KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- The National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators took time as always during its annual fall gathering to celebrate the success of pioneers in the profession -- usually achieved through long hours of persistence and hard work, and oftentimes at a personal cost.

However, more than 250 attendees at this year's meeting began embracing what likely will be an important future objective for an organization seeking to attract more women into careers in intercollegiate athletics: achieving balance between work and a life outside the workplace.

Work-life balance received unprecedented attention October 8-11 at this year's NACWAA national convention (formerly known as the Fall Forum) -- not only during a 90-minute panel discussion of the topic, but also by NCAA President Myles Brand, who expressed the Association's developing interest in the issue in his annual address to the convention.

"Women, we find, are leaving athletics because they can't meet all the demands of being an administrator, a mother, a wife, a partner, all at once and still have an opportunity to succeed," Brand said, emphasizing that coaches also face such problems. "We need, and will get, organizational changes not unlike those taking place in the corporate world that allow for more flexibility in the way these demands are met, and enable women to take advantage of their skills, opportunities and contributions, while recognizing that they have a life beyond work."

NACWAA's discussion of the topic is the latest in a series of developments feeding growing attention to work-life issues.

A report earlier this year by Pennsylvania State University researchers cited extreme workloads and perceived discouragement of family life among reasons why female athletes are less likely to be coached by women today than after implementation of Title IX in 1972.

The researchers reported that woman coaches work an average of 2,400 hours per year, that 29.8 percent are married compared with 55.3 percent of other women working full-time, and that 17.8 percent are raising children compared with 44.6 percent of other women.

The report from the Coaching and Gender Equity Project (CAGE) has prompted discussion in several venues, including a women's leadership summit hosted last spring by the Horizon League that led directly to a current effort supported by the NCAA to develop work-life best practices.

"We're still trying to work our way through the best practices," Brand reported. "I think this is a good opportunity for the NCAA, in conjunction with (NACWAA) and other groups, to be able to formulate some practices and guidelines that we can use for these purposes."

He suggested the effort could include consideration of legislative changes that would ease time pressures on administrators and coaches.

Describing balance

A panel of four athletics administrators discussed ways they have achieved -- and sometimes struggled for -- at least a semblance of balance in their own careers. All essentially took matters into their own hands and established boundaries that permit personal time for family or other pursuits -- then noticed that supervisors and co-workers often accommodated and supported those limits.

"Early on in my career, I learned there were a couple of different things from an institutional perspective that needed to be in place for me to be successful," said Stevie Baker-Watson, head athletic trainer and senior woman administrator at Aurora University. "One was that the job description needed to be manageable. If I didn't have adequate resources in terms of funding, or if I needed

Other highlights

NACWAA national convention
October 8-11/Kansas City, Missouri

• Executive Director Jennifer Alley reported during her annual state of the association address that 560 administrators have graduated from the NACWAA/HERS Institute since its establishment 11 years ago, and the organization's executive institute has produced 54 graduates. She also recognized about 20 members who have accepted positions during the past year as director of athletics or in one instance as a conference commissioner (Candace Poiss Murray of the North Eastern Athletic Conference).

• The organization presented its Honor Award to USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, who told administrators they are on the "cutting edge" in shaping the history of sports in America. "In that history class 100 years from now, kids will not be studying who won this year's World Series, and they won't be studying who won the Super Bowl or the Men's or Women's Final Four or the NBA championship," she said. "I really believe, when we look at sports in our culture, what kids really will be looking at -- and what they'll be talking about a number of years from now, among other things -- is the cultural change in our country involving women's sports...how it changed not only the playing fields of America but the very fabric or our lives."

• Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to five women who have dedicated their professional careers to advancing women in sports: Linda Jean Carpenter of Brooklyn College; Joanne "Jo" Kuhn of Texas Woman's University; Elma Neal Roane of the University of Memphis; Marya Welch of the University of California, Davis; and the late Jeanette A. Lee of Saint Paul's College.

• Carolayne Henry, associate commissioner and senior woman administrator of the Mountain West Conference, received the Nell Jackson Award, which honors a NACWAA member who exemplifies the courage, outstanding leadership and vision of gender equity and diversity advocate Jackson.

• This year's recipients of NACWAA Administrator of the Year honors include Joan Cronan, director of women's athletics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Division I-A); Lauren Anderson, senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at the University of Rhode Island (Division I-AA); Lynn Hickey, director of athletics at the University of Texas at San Antonio (Division I-AAA); Sue Willey, director of athletics at the University of Indianapolis (Division II); Cathie Schweitzer, director of athletics at Springfield College (Division III); and Carolyn Campbell-McGovern, senior associate director and senior woman administrator of the Ivy Group.

• Tennessee's Cronan was selected by attendees as the organization's president-elect, and four women were elected to positions on the NACWAA board of directors: Kim Allen of Smith College, Carol Reep of Butler University, Kathy J. Turpin of Barry University and Carla Green-Williams of the University of Georgia .