The Office of Events and Conference Services
“Budget cuts.” An answer students are getting all too used to hearing when asking why hours of the upstairs student restaurant are shorter, and why the music library was shut down. It is no secret CUA has had budget cuts in many departments. In today’s environment just like CUA, more and more colleges must be careful. High school seniors apply to 10+ schools. It is hardly predictable where they will end up. If someone can predict it, they get paid a lot of money to do so. Universities are struggling and CUA, which is a non-profit is no exception.
However, one office managed rise above these budget cuts. The Office of Events and Conference Services came into being in the in the winter of 2017. Based off the old Center for Pryzbyla Management (CPM), the office has more than doubled in pro-staff positions. ECS has managed to do this by moving existing positions on campus as well as consolidating existing jobs. Rumor has it ECS made just under 3 million dollars over this past summer for the University.
Since Fall 2016, many positions and offices have changed. The three positions once held by Chris Hodes, Chris Hamm, and Victor David has changed into Robyn Smith as scheduler for internal groups, Jacques Moore for external clients, Brandon Carr on operations, Chris Hodes as director of operations, Lyle Spain on technology services, Suzanne McCarthy on special events, and Bill Jonas.
On a busy Tuesday morning, I sat across the table from Bill Jonas, Executive Director of ECS. Overlooking the view of the loading dock I asked him about his expectations and hopes for his new office. Before becoming the Executive Director of Events and Conference Services, Bill worked for the President’s Office since 2011. About three years ago he and Suzanne were working in the President’s office and had the idea to make an office that can specifically cater from small events for student organizations to alumni receptions to hosting high school camps with over 1000 people.
While Bill is new to the Pryz, Chris Hodes is a veteran of the building. Chris started working in the Pryz of May of 2015. He originally worked with Tim Carney, Dan Kennedy, and Chris Hamm. Since his time working in the Pryz, his office has gone from Conference and Pryzbyla Management to the Center for Pryzbyla Management and is now known as the Office for Events and Conference Services. It has been quite a bit of change. Chris has worked with mostly student organizations to working more with events. He is happy about the new additions to the office because now he can now be “focusing on the Pryz again.” He explained a huge part of this job is going to be “making things in the Pryz attractive to internal and external conferences.” This is important because external conferences are the big money makers. Jacques Moore was recruited from Colby College in Maine in order to attract clients who want to come to DC. Referring to these high school external conferences coming to the CUA Bill adds “In some cases, it can be used as a recruiting tool.”
Once Bill and Suzanne got out their idea, the process moved quickly. The Vice Presidents of the University met and the idea quickly became an approved plan. As for how this office was able to double in staff without going over budget? “Only three positions were actually added”, says Bill. These were Jacques’s position, Suzanne’s, position, and a new additional event planning position. “The location of the pryz is perfect so they combined with pryz management. We can run things smoothly from the center of campus.”, Bill explained. Him and Suzanne are no longer in a mysterious office under the President of the University. Instead of scrambling to plan events and coordinate with different offices, they are the coordinators. They run the event planning and administration.
What makes this office unique compared to “auxiliary offices” in other universities is that it is in the same hallway as the International Students Office, Office of Campus Activities, Student Government, Program Board and the Center of Cultural Engagement. There are almost 30 students on the staff of Events and Conference services. These students work at the University Information desk, open and close the Pryzbyla center as well as handle all the set-ups for any event or meeting in the building. The information desk is directly connected to events and conference services making ECS central to whatever is going on, on campus.
With the success of this office comes more income for the University. All the employees and students of the University have a lot of time and money invested in this University. Now, so do more and more conferences from around the country. With the success of every event come repeat clients which will lead us to a better reputation. The success of this office can lead to more investment in University projects. CUA has so much to offer. In the words of Bill Jonas, “We have a metro stop. We have green grass and trees. GW does not have those things.”