NBOA President and CEO
This summer, the association reached another milestone in our history, welcoming our 1,400th U.S. member school. This achievement reflects the cumulative effort of the NBOA Board of Directors, hundreds of volunteers and the hard-working NBOA staff. It speaks to our ongoing commitment to provide thought leadership and practical guidance on the business and financial challenges facing independent schools today and in the future. We do this in a widening array of resources that begins with Net Assets magazine and nboa.org, which provides tools, templates and valuable resources. We do this through best-in-class professional development during the NBOA Annual Meeting, Business Officer Institute and live, archived and on-demand webinars and courses. Most of all, we do this through our continued commitment to support a nationwide community of business officers and other key members of business operations, such as controllers, HR professionals and facilities staff, who exchange ideas and share solutions face-to-face and in NBOA Connect.
So, what’s next?
During the 2017-18 school year, the NBOA Board of Directors was immersed in developing the roadmap for the future of the association. Our prior strategic plan was approved in 2014, but a lot has changed in our environment and for NBOA during the past four years. It’s our ongoing commitment to ensure that NBOA remains as valuable and relevant to you in the next 20 years as it has been the past 20 years.
Our Mission and Vision statements continue to serve as a guiding force for the association. NBOA’s mission will continue as follows: NBOA develops, delivers and promotes best business practices to advance independent schools. Our vision: NBOA members support excellence in education through thought leadership and world-class business operations. The addition of thought leadership articulates the leadership role that business officers play within schools, in addition to business and financial management.
The plan delineates our work in three specific goal areas:
Strengthen NBOA’s community.
Foster an engaged, informed and diverse membership.This goal includes strategies to continue to leverage the powerful community of business officers within our membership. We will focus on opportunities to increase our diversity at all levels and model inclusiveness within our leadership, staff and volunteer groups. Finally, we will work to enhance our volunteer structures so that members have enhanced opportunities to make meaningful contributions to the association.
Advance the core.
Continue to innovate benefits, products and services that support NBOA’s mission and strategic priorities. Our focus will be on providing greater customization among key member segments, from single-person business offices to boarding schools. And, we will continue to invest in our data collection and analytic capabilities so that member schools can make more informed decisions regarding their financial health by accessing the most accurate and useful business and financial data available to independent schools.
Maximize impact.
Amplify NBOA’s position as the industry thought leader to expand value within and across independent schools. NBOA will continue to engage heads of school and other members of school leadership teams in supporting the business officer role as a strategic partner. We will provide even more clear and directional financial guidance to help the entire school understand and act upon data, as well as the financial frameworks needed for financial success. And, we will invest in advanced professional development offerings to support even the most experienced business officers with senior-level professional development and executive leadership support.
The goals are ambitious, but we will continue to think as big as NBOA’s 23 founding members did in 1998. And we will continue to be motivated by you, your words of appreciation and encouragement, and your willingness to volunteer and contribute your leadership and partner each step along the way. Here’s to our future!
