NBOA President and CEO
Seventeen years of working with school business officers have taught me never to doubt their capacity for adapting in the face of rapid and complex change. When I was at the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), I saw your colleagues in higher education accommodate one challenge after another involving budgeting, pricing and tuition discounting, and endowment management. When I took my first “listening tour” after joining NBOA in 2010, what impressed me most was your ease wearing multiple professional hats over the course of any given moment, day or week. You mastered GAAP and FASB and PPRRSM, oversaw tuition and HR and risk management, worked with trustees and parents, and managed construction projects — all while respecting the unique culture and traditions of your independent school. And also getting to know your students and families. That’s one of the biggest differences between your role and the same role in higher ed.
Entering 2017, business officers face uncertainty on several fronts. Shortly before this issue went to press, a federal judge blocked the implementation of new FLSA overtime rules that schools had spent months preparing for. Looming larger still are questions about the impact of a Trump administration and the new Congress on the business of independent schools. Repeal of aspects of the Affordable Care Act looks likely, as well as changes to nonprofit benefits and taxation policies.
This issue of Net Assets launches the new year on the topic of change, including that in independent school leadership positions. The good news is that many schools are well positioned. Sir Ken Robinson — author, educator and the keynote speaker at NBOA’s 2017 Annual Meeting — puts it this way: “Independent schools have real opportunities because they’re free of some of the constraints that public schools have to face. They can think very differently about how they work.” I couldn’t agree more. Our “independent cultures” should provide us with a robust appetite and opportunity for change.
NBOA too is thinking differently to better meet your needs. We just launched a new website, NetAssets.org, to help you more easily engage with news and best practices related to your work (something you’ve told us is very important to you), and we’ve rebranded the Bottomline newsletter as Net Assets NOW. As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve also updated the look and feel of Net Assets magazine with a more modern look, new departments and fresh themes to better reflect the changes happening within the independent school world.
As always, I hope these changes, combined with other exciting developments from NBOA in the months ahead, will help you meet the challenges that you face head on — whether they are related to people, finances, technology, compliance, campus or anything else. Happy 2017.
Follow NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shields @shieldsNBOA.
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