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CASE District VIII History
Updated June, 2005
Terry K. Maurer, Washington State University Tri–Cities – Historian


CASE was established in 1974, when the American College Public Relations Association (ACPRA) combined with the American Alumni Council (AAC). The merger brought together advancement professionals from public and private educational institutions. CASE as an entity was formalized with the acceptance of the name and approval of bylaws at the first CASE Assembly in Chicago in the summer of 1975.

District VIII was established in 1974–75 and included five states: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, and two Canadian provinces - Alberta and British Columbia. CASE records indicate Northwest Territories, Yukon, Saskatchewan and Western Manitoba were added in about 1990. In 1991, Eastern Manitoba (previously in District V) was included, making all Manitoba part of District VIII. Nunavut Territory was added to District VIII when it was created from portions of the Northwest Territories in 1991.

District VIII is the largest of CASE’s eight North American Districts, and is about the same size as the entire contiguous 48 U.S. states, encompassing approximately 3.5–million square miles (about nine–million square kilometers). It is also the most sparsely populated, with all states, provinces and territories at approximately 16.7–million people. CASE District VIII has the fewest member institutions and individual members of any of the districts.

In its 30–plus–year history, District VIII has produced three CASE Board of Trustees Chairs, numerous Trustees, chairs of CASE Commissions, many members of Commissions of CASE and faculty at CASE Institutes.

The District has diligently pursued the multiple goals of providing exemplary educational programs to members and expanding opportunities for under-represented groups of professionals, including ethnic minorities and women.

During its early years, the District faced financial challenges – mostly related to District annual conferences which under-performed revenue expectations. Yet District VIII began to develop a reputation for excellence in the scope, educational content and networking opportunities presented by those same annual conferences.

Editorial Note: The name of the organization is CASE, Council for Advancement and Support of Education. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. To avoid any confusion between CASE, the organization and CASE District VIII, CASE is referred to as CASE for sake of clarity in this history, while the District is referred to as either “the District” or “District VIII.”
*   Based on original work by Everett Reagan (Seattle Central Community College), as updated by Tim Marsh (Washington State University Pullman) in November, 1992.

Ralph Wright (Willamette University), was first District VIII chair, serving 1974-76. To him, the major challenge of the organization's initial years was getting members to think of themselves as CASE and not ACPRA or AAC.

During Wright's chairmanship, District membership increased and new advancement people emerged as leaders. District VIII members served on key CASE committees, but were not very successful in getting CASE seminars and workshops presented in the District’s states and provinces.

The second District VIII chair, John Corkran from Catlin Gabel School of Portland, Oregon, who served 1976-78, was the first independent school representative on the CASE Board of Trustees. During his term, more independent schools, community colleges and the smaller four-year colleges and universities in the District joined the organization. Corkran remembered a stormy meeting with CASE President Jim Fisher.

"We (District VIII) drew attention to the ‘orphan status’ of those districts far from Washington, D.C. From that time forward, respect for the quality of programs and people in District VIII was much greater," Corkran said.

Research indicates the first District VIII conference (as we know conferences today) was held in 1978 in Banff, Alberta, Canada (see Appendix A for complete list of District conferences). The 1978 conference coincided with a ban on out-of-state travel for State of Washington employees. Washingtonians represented a significant number of potential attendees; the Banff Conference lost money and District VIII was left with an operating deficit.

Banff was the first of several fiscally unsuccessful District VIII conferences and, as previously noted, the lack of assets to provide funding for activities and programs was keenly felt through the early years of the District’s existence.

In 1979, a profitable conference was held in Eugene, Oregon. District Chair (1978-80) Steve Inge of Western Washington University invited CASE President James Fisher to attend. Both the CASE VIII Board and the membership at large offered their perceptions of CASE’s poor record of service to District VIII.

While Inge recalls that Fisher "pledged to deliver programs to District VIII and kept the promise," concerns and complaints about lack of conference and program offerings by CASE in District VIII locations have continued to the date of this writing.

In 1980, the District conference was held in Missoula, Montana. Extreme winter weather (which, anecdotally, has airplane tires frozen to the runway at Missoula International Airport) dropped attendance far below projections. The conference lost approximately $2,000 (US funds), again leaving District VIII in debt.

The 1981 conference in Olympia, Washington, co-chaired by Sue Washburn – later both District VIII and CASE chair – and Judy McNickle, was a great success both in content and profit, netting almost $10,000 (US funds).

Besides developing a positive cash flow, Jane Johnson, Community Colleges of Spokane,1980-82 District chair, instituted the District's Distinguished Service Award program, the first award being presented in 1981.

Under Johnson's leadership, CASE District VIII conducted a needs assessment of the memberships’ program interests and refocused attention on the District’s Committee for Minority and Women’s Concerns, now called the Committee for Opportunity and Equity and designated as one of the District Boards’ permanent, assigned positions. Johnson also initiated a policy of inviting CASE Commission members to participate in District VIII board meetings.

Johnson later chaired the CASE Commission on District Relations, then became 1984-85 CASE Board of Trustees chair.

