New AD Cohort - Illinois Athletic Directors Association (IADA)

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IADA New Athletic Director Cohort Details

Cohort Description: This cohort is designed to create a more specific plan and approach for new athletic directors. Getting some early easy wins is important as a New AD. This cohort provides examples and guidance on how New Athletic Directors can create a strategic plan as they start in their new roles.

Goal: To provide New Athletic Directors with a focused approach to creating one or more of the following:

100-day plan (Summer and 1st Semester)
1-year plan
2-3 year plan

Proposed Timeline:

Date	Topic	Zoom	Task	Guest
July	Communication		Create a weekly Communication plan
August	Office Management		Create a clear plan for the division of labor.
September	Event Management		Review and establish processes for your events.
October	Professional Development		What are your needs? What are your coaches' needs?
November	Budgeting		Meet with another AD and review what they do for budgeting. Identify lessons learned.
December	Community Outreach		Identify and plan one community outreach event.
January	Mission/Vision		Evaluate how your programs are living out the mission and vision of athletics.

Areas of Athletic Administration to consider:

Communication
1. Small
  1. Coaches, Assistant coaches, and Athletic Office staff
2. Big
  1. Student-athletes, School, Parents, and Community
Office Management
1. Learn existing practices
2. Evaluate existing practices
3. Changing past practices that need changing (change management)
4. Coaches Meetings
5. Roles - the Fab 5 (Scheduling, Workers, Chaperones, Officials, Transportation)
6. Evaluating Responsibilities
7. What needs updating
Event Management
1. Athletic Sports Nights
  1. Fall, Winter, Spring
2. Scheduling, Hospitality, Ticketing, Supervision, Workers, Signage
3. Traditional school events
4. Summer Camps
5. Game day vs Invite
6. State Series Hosting
Professional Development
1. For Athletic Directors
  1. IADA PD Series
  2. NIAAA LTC Courses
  3. State and National Conferences
2. For coaches:
  1. Small
    1. Short-term and topic-specific
      1. ie. book club, guest speaker
    2. Sport Associations
  2. Big
    1. Multi-series covering a range of topics
    2. Coach led? Admin led? Guest?
      1. Evening courses
      2. Lunch and learns
Budgeting
1. Uniform Rotation Cycle
2. Equipment needs
3. Inventory
4. Capital Items needs

Community Outreach
1. Establishing a Philosophy
2. Program vs Department

Vision/Mission
1. Does your athletic department have one?
2. Establishing/Re-evaluating/Boosting