An Update on the AACRAO Strategic Plan

The AACRAO Strategic Plan guides the organization in our efforts to advance and support higher education in the United States. The previous strategic plan was strong, but dated, so over the past year the AACRAO staff has worked with the Board of Directors to refresh the plan. In this episode we talk with AACRAO Board member Dr. Carrie Jeffers and AACRAO staff representative Quintina Barnett Gallion about the process of revisiting and refreshing the strategic plan, who was involved, how it unfolded, and what it means for the AACRAO membership.        

Key Takeaways:

• The AACRAO strategic plan was refreshed, reviewed, and approved by the Board to go into effect in October 2026. Please take some time to read the plan.  
• While there were no significant changes, there are three shifts from the previous strategic plan: From information provider to trusted interpreter; From membership organization to professional ecosystem; and From reactive association to authoritative, proactive convener.
• The process of refreshing the strategic plan was undertaken intentionally from a place of momentum, and member input directly shaped the revisions to the strategic plan.   

Host:

Doug McKenna, Ph.D.
University Registrar
George Mason University
cmckenn@gmu.edu   

Guests:

Carrie Jeffers, Ph.D.
Vice President, Student Services
Macomb Community College
jeffersc@macomb.edu 

Quintina Barnett Gallion
Associate Executive Director, Strategy & Planning
AACRAO
gallionq@aacrao.org 

References and Additional Information:

Service Excellence
Leadership
The AACRAO Strategic Plan

Transcript

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You're listening to For the Record, a register podcast sponsored by ACR. I'm Dr. Carrie Jeffers, vice president of Student Services at Macomb Community College, and I'm Katina Barnett Galleon, associate executive director of strategy and planning at ACRO, and this is an update on the ACR strategic plan. Hello. Welcome to For the Record. My name is Doug McKenna, university registrar at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. I'm so glad that you're listening to this episode. Back in season 7, episode 3, Danny Ambrose and Kelly Jenkins shared some thoughts on the strategic planning process and how to make it easy and accessible for anyone at any level. And today we're gonna be talking about the recent updates that have been made and continue to be made to the ACR strategic plan. So joining us to share some insights and information are Doctor Carrie Jeffers and Katina Barnett Galleon. Carrie, Katina, welcome to the podcast. Well, thanks for having us, Doug. Yeah, thanks. Good to talk to you. We're going to talk about the new strategic plan that was approved by ACR's board in February of this year and will go into effect in October. Now, people listening at home can and should read the plan on the revamped Acro website. So I don't want to necessarily go through it line by line here. Not the most fascinating of podcast episodes, just to read the strategic plan. Instead, I want to talk about the process, about why certain changes were made, who was involved, and what it all means for ACRO members and beyond. So Carrie, let's start with you. Tell me about your role in the strategic Planning Committee. Sure. Well, last year and continuing on this year, I serve as the chair of ACR's strategic Planning Committee. Um, I have a great group of individuals from the board of directors that joined me on the strategic planning Committee along with Katina. She is our acro guru and liaison, and we appreciate her joining us on our monthly calls and really helping us, uh, lead the charge and guide us with all of the updates that we've made over the past year. And now as we're going into implementation, uh, preparing for an October 1 launch. Right on. How did you score your Your role on the strategic planning Committee. How did that happen? Well, you were voluntold, voluntold, I think it's the way that it happens. Every year, the president-elect does assign each board member to at least 2 committees. And so my first year on the board, I was assigned to the strategic Planning Committee. And then last year when Cassandra Moore became president, she said, Guess what? I'm going to have you serve as the chair. And I said, Really? And she's like, Yeah, I think you can do it. And uh I have to tell you, I wasn't aware that it was a big year until I got into it and had my first meeting with Katina, and she's like, you know, this is a revamp. Like we have to refresh the strategic plan. It's expiring. And I was like, oh, great. But it's been, uh, it's been great. It's been a great year and I really am proud of the work that we have collectively done because it really has been a collaboration over the past year. Right on. So that's a great segue actually. Why was the decision? Made to revamp the plan rather than just doing some tweaks to sort of around the edges of the previous strategic plan. I think I want to clarify, it may be revamp is the wrong word because we did just, I don't want to say touch the edges, but we did just update the old plan. And so the committee, um, well, staff, I gave them a report. I prepared like, all right, where are we at now with the current plan? Um, and gave the recommendation that we should refresh the plan instead of starting from scratch. There is a lot that goes into building a whole new plan, and the board decided with everything that was going on and the relevance of the current plan that the best path forward was just an update as opposed to starting from. Starting from ground zero and, and rebuilding, does that sound accurate, Carrie? Yeah, and I would say that we had a really strong foundation. I mean, building that plan, you know, 5 years ago and really looking at it and just seeing, you know, higher ed's changed, the landscape has changed, and the evolution of our strategies have to change. And so that was probably the best approach. And when we, when Katina and I took it to the board, they also agreed that, you know, just starting from scratch probably wasn't the best option, um,-- in moving the organization-- forward because our mission hadn't changed, right? If you're starting from scratch, you're, you're looking at the mission, you're looking at the vision, you're examining the values, all of those things remain consistent. Those were the backbones and they were strong. So yeah, fair enough. So I assume then that a small group was sequestered for some period of time and then created this new plan completely by themselves absent of any input from the membership, right? Like that's how the best strategic plans are usually made. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Did the committee solicit and receive input from stakeholders and ACR members throughout this process? Yeah, I think that was probably one of my biggest requests was that we got membership buy-in. Having just done this own work at my own institution, you know, the more people that have a voice and a say to see what the end product ends up being, I think the better. And so, Uh, we really did a lot of brainstorming and a lot of thinking around who could provide us some really good input to help us, you know, refresh and, and move the plan forward. And so our state and regionals are really important, of course, important members, part of the organization, and we really looked at trying to make sure that we engage state and regionals on two different levels. So one, Uh, sending a survey and creating a survey out to the leadership of the state and regionals to get their perspective more from a relational type of, uh, lens. I would say, you know, how are we serving them? What could we do better? What things are we doing good? Do they see themselves in the current plan? What would they like to see themselves? And the future plan and then as each one of the board members went on our tour, I like to call it, and visiting the regionals, um, we also had a separate survey for the members and was there a little competition going on? Perhaps, maybe there was to see, uh, which state and regional could provide, uh, the most feedback. And so that was really good to get other people engaged who may not be as engaged members of, of ACR to really hear from, from as much members as possible. We also did a town hall and really tried to get to those that like to maybe. Be behind the scenes through a webinar and, you know, put their questions in a chat or their thoughts in a chat. And so that was a really good way for the broad audience to get engaged. Uh, we also presented, Katina and I presented at the leadership meeting last June and uh really solicited a lot of feedback from our most engaged members. Uh, that was a really great. Great captive audience and we took a lot of feedback from them.