Jan 19, 2010 9:14:39 AM

Division III showed a talent for "initiative" at this year NCAA Convention, shifting its identity initiative into higher gear while taking the first step forward on a similar effort addressing presidential leadership.

The identity effort gained momentum as Convention delegates took full advantage of an invitation to suggest ways of putting to work a new strategic-positioning platform and related materials that were introduced in Atlanta.

Division III Presidents Council chair Paul Trible – who later was credited by his successor, Jim Harris, with "moving us, inspiring us and cajoling us" forward – expressed satisfaction with progress on that front, but also made clear the real work is just beginning.

"Our message is not mission accomplished, but rather, let's move forward together," Trible told delegates during the Division III issues forum where the new strategic-positioning platform formally was unveiled.

"Our challenge is not selling the membership on the values of the Division III experience, but rather finding a way to communicate our shared values – what makes the DIII experience so meaningful and so special."

Division III leaders indicated that a new video portraying that experience – and referencing many of the ideals expressed in the strategic-positioning platform – is just the first of several tools that will be produced to support the initiative during coming months. Many of those tools will be adaptable to campus and community uses by member institutions.

The video made extensive use of student-athletes' faces and voices. One of those faces was Isaiah Goodman, chair of the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and a recent basketball student-athlete at Washington and Lee, who noted that student-athletes also played a key role in development of the platform.

"To actually involve the student-athletes in the process, and getting our interviews and our feedback and our responses, I thought was fundamental in the initiative," he said. "When the student-athletes talk about their experiences and what this means to them, then you know it's true – it's not just made up or coming from the top down. It's really a grass-roots initiative, coming from the ones who live it and breathe it every single day."

Goodman said that SAAC is exploring ways of "piggy-backing" on the initiative, including studying a community-service partnership with a national organization that would be linked to the strategic-positioning platform.

Trible urged delegates to be mindful of the real importance of the rollout of the platform, which he described as a "first effort to precisely define Division III" and "an opportunity for us to begin to speak with one voice."

"It's more than taglines, it's more than communication," he said. "It is a strategic document that will guide and direct and define everything this organization does for years. That's the importance, and what this is about."

The new platform was referenced for the first time in that manner – perhaps appropriately, by a SAAC member – in a debate on a legislative proposal during Saturday general business session.

"The time to take our new Division III platform and turn it into reality is now," said Andrew Darkow, a tennis student-athlete at Westminster (Missouri), urging delegates to adopt a proposal to end both the fall and spring nontraditional seasons at least five weekdays before the beginning of an institution's final exams

Although delegates showed concern about the impact of that proposal in cold-weather regions on the warm-weather sports of golf, rowing and tennis, 85 percent of voting delegates ultimately approved it.

Delegates approved all nine proposals they considered at the Convention, including giving rare unanimous approval to a proposal regarded as the opening move toward improving presidential leadership in Division III.

"Without question, our primary focus during this year has been the identity initiative, and with the formal launch of the platform, we'll be placing greater attention on presidential leadership in preparation for next year's Convention," said incoming Presidents Council chair Harris, following an amendment of the division's philosophy statement to support that concept at the institutional, conference and national governance levels.

Harris detailed several ideas the Presidents Council will explore during the coming year as part of an initiative focusing on equipping presidents to exercise strategic leadership. They range from the possibility of restructuring the Division III Management Council and empowering it to sponsor legislation with an administrative or operational focus, to asking the membership to make it more difficult to change "core" legislative principles such as those governing financial aid.

"This discussion is really about allowing presidents to do what we do best – deal with strategic issues and the fundamental issues and principles of Division III – while delegating to our trusted athletics colleagues issues that are more administrative and operational," Harris told Convention delegates.

"We should not, and will not, abdicate our responsibilities related to these issues that directly relate to the Division III philosophy and the new identity initiative we've created," he said. "But the Council believes it should be more selective in identifying issues that truly matter to us and to presidents across Division III."