University registrar Robert Doolos has been given an award from a national organization for his work, which includes co-chairing a task force to evaluate the organization’s governance structure. Doolos received the Thomas A. Bilger Citation for Service by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and will be presented with it today at the AACRAO annual meeting in New Orleans.The award is named for a former president of AACRAO and is given to organization members with five or more years of service to AACRAO with a history of outstanding contributions to the organization, according to a news release.Doolos, who is one of two recipients of the award this year, said he is honored to be recognized by the organization, which he joined in 1990 and has been deeply involved with since 1998.”It’s a great feeling that your peers think you have done a great job for the organization,” Doolos said.AACRAO is a professional organization for higher-education admissions and registration professionals from more than 2,500 institutions, according to the release.Doolos said he’s also gracious to the University for providing him with financial support to attend AACRAO annual meetings and allowing him to take time off to do so.”I need to thank LSU for all these years of supporting me in doing this work with and for AACRAO,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have great folks and great supervisors who have supported me.”Doolos said the work he is most proud of with AACRAO is a job he is still doing as the co-chairman of a task force created to evaluate the governance structure of the organization.The task force filed an initial report in December 2009 with the AACRAO Board of Directors and is continuing to research topics such as how the Board is elected and what it should be involved in, Doolos said.Doolos said he is passionate about AACRAO because it facilitates dialogue between registrars from universities around the nation.”It benefits someone in our profession a great deal with opportunities for professional growth and development and to keep up with what’s going on in the profession,” he said.The relationships created through AACRAO came in handy to Doolos when he was able to consult the University of Texas at Austin about online course waitlisting a few years ago. Sharing experiences with various policies make them easier to implement, Doolos said.”Registrars are very willing to share what they’ve done with their colleagues,” he said. “No one wants to reinvent the wheel. It was really wonderful to pick up the phone and call a colleague over there and say, ‘Tell me how you worked through this issue.'”—-Contact Ryan Buxton at lsureveille.com