Call for Proposals is now open!
Join us for Infinite Solutions, the 2008 HighEdWeb Conference on October 5-8 at Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
HighEdWeb is perfect for all team members who want to explore unique Web issues facing colleges and universities.
About Higher Education Web Professionals
Board Members | ByLaws
Dale Grady, President, University of Rochester
Steve Lewis, Secretary and Treasurer, SUNY Brockport
Shelly Brown, Southwest Baptist University
Dan Frommelt, University of Wisconsin - Platteville
Chris Nixon, University of Arkansas
Gordy Pace, University of Montana
Jeremy Trumble, Rochester Institute of Technology
Our History
From an initial meeting with representatives from five schools in New York state, HighEdWeb has grown to more than 700 members from public and private educational institutions from across North America and the world.
Six of us, representing Fordham University, SUNY New Paltz, Orange County Community College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and St. Lawrence University met on Nov. 19, 1999 at New Paltz to plant the seeds for this group. We emerged from that meeting with a name, a mission statement, and the commitment to invite other higher education Web professionals in New York state to join us.
Our initial mission statement:
"HighEdWeb is a strategic alliance of Web professionals in New York state higher education designed to facilitate communication and professional development and using the Web as a medium to advance their institutions."
After that first meeting, we hosted our first regional conference at SUNY Cortland in August 2000. This was followed by conferences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in July 2001, Ithaca in June 2002, and our largest regional conference in Rochester in June of 2003.
Building on the experience of the Rochester conference, HighEdWeb joined forces with the Program Committee from WebDevShare, a successful international conference for Web development in higher education. Our joint efforts led to our first combined HighEdWebDev conference in 2004. This union immediately transformed the group into an international organization, with members from most of the United States as well as four other countries. We have since outgrown our original conference site, and moved to downtown Rochester for HighEdWebDev 2006 and 2007.
After that first joint conference, an organizing group met to investigate the formal incorporation of the Higher Education Web Professionals Association as in international professional association. Work was begun on a proposal to present for a vote the following year.
At the 2005 conference, attended by more than 300 participants including 16 international attendees from as far away as Brazil and Egypt, the professional society organizing group presented their proposal at a general meeting. The membership selected our new mission:
"To advance Web professionals, technologies, and standards in higher education."
After considerable research into the best opportunities for our organization, in March 2006 the legal process of incorporating and forming a 501c6 non-profit organization began.
In May 2006, the Higher Education Web Professionals Association became an incorporated non-profit professional society, six years after the first proposal that the organization move in that direction.
An interim organizing board of directors was put in place to manage the establishment of the full board.
President Dale B. Grady, University of Rochester Secretary and Treasurer Steve Lewis, State University of New York, Brockport Board member Jeremy Trumble, Rochester Institute of TechnologyThe interim board was selected from Rochester-based institutions to expedite the many immediate organizational and signatory issues in the early formation process and does not represent the form or future composition of our governance. New York state registration and other legal actions were initiated during 2006.
The 2006 conference again saw a 30% growth in attendance, with representation from 11 countries and 43 states. The evaluations show high praise for the quality and value of the workshops, presentations, and networking opportunities. Many of the attendees stepped forward to volunteer to help.
In early 2007, a nomination committee was formed to solicit nominations to the board of directors. Elections to the board were made in the spring of 2007, and we continue to make progress on other legal and financial requirements of the association.