Original Mission
The initial USCA meeting was known as the 2002 Sales Center Summit and was attended by directors and associate directors from nine universities. The inaugural meeting included Ball State University (Dr. Ramon Avila, Dr. Scott Inks, and Dr. Joe Chapman), Baylor University (Dr. Bill Weeks and Dr. Terry Loe), Illinois State University (Dr. Mike Williams), Northern Illinois University (Dr. Dan Weilbaker), University of Toledo (Dr. Dave Reid), Ohio University (Dr. Barbara Dyer), University of Akron (Dr. Jon Hawes), University of Houston (Dr. Eli Jones) and Kennesaw State University (Dr. David Shepherd).
The original mission or theme of the meeting was “To do together what we could not do separately to advance the sales (education) profession.” The group raised two important questions: (1) What is our purpose? and (2) What can sales academics do to promote the professionalism of sales? There was agreement that there was a need to have an academic focus (not being perceived as a trade school), and a need to establish “professional standards” (to be published and communicated to other sales centers). There was also strong agreement that the first mission was to support other schools in order to build the sales education field! After much discussion, the mission statement developed at the summit was “To advance the sales profession through academic leadership through: Education, Research, Outreach, Sales Education, Sales Research, Sales Resources, Sales Center Professional Standards, Corporate Involvement, and Service Ideals.”