-- Anything to add-- there? No, I think maybe the only thing, other thing is that we surveyed the membership as well. So we took the insights from those focused conversations and did a membership survey. Right now, before we move on, Carrie, you mentioned the tour, and I just want to make sure that people understand what that means. In my understanding, all of the state and regionals have their meetings, right? And what you're talking about for the tour is that members of the board of ACR attend. Like somebody from ACR attends all of the state and regional meetings. Is that correct? That is correct. Either an ACRO staff member or a member of the board of directors for the request of the state and regionals to have some representation. Not only do we visit and attend their annual meeting, but we also do an ACR update some sometimes. Sometimes a government relation update depending on what the focus is or the request is from that particular state and regional and then we also um submit sessions on our own too on other topics they might want us to present. Right on. That's great. And that's just a little bit more insight for people who might not realize that ACR. Represented at the state and regionals in all of the ways. And so, ta da, let's talk a little bit about the goals that are articulated in the plan. And again, we're not going to read them all here, but I do encourage members to review the plan on the ACR website and especially once it's in effect in October. How does this plan sort of shift the focus from the previous plan for the organization and for our members? So yes, I think one of the biggest things, Doug, is the word shift. I found that to be a great way to think about breaking down or interpreting the goals. It's not just goal one, strategy A, like what are we, what are we doing here? So the goal underneath the goals, the action underneath the goals. is to shift 3 shifts, one from information provider to trust trusted interpreter, right? Like that's what we felt like we were hearing from the membership and the state and regionals. We don't need more reports. We need you to translate what's happening into action. What's the playbook? What do we do next? Because we have enough reports, we don't have time to just tell us what's next. The next piece is to go from a membership organization to a professional ecosystem. This is not just a social club, right? Like members are looking for a full career arc. Give us credentialing, give us pathways. We need the community and the learning. The other piece that feeds into that is that, oh gosh, it's been 34 years now since APRA opened up the membership roster, which means that more professions are in the membership and more represented. So that full ecosystem gives you the voice of the breadth of higher education and different. Pathways to move through. So tell us how to get to what's next and, and how we collaborate. The third shift is from the association being reactive to authoritative and proactive convenor. Bring the people together who need to solve the hard problems. We can't wait on others to do it. That, that's the conversational way, I think, to talk about the 4 goals and their underlying strategies. Let's spend a little bit of time on each one of those, um, because I think that they're worth unpacking and From information provider to trusted interpreter. Historically, ACR has provided reports out to the membership. They have provided avenues for professional development. More recently, within the last 5 or 10 years, I guess, we've been doing the 60. Second surveys and gathering information from all of the various and sundry institutions and making that information available. What is the tease out the difference here between being a provider of that information and a trusted interpreter? OK, well, um, I think the biggest, I mean most pressing example is going to be on AI, right? Like that comes up in just about everything. And so what we're hearing from the membership is we don't need another report. Those are great. Benchmarking is great, but we need to know how to take the AI, how to take AI and use FERPA. Tell us what's allowed, what isn't allowed. what people are doing, what are the best, what are the best practices. When you think about the transfer designation that ACR created in 2021, that was a report that sat there. Give that to us in a way that we can use. How can we get a designation for our institution and say that we are doing transfer credit mobility correctly? And so we're in the process of updating the transfer designation into the learning mobility. Designation and putting out an assessment that members can use to say, all right, this is what you're doing well, these are the areas where you can improve. It's not just the information, it's like what are the next steps. It's the same thing for the assembly. The assembly used to be the technology and transfer conference. Members and other folks from the industry came together and said, what we actually need is a place that is a year-long conversation. That the conference just becomes a convening to celebrate the work that's done, but we need working groups. We need people moving forward in a collective manner towards something. So out of that came the Learning mobility lab, the full platform of issuing challenges. Uh, we did our first national challenge to decrease the transfer of time to decision, right? We'll have more challenges coming forward. The assembly moves from just a conference to A place where you were put with a group of people working towards, working on the same problem where you're building plans while you're on the ground, you leave with a plate in-hand playbook, you're working with pencil and paper, a pen and paper, put the phones down, let's write this out and say what we're doing next, and then meet up in a quarter, 30 days. Where are we? What's going next? Do we need to bring in technical assistance to continue these? Conversations and so that's the move from information provider to interpreter,-- like help us move through this-- work. And Carrie, what kinds of, what is this in response to from, from the members as they are, as you're gathering out gathering information? How did this surface as sort of the, the main thing? Yeah, I mean, I think it was definitely through the surveys and the interaction and the engagements that we had with, with the members and the different people that we, we went out to, you know, and also I would say a lot of it is from the board too in the circles and the individuals that they were talking to. And so as we, you know, meet monthly with the strategic Planning Committee. Um, also, many of us, I mean, we sit on multiple committees, and so we're hearing