Stan Schmid, Washington State University, 1982-84 District chair, encouraged District VIII Annual Conference organizers to invest more money in conference programming. Schmid served as 1988-89 CASE Board of Trustees chair.

In 1983, during Schmid’s term, the District’s Recognition Program (Communications Awards) was created to celebrate exemplary achievements in communications for institutional advancement by member institutions.

Reassessing the educational interests of District VIII professionals and pushing for CASE to provide the District with increased service were two major goals for the CASE VIII Board under the leadership (Chair, 1984-86) of Barbara Petura, Washington State University.

"At that time, strategic planning and marketing were major interests among senior professionals," said Petura. "CASE tailored a workshop for our needs, resulting in a highly successful Portland program with more than 50 participants."

During the mid-1980’s, revenues from a series of fiscally strong District VIII annual conferences allowed the Board to allocate still more resources in support of conference programming. The influx of monies allowed conference organizers to negotiate contracts and make arrangements to book an increasing number of “name” presenters and speakers.

Beginning with the 1981 conference in Olympia, District VIII conferences through 2005 have been profitable. In 1985, the District VIII Board established a reserve account of $25,000 to serve as a buffer, in the event a conference should lose money. With this buffer, the Board felt it could risk holding conferences outside the US Interstate-5 corridor, between Eugene and Seattle, where conferences had typically been sited.

District conferences have been held in Spokane, Washington, (1983, 1994), Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (1987, 1990 & 2003), and Vancouver, British Columbia (1988, 1997 and scheduled for 2006) and Victoria, B.C. in 2001. The 2007 conference is scheduled in Boise, Idaho and a joint conference with District VII in Las Vegas in 2008 is in the planning stages.

In 1987, the board established a four-year rotation plan for the District's annual conferences: Portland, Oregon -- Spokane, Washington/Coeur d'Alene, Idaho area -- Seattle, Washington. --Vancouver, British Columbia and environs.

This was done in part to help with planning and to make it easier to secure conference sites and hotel contracts. By the mid–1990’s, this policy seems to have fallen by the wayside, as reflected in the siting of conferences.

In 1992 the CASE VIII Board removed Coeur d'Alene from the rotation – stating at the time that District VIII conferences had outgrown the largest facility in the city, and articulating the real or perceived threat in North Idaho to CASE members who were ethnic minorities.

The 1991 Annual Conference had been successfully (from both a programming and fiscal standpoint) staged in Coeur d’ Alene, but the era marked the height of the so-called “Aryan Nation” movement, headquartered nearby.

At that time, Idaho, in general, and North Idaho, in particular, were seen by some as a “politically incorrect” location and some individual members had, indeed, expressed a level of unease with holding conferences there.

In 2003, the District once again held a successful annual conference in Coeur d’ Alene and, as noted, the 2007 conference has been sited in Boise, Idaho.

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, to help attract and encourage new members, the District Board and conference organizers developed pre-conference workshops, early-conference orientation meetings, conference buddy/mentor programs, and scholarships for newcomers to advancement.

Sue Washburn, The Evergreen State University, 1986-88 District VIII Chair and 1990-91 CASE Board of Trustees chair, noted that challenges for the District remaining during her tenure included:

• The increased cost of CASE dues for independent schools and community colleges, which could inhibit these institutions from joining or remaining as members

• District VIII conference dates often conflicting with other CASE districts' conferences, potentially impacting the number of exhibitors (Resource Partners) at District VIII conferences. For that, and for other reasons, conferences, beginning with Portland in 1989, were moved from January to February.

• The need to improve participation by ethnic minorities in institutional advancement.

In response to this last, under the leadership of Tom Sanders, Washington State University, 1988-90 Chair, the CASE District VIII Minority Student Internship Program was created. This program has since morphed in to the Jupiter Fellowships, managed by CASE. District VIII sponsors Jupiter Fellows.

During Sanders' tenure as Chair, the previously noted $25,000 Reserve Account was increased to $50,000.

Sanders said he is proud of "putting into place fundamental structures to guarantee the District's financial stability. Our planning retreats helped make this possible.” The first planning retreat was held in the summer of 1989 in Wenatchee, WA.

During Carol Berg-Christiansen (Edmonds Community College) time as Chair in 1990-92, the Reserve Account monies were renamed the "Revenue Generating Emergency Fund" and guidelines were adopted defining the purpose and uses of the Fund for District financial emergencies.

These funds have since morphed in to the Pooled Income Fund, managed for participating Districts – including District VIII – by CASE.

Professional services to outlying, less populous areas in District VIII were addressed during the Sanders administration. In 1988, using a $3,000 CASE Partnership Grant, the board held the first District VIII “Circuit Rider Workshop." Additional Circuit Rider Workshops – one–day, low cost seminars staffed by District professionals in smaller District communities – were funded by the District on a break-even philosophy.

Another $3,000 Partnership Grant from CASE allowed District VIII to hold a Chief Advancement Officers Retreat "think tank" in Seattle in 1991. The purpose was to explore ways to provide services for senior professionals.

