How did the SAAC grant enhance your conference SAAC program?

The SAAC grant supported the GNAC student athletes in two ways: 
17 GNAC Student Athletes attended a two day leadership seminar and Special Olympics event. The seminar included NCAA Programming Jamie Fluker of the NCAA as well as Jessica Huntley from the ECAC and leadership consultant Gail Hand. They also volunteered with the local a Special Olympics Soccer Team. The NCAA leadership training has a track record of success and the student athletes returned to their campuses with improved skills which they used to recruit and educate the campus community at large through the organization of on campus Special Olympic programing. This was our best year for SAAC programming to date!

Please list the names of all administrators who received funds, the meeting or event attended, and any follow-up activity required of those individuals.

Doug Chin, Dan Campagna and BettiAnn Michalik attended ECAC SIDA; Derek Dunning CoSIDA. Dr. Sue Kelly and professor Joanne Galenski both attended the Fall FAR Conference. Kristy Lyman SWA at Anna Maria and Ron Martel VP and Dean of Students at JWU both attended the NCAA convention for the first time. Commissioner Joe Walsh attended the DIIICA meetings. 

The conference submitted additional information on August 31: 

The $415 was used by SID intern Doug Chin to attend the ECACSIDA meetings in Pittsburg. $970 of the Compliance Rules Seminar was the 1/8 share that each of the eight conferences contributed to conduct the NE Regional Rules seminar. The balance was to support the travel costs and attendance of intern Bethany Sevey to attend the NE Regional Rules seminar.

Justification

N/A

Please describe in detail how the funds were used and how the campus or conference was impacted.

Each one of the schools in the GNAC was allocated $1874 and used their grant in the following ways: 

Anna Maria College split the Tier Two grant and put half in Student Athlete Well Being and half in Sportsmanship. They brought in speakers, one each semester, who spoke to their student athletes, coaches, and athletic administrators on the issues of alcohol/drugs and or nutrition and sportsmanship.

Albertus Magnus College also split their $1874. They worked with Chartwells to bring in a nutritionist to speak to their student-athletes about proper nutrition on a college campus for student-athletes (student-athlete well-being) and they conducted a program for National Women and Girls in Sports Day (Diversity/Gender Equity).

Emerson used the funds under Student-Athlete Well-Being, providing their SAAC and captains with leadership training including CPR.

Both Emmanuel College, Mount Ida College and Saint Joseph's Maine had Peter DiGiulio. Peter has been talking to kids about drugs for more than 20 years. He has spoken to more than 250,000 students across the country. His talk, "Just Say No" gives students reasons why they should avoid drugs and alcohol, and outlines the dangers and effects of individual drugs. Peter has been awarded the George Washington Medal of Honor from the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, PA for excellence in the field of drug education. He is a nationally known lecturer who has been endorsed by the NCAA, and has spoken at Bowdoin College, Ohio State, and to the USC football team.

Norwich University purchased additional AEDs for their practice facilities.

Lasell College had Mike Green speak to student athletes about alcohol abuse. He is President and founder of Collegiate Consultants and has presented on more than 2000 campuses nationwide in his effort to make drug and alcohol awareness and education an integral part of every student's life. 

Saint Joseph College (now University) Connecticut held a sportsmanship workshop for all our student athletes. We used this opportunity to: 1-develop a workshop/seminar on integrating the aspect of positive sportsmanship as it relates to competition and college life on campus (behaviors of the entire campus at athletic events) 2-break down into small group sessions to develop strategies to accomplish this. The workshop was well received and received positive feedback from both S/A and faculty. 

Suffolk University utilized the NCAA Tier Two Grant for the academic year 2011-2012 to coordinate with the Boston Scholar Athlete Program as well as a separate initiative with a City of Boston Public School in Community Service initiatives in education programs that will allow for Suffolk Student Athletes to travel to such schools while also allowing for students to visit and interact with our campus. 

Please describe any other programming the conference supported in these four areas this year (if any). As a reminder, grant policy requires that each conference will demonstrate financial support of each area, over a four year period, and the funding for such programming may come from sources other than the grant program.

N/A

Justification

The intern who worked on our basketball officiating initiative, (successfully recruiting nine new minorities and females to the basketball officials roster) in 2010-2011 and was planning to work on women's lacrosse and volleyball was hired full time by the Big East and unable to work on this project for the GNAC. 

The commissioner's position went full time and the conference office technology was brought up to 2012 standards.

Please describe in detail how Tier Three funds were used:

1. Each of the 14 GNAC schools received $750 to purchase concussion software. 
2. The conference rented Franklin Park in Boston for our cross country championships. This was much more convenient for the schools and has a historical reputation in the XC world. the day was very special and in addition to the rental and staff fees we had to pay we also hired an ambulance and two EMTs for S/A safety. 
3. We had five unpaid interns working in the conference office on different specialties. During the summer we held a professional development retreat for them, bringing in experts in each of their areas of interest to mentor each of them. The areas include: Sports Information; Championships; Special Events; Communications & Public Relations and Marketing. the grant was used to fund the retreat and although we don't pay the interns we covered the cost of their attendance at a professional development event (NCAA Convention, ECACSida, ECAC Convention, CoSida). 
4. We established the inaugural GNAC HOF and purchased recognition plaques for each of the ten inductees. 
5. We did NOT have interest in webcasting. 
6. We purchased memory sticks and shirts with the GNAC and NCAA logo for distribution to each of our member institutions. 

The conference submitted additional information on August 31, 2012: 
The $2,441 was used to upgrade the conference office with a new computer, printer and IPAD. The $4,246 in promotion/ marketing/ identity funds breaks down as 10 Plaques for the inaugural GNAC Hall of Fame, 150 t-shirts and 250 4GB USB Flash Drives with the GNAC and NCAA logos.

What did the conference accomplish through the use of funds?

Many of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference members are tuition driven institutions with small endowments. Without the NCAA Strategic grant the conference would not be able to support the initiatives described above which prioritize the health, well-being and growth of the student athletes in synchronization with the Division III Strategic Plan which emphasizes "the complete experience for the student athlete".