Looking Back on NCEEA´s History
NCEEA, as a professional organization, was created in the spring of 1997. After several years of planning and discussion, it was produced after merging two, very separate organizations, the Northwest Placement Association (NWPA) and the Northwest Cooperative Education Association (NCEA). Each organization had its own history and following among college professionals and employers in the northwest.
NWPA tended to attract college career and placement professionals, while NCEA attracted college cooperative education coordinators and directors. The reality was that placement and co-op programs were becoming merged offices, and directors from these combined offices were forced to choose between NWPA or NCEA, as their budgets did not allow separate membership fees. As a result of the offices reorganizing, individual memberships in NWPA and NCEA declined; however, their officers (who were also friends and colleagues) soon discovered that by combining memberships, they could create a much stronger organization with common goals and objectives, while still retaining their individual identities.
NWPA President, Bob Maxfield from Ricks College and NCEA President, John McGhee from the Bonneville Power Administration and their respective boards agreed to a set of terms and conditions for the new organization.
At the 1997 spring conference in Spokane, the theme reflected the newly formed organization´s philosophy, "Marketing Our Strengths." New By-Laws were proposed at the conference, a new president was elected (Terry Berkhouse from the University of Montana), and the two organizations merged to become one, with the combined membership voting to call it "NCEEA."
The rest, as they say, is history!
*Compiled and written by Maxine Mitchell, Clark College