A “Pacific Rim Symposium” was hosted by District VIII in Portland in 1992, to assist U.S. and Canadian non-profit organizations in raising funds in Pacific Rim countries. Representatives from Japan, California and Hawaii attended.

As Chair, Berg-Christiansen echoed Sue Washburn's earlier concerns by championing the idea of community colleges and independent schools paying memberships based on their institutional budgets, rather than standardized fees.

Berg-Christiansen chose members of the CASE VIII Board of Directors so many states and provinces in the District would be represented. "This was a plus, in that the Board better reflected its membership, but it also meant increased travel costs. We pared down our meeting schedule and the Executive Committee started using telephone conference calls and, in the end, we were effective in our business and cost effective too."

Mike Goodwin, Washington State University, was CASE VIII Chair in 1992–94. Two words describing his philosophy in guiding the District were "partnership" and "planning." “If CASE stands for any one thing,” he said, "it's a commitment to view advancement as a team effort or partnership of people with various specialized backgrounds. We work best and do the strongest job bettering our cause when we all work together. “

Toward this end, the District began developing a strategic plan, using a process similar to that used by CASE in creating its own strategic plan. “The 1990s offered many challenges to education,” Goodwin noted.” Using partnerships and planning, we could best use our limited resources to meet them."

It was also during Goodwin’s term as Chair that the District’s Leadership Award was started, beginning in 1993.

Mark Young of Central Washington University served as District Chair from 1994 through 1996, following Board membership dating to the early 1980s. Before becoming Chair, he had served as both District Treasurer and conference chair.

His goal was to, “do everything possible to fully incorporate those (under–served) portions of the District. Board membership was expanded and an effort was mounted to encourage broader participation by Canadian institutions, “ he said.

Young noted he had originally joined the Board representing a sparsely populated state – Montana – and subsequently moved to Oregon, where District participation was much higher. Thus, he said he brought “unique perspective of the breadth and needs of our member institutions,” to his two years as Chair.

“We also expanded the Newcomer’s Scholarship program and specifically targeted institutions outside the I–5 corridor.”

Sally Rodgers of Whitman College followed as Chair of District VIII in 1996. After about six months in office, she submitted her resignation as Chair because she was leaving Whitman on a leave of absence to teach at Yunnan University in the People's Republic of China.

Carol Berg–Christiansen, who had been District Chair from 1990 to 1992, agreed to serve as interim chair, but only until the end of the first year of Rodgers’ term.

Cassie McVeety of Washington State University Vancouver was elected Chair for a term that ran from 1997 to 1999. Thus, the Chair’s term switched from beginning and ending in even numbered years to beginning and ending in odd numbered years.

During her term, McVeety noted that the District began the planning process for the day when resources in the Pooled Investment Fund would reach a level where further contributions to the fund from the District would be limited. Monies that would have been deposited to the Fund could then be used for District programming other than at the Annual Conference.

“From a fiscal standpoint, we held two very successful conferences,” (Seattle & Portland) and that helped move our discussions about non–conference programming along,” McVeety noted. “There was very high quality to the content and great participation at both conferences.”

Tim O’Malley from Pacific University served as Chair from1999 to 2001 and notes the District Board was in the process of going about “serious strategic planning,” during his term. “The Board talked at length about where we were going as a District and non–conference programming and how – given our geographic spread and members ranging from newcomers to seniors – we could be of more service.”

“In fact, I believe it was during those years we coined the phrase, ‘Key Decision Makers’ and talked about how we could provide services to that group. Recognizing them as a membership constituency led to a ‘Key Decision Makers’ session at the annual conference.”

“We also were involved with CASE – in discussions about fiscal matters and dealt with one proposed strategy which would have seen all District income diverted to CASE and CASE, while providing increased services to the Districts, ‘re-allocating’ the funds to the Districts.”

That “District Budget Funding Proposal” of July, 2000 – to, in effect, take central control of District budgets and have Districts submit budget requests to CASE – was never implemented and District funds remain in the District and under the control of the Board. CASE has a process to approve the annual budgets of the individual Districts.

Mark Kemball of Oregon Health & Sciences University was Chair from 2001 to 2003, years when the District’s By–Laws were updated and approved.

“In 2003, we went back to Coeur d’Alene for our annual Conference and thus re-instated the “away from the I-5 corridor” rotation. It was the first conference the District had staged east of the Cascades since 1994.”

Kemball notes the District continued to develop policies with an eye to the time when funds would be available for expanded non-conference programming. “We reached our stated goals in the Pooled Investment Fund and approved a policy moving the monies we would have invested there to be earmarked for non-Conference District programming.”

Those non–Conference programming opportunities are the subject of continuing Board deliberations at the date this history is submitted.

“And, we developed close relationships between the Board and CASE Commissioners from District VIII,” Kemball said.

Pat Squire of Portland State University served as Chair from 2003 to 2005. The current chair, Ric Thomas of the University of Montana Foundation, completes his term in 2007.

To be continued . . .

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