CASE V History

1974

  • The American College Public Relations Association and the American Alumni Council merge to create the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a name selected from more than 400 suggestions. The organization’s articles of incorporation are signed Nov. 26, 1974, and the headquarters are at One Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.
  • CASE has 1,835 institutional members and 7,200 member representatives.

1975

  • March 17-19 — A Great Lakes District Conference, planned by ACPRA, is held at Heritage Hotel in Detroit. Registration is $35 and covers more than 40 workshops, keynote addresses, two banquets and continental breakfasts, cocktail reception, four coffee breaks and a bus ride to the Wayne State University campus and free drinks upon arrival.
  • The first ever CASE District Five Conference is held at the Chicago Hyatt Regency Hotel Dec. 9-11. The conference has 600 participants, breaking all previous established records with either ACPRA or AAC conferences.
  • CASE national’s first Annual Assembly is held in Chicago, too.

1976

  • CASE District Five returns to the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago for its second conference Dec. 12-15. Registration is $35. Room rates are $26 for singles and $32 for doubles. The tradition of December meetings begin. The exclusive Chicago site tradition will begin less than a decade later.
  • CASE District Five makes the largest net gain of all eight CASE districts during new membership enrollments that began in late 1975. By early 1976, Robert Odaniell, District Five membership chair, announces that the district now has 1,522 individual members and 324 member institutions, making the district one of the largest in the country. District Five assets are $21,371.

1977

  • The CASE Five conference moves to the Netherlands ... the Netherlands Hilton in Cincinnati Dec. 11-14. Single rooms are $22, doubles, $28. Parking is free! Keynote speaker is Arthur Taylor, past president of CBS.
  • District Five members pass the district’s proposed constitution and bylaws.

1978

  • The “colorful CASE Five banner” was found in spring, after disappearing during the December conference. The Scarlet and Gray Show troupe from Ohio State University found it packed in their props. Jack Kinney, who produced the pennant when he was district chair in 1976, was put “in charge of banner security.”
  • The annual CASE District Five conference returns to the Chicago Hyatt Regency Hotel, Dec. 17-20; a record 775 participants attend. Conference fees are $40; Room rates, advertised as less than half the regular charges, are $29 for singles, $36 for doubles.

1979

  • The CASE District Five annual conference moves to Minneapolis’ Radisson Hotel, Dec. 9-12. Attendance: 600+.
  • District Five continues to grow. It’s now the second largest CASE district in the nation with 383 member institutions, just behind District Two.

1980

  • District Five welcomes CASE national’s Annual Assembly to the region when the event is held in Detroit at The Plaza Hotel, July 7-10.
  • A District Five Minorities/Women’s Concerns Committee is established to work on behalf of CASE members in the area of career advancement for women and minorities. Heading the group is Wayne Baskerville, Western Michigan University, and Claudia Wallace, University of Minnesota.
  • The CASE District Five conference, with the theme “CASEwork 1980: Realizing Our Potential,” returns to the Chicago Hyatt Regency, Dec. 14-17. Conference fee is now $60.
  • M. Fredric Volkmann, director of university relations for Washington University in St. Louis, receives the first CASE Five Distinguished Service Award during the annual conference banquet.

1981

  • A survey of CASE Five members helps the district’s Board of Directors establish Chicago as the district’s permanent conference site during its March meeting. More than half of CASE Five’s members check “hold the conference in Chicago every year” in the survey.
  • The CASE District Five conference, “How to in ’82,” is held Dec. 13-16 at the Pfister Hotel (with overflow lodging at the Marc Plaza) in Milwaukee, the city of ABC’s “Laverne and Shirley” and “Happy Days” fame. Conference fee is now $75, with rooms at $50 single and $60, double.
  • CASE District Five membership grows to 417 member institutions, still the second largest CASE district, tied with District Three.

1982

  • The CASE Five annual conference returns to Chicago — for good, this time at the Chicago Marriott, where the conference remains through 1998. Pre-conference workshops are offered for the first time. Registration is still $75, but room rates decrease to $38 single, $45 double. A record 900 participants attend.

1983

  • Nine national CASE special conferences are scheduled to be held within the District Five boundaries during the 1983-84 academic year, including the CASE Annual Assembly in Chicago, July 19-24, 1984.
  • The first class of CASE District Five fellows is named. Ten were selected from 116 nominations to receive free registration and up to $300 in expense reimbursement for the 1983 conference.
  • Assets of CASE District Five total $67,211.79 as of Aug. 31.

1984

  • Promotional materials for the annual conference, “A Meeting of Minds” receives a gold medal in the Publishing and Promotion category of CASE National’s “Recognition Awards competition.

1985

  • CASE District Five begins offering one-day mini-conferences.
  • The district mentoring program begins.
  • A record 1,200 participants attend the district’s annual conference, under the theme of “Motivation Magic,” at the Chicago Downtown Marriott, Dec. 8-11.

1986

  • Luncheons on women and minority issues are held for the first time during the annual conference.
  • Conference sessions targeted to senior professionals are instituted.

1987

  • Records show that the annual CASE District Five conference remains the best bargain in the country. With the $90 registration fee, it’s the lowest of the seven districts. Next lowest are districts 3 and 4 at $130; highest are districts 1 and 2 at $225.
  • A major snowstorm sweeping through Chicago and the East Coast cancels the keynote address by U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm at the annual conference. Chisholm makes her keynote a year later, however.

