDA stuff and crazy links that I find and the like.
5. And lastly, get involved. Seriously, don't roll your eyes, do it. Make this organization your organization, not just for yourself, but for us. Contact any board member. We need you.

Thanks for being there for me, you UCDA peeps. I love you man.