68 DEANS AND DEVELOPMENT Such a meeting can be combined with additional outreach and cultiva- tion activities. (BSD) At my former institution, the college’s advi- sory board agreed to host one meeting per year at a board member’s business. Over a three-year period, we met (and received comprehensive tours) at a major logistics center, a green chemical company, and one of the nation’s largest food producers. All the companies employed alumni from the college, so the board members experienced the diversity of the careers entered by our graduates, and they had a “stimulating” tour of business with which they were not familiar. Outside of hearing from students, many board members indicated this was the highlight of being on the board (which helped in recruiting new members). Starting from Nothing If your college does not have a development officer or a budget earmarked for development, you may wonder how to get started. If you are ques- tioning if development is even worth the effort, think about your own financial planning: you have been saving money towards a financially secure retirement—does your college deserve any less? Development provides your college with financial security for the future. If no resources are provided to your college for development, creating a position for a development officer out of the college’s budget may be unsustainable. You must make the case for at least a shared officer for the college, either to the institution’s Development Office (more likely) or to academic affairs (less likely). The institution will want assurance of a high return-on-investment (ROI); meaning if they provide the salary for an officer, this individual has a high-likelihood of securing many times their salary in gifts back to the college. In making the case for a high ROI, you will need to invest your time into development to show you are ready for this responsibility. Reading this book should not be the end of your professional development in fundraising: at least attend a development conference (e.g. CASE’s “Development for Deans”