1988

  • CASE Five takes top honors for publications— promotional materials for the 1987 “Shopping for Solutions” conference developed under the direction of Carolyn Mehl of The University of Akron, and in the newsletter category, “CASE Five advance,” edited by Michael Malone of Northern Illinois with art direction by Jody Zamirowski of the College of DuPage.
  • From the 1988 conference promotional materials for the publications track: “Do you have a fax? The facsimile boom in the 1980s has made it increasingly easy to work with a range of creative services and vendors outside of your geographic area.” The technology boon had just begun.

1990

  • The CASE District Five Board of Directors votes to accept The Pennsylvania State University’s request to become a member of the district, since the institution recently joined the Big Ten Conference.
  • The CASE District Five annual conference, with the theme “Dawn of A New Decade,” draws a record 1,510 participants.

1991

  • Documents that provide a detailed history of CASE Five since it was formed in 1974 are delivered to the Archives of the Ohio State University Libraries. Tracy Norris is the district’s archivist.
  • 1,383 attend the annual conference, titled “Reflections: CASE Five in the 1990s.” Changes for the annual conference include: discounted registration fees for groups of five or more registering at the same time; Sunday afternoon sessions; and closing the conference with the Tuesday evening banquet instead of the traditional Wednesday noon closure.

1992

  • CASE District Five celebrates the beginning of its second decade at the Chicago Downtown Marriott when 1,450 attend the annual conference, titled “The Conference that Works.”

1993

  • Another record is set as 1,561 participants “Take Five” at the annual conference, Dec. 12-14.

1994

  • CASE District Five welcomes the CASE national assembly with the theme “Celebrate the Magic” for the 20th annual assembly in Chicago, July 10-13.
  • A record 1,572 participants get down to “Brass Tacks” at the annual conference. Changes include combining the “Publications Track” and “Periodicals Track” into the “Communications Track.”

1995

  • To stay on the cutting edge, the annual December conference offers more sessions on technology, with special preconference sessions on the basics of using the internet and World Wide Web.

1996

  • The annual conference offers a new twist: traditional track sessions on Tuesday afternoon are suspended for two special offerings — one on volunteers, the other on stress. A preconference event focuses on an often untapped resource: women donors.

1997

  • CASE District Five launches its first Web site, thanks to the efforts of Kathy Horn, senior graphic designer at the University of Michigan and former editor of advance (the district’s newsletter).

1998

  • CASE District Five welcomes the CASE national assembly in Chicago.
  • A record 1,702 participants attend “New Questions! New Solutions!,” the final CASE District Five conference at the Chicago Downtown Marriott, ending a 16-year run there. Beverly Sills is the keynote speaker. A Tuesday morning keynote address is added, as is a casual dress day on Monday. Registration is $135, with hotel fees $101 per night.

1999

  • CASE District Five is “Shifting Gears” as it moves to a new site, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.
  • A record 2,027 people register for the annual conference; approximately 10 percent pre-register over the internet, a number that has tripled over the past three years.

2000

  • “Anticipating the Next Curve” is the theme of the annual conference, which draws 1,939 amid a snowstorm that dropped about 12 inches of snow the second day of the conference. Some speakers were unable to attend, while some attendees were unable to get home when even more snow fell Wednesday.
  • A new district logo, CASE V, is unveiled using the Roman Numeral five. The district’s newsletter, advance, is revamped.

2001

  • Despite the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., and a slumping economy, 1,694 attend “Erasing the Lines: Reshaping Advancement” at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers Dec. 16-18.

2002

  • The district’s Web site — www.casefive.org — is revamped.
  • The annual conference, “Vision. Voice. Value.” draws 1,494 participants to the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.

2003

  • The annual conference, “Advancing Advancement ... in Challenging Economic Times” draws 1,625 participants to the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.

2004

  • The district celebrates its 30th anniversary.
  • The district implements “The Pride of CASE V,” a district-wide awards program.
  • The annual conference, “Treasuring our past, mapping our future,” registers 1,847 participants at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, the third largest conference to date. Conference registration is $199 for group rate; hotel registration is $125.

2005

  • CASE V received a Gold Award from CASE international’s Circle of Excellence Award for its promotional materials for the 2004 conference, “Treasuring our past, mapping our future.”
  • The annual conference, “Everything matters!” at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers registers 1,902, making it the third largest conference to date.

2006

  • The district begins sending a monthly “e-advance” to constituents to update them on district matters and drive them to CASE V Web site.
  • The district’s newsletter, advance, is updated with a new masthead and look, along with four-color throughout the publication.
  • “Exceeding Expectations,” the annual conference, draws 1,776 attendees to the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers.
  • The district launches “CASE V by Demand,” a series of one-day seminars. The first seminar is conducted in Indianapolis in conjunction with I-CASE, an Indiana group of advancement professionals.

2007

  • The district begins providing diversity scholarships, assisting members of underrepresented groups with costs of attending the district conference.
  • Registration totals 1,875 for the 33rd annual conference, “Connecting the Best,” at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. More than 450 participate in “CASE V Night on the Town,” cruising Lake Michigan on the Odyssey, making it the district’s largest off-site conference event ever.