Working with the University: Opportunity Knocks

For about the last 8 years, HOBY Maryland has been having our annual seminar at Mount St. Mary's University.  As any large event would, we sign a contract that makes sure we agree to pay for services that in the broadest sense fall under either usage of facilities or reimbursement for meals.  It's a simple agreement and certainly, every year we've honored it and intend to continue to do so.

However, one of the things that has always struck me, clearly with my own bias towards what HOBY accomplishes, is how the university (and this isn't just necessarily MSM, but any host site) treats us as just another group.  From my perspective, we bring 200 outstanding high school sophomores to their campus from all over the state representing diverse interests and backgrounds.  It seems like a prime opportunity for any university to pitch themselves and recruit freshmen from essentially the cream of the crop.  They have a captive audience.  And yet, as already mentioned, the university has always been content to simply let us go about our business, run our event, and have very little interest in being involved.

Well, that's perhaps about to change.

During the 2010 Career Lunch, by pure chance, the president of the university, Dr. Powell happened to come by and see one part of our program.  All I can imagine is that he saw the enthusiastic young people who were there, the leaders of various industries introducing themselves and engaging these young people, and he realized the opportunity for MSM he had in front of him.  Our Director of Operations happened to be outside and was engaged in a brief conversation with Dr. Powell.  One thing led to another and we now after 8 years have been able to set up a meeting for the near future.  It speaks to the power of the university president versus just Conference and Events coordinator who is paid to help us work with University.  (And with full disclosure, the old C&E director just left for another opportunity, so MSM just got a new one for this year.)

My hope is that in meeting with Dr. Powell we'll be able to truly open his eyes to the phenomenal opportunity the HOBY community presents to his university.  At the same time, I'm hoping he can ensure that the university is helping us feel accommodated, using it's resources to work with us in the most productive ways possible, and I won't lie -- help us get a better deal financially.  HOBY and the university are two entities that truly have an amazing chance to work in mutually beneficial way.  We just need to make sure we are attempting to continually meet each other at least half way.