these common threads as we're having our conversations, although we're, you know, looking at specific committee work, these common threads continue to come up. I mean, and even as Katina was talking about, you know, reports are great, right? Reports give you information, they're loaded with data, but what's the actionable and applicable stuff that I can take and do now? That is what We really, really need, and we have so many great humans working in higher education and all those brains coming together like Katina was saying at the assembly and being able to have these conversations that are in-depth and intense and walk away with actionable items and for ACR to be able to identify gaps or areas that they can then help the membership in helping us move that work forward because I look at it as a collective, you know, a win for one is a win for all. And so when we're looking at this and, and putting this into practice, I just think it's really important one to understand that, you know, we're not alone, we're seeing these common threads, we're hearing these common themes that are challenging for all of us in this landscape, and then how can we collectively come together with the support of, of ACR and their staff in helping us move the work forward for the betterment of the whole. Right on. I feel like that's gonna be a theme through many of these things, so I, I appreciate you taking the time to sort of expound on that a little bit. Let's shift then to the, the second shift that you identified and from a membership organization to a professional ecosystem, and that's kind of a big thing, a big shift. And I want to sort of put my finger on the expansion of the membership rosters and the opening up. Do you want to talk about that process or decision at all, or is that like water under the bridge now and we are in a new world, new realm, and we're just reacting to people actually putting a bunch of people on their rosters. And what does that mean for the membership? I feel, it feels like it's water under the bridge now, but I will say in the office you're a little disconnected sometimes from the day to day of the members. It feels settled. I would say maybe a year or two ago it was a new thing, but we've been watching. There were concerns about the open rosters, but we see a good spread of folks adding members. There's no extra cost. It's not a barrier. The issue before that we felt we were addressing multiple issues, but one of the ones we felt we were addressing with opening the rosters was actually getting resources to the entry level positions in your office. Not everyone can come to a meeting and sometimes folks tend to think about the conferences as The professional development opportunity. It's one of them, um, and so opening the rosters allows people access to the things that they did not have access to before, even if it's just the communications. But now that we have more courses out, now that we'll have more of these tools to use, those become easy access for folks who don't necessarily have the funds or the support to travel. So that's, that's part of it. And then how does that then lead into this idea that we're not just a membership organization, but it is in fact a professional ecosystem. I think one of the biggest things to pin in that question is the decision that the committee made as a recommendation to the board to approve the full strategic plan. They decided to collapse goal 4 in the current plan. Goal 4 was to reimagine the community and so the most tangible output of that was the cro exchange. There are other things, but the acro exchange becomes the most visible component of that. And so we nearly considered that goal complete, right? Like we've done. the things we've built the infrastructure, and so now it's time to progress from just doing the thing, we've done the reimagining, now let's nurture it. How do we make sure that all these new people are getting the tools or finding the community, are building those networks and connections that happen in the hallway at a conference. Um, that's where those exchange pieces come from. Part of, part of that, I just want to echo something Katina said is that when you look at it from an ecosystem perspective, I know before when Rosters were limited, right? And me having to have been a decision maker of what 5 people get to be on the official rosterer, right? It was, um, those were hard decisions to make because you would stick with your, I would just say, traditional registrar, your associate registrar, you know, kind of that pathway. But when you look at this from an ecosystem lens and all of the individuals that comprise higher ed and the work that we do and just opening that up and knowing that they have resources at their level, whichever level they're at, especially as we're looking more at adult learners and these learners that have some college and, and no degree. And the credit for prior learning and learning mobility and all of these different things where traditional titles and roles may not have been able to be on the rosterer before, but they can now, right? And there's a resource for them and there's an opportunity for them to share their voice and provide input. Into the work that's happening to help with the evolution of the work and the sustainability of the work and the forward motion of the work. I think that that is, is part of what we really try to look at as we collapse these goals together in strategic planning too, because we talked a lot about. The community, the learning, the credentialing, how people can see themselves in those different pathways regardless of your title and regardless of, of what you may do at your institution and the type of institution that you work at. Yeah, and does this affect, does this affect the way that ACro interacts or supports the state and regionals in any sort of formal way, or is it more of a, we're building this ecosystem and the state and regionals are part of that? I don't think there's a formal change. The state and regionals are a part of the ecosystem, and the National Office ACR absolutely provides a lot of support for the state and regionals from the memory clips platform that they use and the visits the state and regional leaderships have in a community in the exchange where they can connect with one another and they get direct information from the office on updates and what's coming next month and so they're all that is a part of the ecosystem. Um, and so they stay in that. But I did just remember one more thing if I can add on. One interesting thing that happened office side from opening the rosters in these ecosystems was the insight that ACR membership lived in different offices at different institutions. And so one institution may just be using ACR in the registrar's office. Another one could just be using Acro. In the admissions office, it forced conversations on campuses because previously the, the major, the bill went to the primary contact. And so when that opens, you