A Brief History

Background

CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY BUSINESS OFFICERS

A brief history - September 2002

Founded in 1937, when 15 administrators from 10 different universities met in Toronto, CAUBO is a non-profit professional organization representing the chief administrative and financial officers at over 100 universities and affiliated colleges in Canada.

The mission of the Canadian Association of University Business Officers is to promote the professional and effective management of the administrative, financial and business affairs of higher education institutions. Over the years, this has been achieved by providing publications, educational programs and a forum for the interchange of ideas.

CAUBO is governed by a Board of Directors and an Executive Committee both elected at its Annual General Meeting. In addition, several Standing and ad hoc committees bring together important national pools of experts in areas such as administrative and support services, treasury, financial reporting, taxes, human resources, procurement, etc. CAUBO works also in close collaboration with a host of regional committees that meet regularly on similar issues.

By 1972, membership consisted of over 500 business officers from 71 institutions. It was incorporated in 1973 as a non-profit organization and a charity. About the same time, a national office and full-time secretariat were established in Ottawa with an Executive Director and a secretary. The costs for the initial five-year period were covered mostly through donations of $125,000, which quickly became insufficient.

It was then decided to establish membership on an institutional basis rather than individual, with a schedule of fees based on grant and tuition fee revenue. Subscriber and Corporate membership categories were also created. Secretariat services were offered and provided to several other associations.

During the following years, the annual budget reached $500,000. Approximately 50% came from institutional membership dues, the balance from other dues, sale of services, publications, sponsorships and conference revenues. With a staff reaching 4.5 FTE, 50% of expenditures were on salaries.

Throughout this period until now, many significant initiatives have been put in place. Among those:

• On the professional development front, sponsorship of the Senior University Administrator Course (SUAC) and of the University Management Course (UMC) developed and offered by the Center for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD) at the University of Manitoba;
• On the advocacy front, direct involvement in the lobby for the GST rebate in the 80s, on the deferred maintenance issue in the 90s and more recently on funding of overhead costs;
• In terms of collaborative initiatives, development of CURIE (Canadian University Reciprocal Insurance Exchange), the negociation of many national agreements for products and services, such as hotel and car rentals and many others, and the creation of Commonfund Canada;
• Establisment of the Quality and Productivity Award Program;
• Publication of a number of very significant documents, such as:
  • Financial reporting guide
  • Financial statistics
  • GST Q&A guide
  • Income tax guide
  • Investment survey
  • University Manager Magazine
  • A Point of no Return (survey of deferred maintenance in universities)
• Development of a CAUBO web site;
• Development of various listservs for special interest groups. Currently, Vice-presidents administration and finance, procurement officers, treasury officers, human resources directors, and shortly financial officers from across the country can exchange questions, views and tips, in addition to a number of regional listservs to which the national office is a member, thus facilitating the exchange of information;

After a few attempts during the war, CAUBO has held an annual conference every year since 1947. Next year will be the 60th CAUBO conference. These meetings are probably the most effective means for CAUBO to achieve its objectives in regards to professional development opportunities for members, networking opportunities, and a way to keep up to date on “hot topics”, emerging issues and effective practices. Over the years, interest groups have started to organize pre-conference seminars in conjunction with the annual conference.

CAUBO’s operations are based on four regions: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and the Western region. Each region has 3 representatives on the Board and at least one on each national committee. These committees currently are: Administrative and support services, Editorial Board, Financial reporting, Human resources, National procurement, Taxes, and Treasury.