Organizing the Dean’s Office for Development 63 officer is employed by a central office, then it should provide you with performance statistics (numbers of visits, proposals, and solicitations) and progress toward annual goals on a regular basis. Being further from the action, the central office will almost inevitably view performance in terms of those statistics and the college development officer may feel pressured to move relationships along more quickly than “feels” right. Your own judgment is important here, as is frank and open communica- tion with the central office. Professional development and continuing education are critical to all of us, especially we who have spent most of our careers as faculty and department chairs. If the University organizes workshops and talks by outside consultants from the development world, take advantage of them and encourage your staff and department chairs to do so as well. Take part in sessions on fundraising at conferences such as CCAS. Encourage mutual mentoring among your staff and between them and their counterparts in other parts of the University. Collaborations within the College and across Campus As noted in Chapter 2, alumni affinities and philanthropic interests can extend well beyond their “home” department, and some alumni will have more than one home if they double-majored, or completed an undergraduate degree in Arts and Sciences and a graduate degree in one of the professional schools, if their spouse is affiliated with a different campus unit, or if their cultural and philanthropic interests have broad- ened to areas beyond their own studies and profession. Successful women, for example, may choose to support a Women’s Studies Depart- ment that did not exist when they were students. Managing the network of relationships and interests requires tact, not only with the prospects, but also with one’s fellow deans. Ground rules must be established as to who has the primary relationship, but all deans must be willing to “share” and accept that prospects may have multiple interests and multiple loyalties. Many campus development offices have traditionally directed outreachanddevelopmenteffortstothemaleofalumnicouples,ignoring the woman’s affiliations. Fortunately, times have changed. Depending