have forced conversations like, well, I hate to be like, who's paying the bill? Well, all these people are using it. Um, let's have a conversation about what, what is, uh, what's there, who's doing what, and that not forced us, but we. Had an idea and it helped put some, some um accelerant behind creating different types of contacts within our member management system called lead contacts. So now we have a lead contact on transfer, we have a lead contact from admissions, we have a lead contact on different topics, so everything isn't being pushed just to the primary. We know that there's a larger ecosystem and that lead contact becomes a really useful tool for the office, but also for your institution. Because they can become the point of contact on something that's pressing for your group. Nice. And then the third shift that you described was a reactive to from being a reactive organization to being sort of this proactive convenor of entities for ideas, for initiatives. Tell me more about that. So that one is in the sense of members want their voices heard, right? They want their, their provost, their president to know that they are the backbone of the institution, that they're doing these things, and when it's not functioning, Well, when it is functioning, you don't know. When it's not functioning, you need to be pulling them into these conversations. And so ACR, the Office has been doing a lot to pull together folks as it relates to credit mobility, right? You've heard of the Infused project that we've been leading in collaborations with others. We've been leading the Accelerate our project. We've Just kicked off this past year into prison education programs, which was something that we were brought into by NASFA because the financial aid group was like, where are, where are the records, registration admissions on this? Like that is a crucial part of why prison education programs aren't seeing the credit mobility work that they need. And so ACR becoming a voice and leading in that has been. I think very crucial. So it's that bringing these CPL bringing these credit for prior learning conversations here, all of that is our work, but we have been doing the work of convening the associations, having a national cross-organizational conversation. Nakata, come here. Like NASA, come here. ACE, let's talk as a group so we're all on the same page using the same language, and so that you aren't on your institutions working disjointedly towards the same goals. Yeah, and so we're acting as a multiplier rather than as a fractions of factions there. Great. Let's talk a little bit about how these goals, the shift of these goals. are actually put into practice because they're great goals, but what are the underlying sort of either tactics or approaches or methods that the organization is articulating to support the organization moving in this direction? How does this play out in reality? All right, so with the strategic planning process, the board sets the goals. The board sets the strategies, and that is their charge then to the office to respond. So office staff, really that means I have to take that and interpret it to the office and say, All right, now we've got to act. We've got to kind of come up with tactics. How are we going to get this done? And so this year we, this sounds so simple, but it's not been done like this before. This year we decided to have everyone on staff throw all the tactics you can imagine on the table, throw them out there, and then we went through a process of really making sure that they were um well rounded, making sure that they were of impact to institutions, to our individual members, to learners, and or the field. Like you need to be thinking about what you're moving toward, not just throwing out. I've been producing this report or I've been doing this thing every year, so I want to keep doing it and I'll change the words a little bit so it matches. The strategic plan. The other piece was the budget, right? Like we are working on a very, very, not tight budget, but our institutions are struggling and that's impacting ACR as well. And so we didn't want to come out with a list of tactics, goals, and strategies that we couldn't fund, that we're never going to act on. And so the next piece of that has been coordinating the tactics with the budget that the board has set. So as they have been working on the budget, we've been going back and there's curious to see my spreadsheet. Like I have people going like column by column. If you don't have a source of funding for this, we can't call it a tactic that we're moving forward with. And so we want to tie up the budgeting season that the board is leading right now with the strategic planning tactic development that the office is leading. And so I don't, would not feel it appropriate to share tactics just yet because although we started with maybe 115 plus tactics, whittled that down to 75 or so, and there may be another whittling as we get to a final budget vote as well. Yeah, and I just want to say that just seeing Katina's spreadsheet and the, the, the work that the, the ACR staff does, you know, we, as a committee, as a strategic planning committee, we looked at the tactics from the previous strategic plan, and Katina and her team categorized them, I would say, red, green, and yellow, right? Here's the things that we've been able to accomplish. Here's the things that are still in progress, and here's the things we haven't been able to get to. And so, When we really analyze that and provided feedback, we also want to be sensitive to capacity of the ACO staff, right? Just like at our own institutions, you can't do everything, right? And so you have to prioritize and so aligning the tactics to the budget was a great way to prioritize the work to make sure that we didn't run into a capacity issue and I also think that it's providing some flexibility for emerging items that could be on the horizon that we don't even know about yet because that was one of the other feedback pieces that we heard as we were talking with the members and especially when we did the presentation at the annual meeting. There were a lot of people who voiced, is there room for flexibility if something new should emerge? And we are like, absolutely, and that's where that flexibility happens. I mean, the goals are going to remain the same, the strategies are going to remain the same, but the tactics are the agility piece, the piece that, you know, if this isn't. Working, we're not going to continue to spend time and energy or have the ACRA staff continue to spend time and energy on that if it's not benefiting or making an impact for the membership. But if there are new things on the horizon that the board or the members are really vocal about, we want to be able to have that flexibility to add those types of tactics and work. What do you need from listeners? How does this become real for someone listening to this podcast, and they think, OK, great. Acro has, uh, developing a new strategic plan. It'll come out, it'll be effective in October. What are ways that listeners can engage, real talk, bottom line upfront, like what do you need from people at this point? We need to make sure their voice is being heard, and there's lots of different ways that they can do that, right? No matter what your seat at the table is, you have a voice and it's important. Uh, so, you know, being able to talk with the board members to voice your, your concerns is always a good way. Being a volunteer, joining committee work, you know, joining a PAC, uh, getting involved. Going to webinars, even reading the communications that come out and act on those communications,-- you'd-- be surprised. It's really important, yeah, you know, I mean, they're always looking for volunteers. They're looking for people to write articles, looking for people to participate. I mean, I really go back to that visual that was created of the person and the levels of engagement that Acro put out, because some people just don't want to be highly engaged, but they, they want some type of engagement. And so for people to be able to go to that visual and Say, hey, here's where I could, I could fall into the continuum of support for ACR, the support of the strategic plan, the support of the work of the organization. I just think it's, it's really important to provide feedback and finding where you can contribute, however big or small that might be. Yeah, I think the only thing I'd add there, which sounds simple, but complete your member profile, fill it out. I mean, if, if the request is, you don't want to necessarily get involved, but you want to be able to find the resources that you need, we need to know who you are. There's an area. It says what your areas of responsibilities are. There's a whole separate area that says, what are your areas of interest. Those could be two very different things, different, right? So we need that information, um, we have your institutional information, so we can say like, oh, the small colleges are showing up. Um, actually the small colleges are very vocal, so we tend to know what they want, but, you know, if we need more admissions resources, we need to see where your areas of interest are, where your areas of responsibilities are, complete the surveys. If a program isn't going well, let us know. If a program is kicking it, let us know because that's, that is how we can respond in real time to the things, right? Like, but yeah, your member profile is actually the easiest first step. Actually member or not, just profile. Yeah, and when you fill out a survey, I know a lot of people think it goes into the black hole. Well, it doesn't. Like it, it really doesn't. It goes to Katina, her team, um, the board looks at this stuff as well, and, and so we do, we do look at the feedback, we take it seriously, and we try to act on the items that, that we can do. Fantastic. Is there anything else about The upcoming new revamped, refreshed strategic plan that you want to share that we missed or didn't talk about that you expected that we would talk about. I want to share, maybe it's just I've been doing this so much and everyone may be like, this is boring. Why does she keep talking? Um, but I think the impact framework that the committee signed off on is pretty crucial, and I hope to be able to use it in some type of storytelling mechanism for the field and for the membership. One of the pieces that the committee asked us to do is to look through everything and examine the impact on individual members, the impact on institutions, the impact on learners, on the field, and on ACR itself, because why are we doing this if it's. Not showing impact um in those ways, and we're, we're putting up something on the wall and saying that we did a strategic plan. Um, and so I think that was a nice tool of measurement, I guess, to say how effective are we being. This has been great and I appreciate the focus from the acro side. Of active engagement with the members in soliciting input in sort of validating the plan as it's moved forward. I think that that is, it's not surprising. ACR in my experience has always been very responsive to member input and obviously we're a volunteer, primarily a volunteer organization, so. Being active, engaged and involved is a way that you as a member, dear listener, can have an effect on the direction that Acro goes. And so, both a big shout out to the Acro staff for being open and receptive to that, and shout out to all the members who shared input, who provided input, who took time to say, you know what, I don't, I don't know about this one. Sometimes those are hard conversations and sometimes that's difficult feedback for ACR to receive, but it's critical in making our organization a vibrant, important, essential higher ed professional association, and we're one of the oldest professional associations in higher education, and I want ACR to be that vibrant community far into the future. So kudos to Acro for for listening. Kudos to the membership for providing, and I look forward to hearing more about the tactics as they are rolled out. And then October 1 is the go live for the new strategic plan and confirm for me that it will be announced and posted for people to read and look at from the new website. That's correct. Absolutely, I think it's already up. Oh, fantastic. Excellent. Whoop whoop. Well, Katina Carrey, thank you so much for being here today and for sharing insights and thoughts and process about this very important and critical piece of how we keep the organization moving in a positive way on a positive trajectory, both for higher education and for the members.-- So-- thank Thank you, Doug. Yeah, thank you, Doug. Thanks very much for listening. I appreciate Carrie and Katina taking some time to bring us all up to speed on where the strategic plan for ACR is pointing us. Remember that ACR is primarily a volunteer organization and so it's up to us to make sure that we're realizing the promise of this organization and sustaining it for the future. So get involved. If you've listened to a podcast episode, you can certainly propose a session at a state and regional association meeting or at the ACR annual meeting. As Carrie mentioned, you can submit an article to college and university. You can join a committee or a working group. There are many, many volunteer opportunities available to you at various levels of intensity or time commitment. And you can access them through the Acro exchange in the volunteers module. Speaking of volunteer opportunities and getting involved, check your voter registration. Confirm that you're registered to vote, and then encourage your friends, family, colleagues, everyone you know to do the same. The midterm elections are coming up and the future of higher education is on the ballot. Educate yourself on the issues and then make a plan to vote. Until next time, stretch your legs, drink some water, and be kind. I'm Doug McKenna, and this is for the Record.