By Helen Ventura
Staff Writer
The Family Business Special Interest Group of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) members re-elected Carol Wittmeyer, associate professor of management, as chair last week during its annual meeting in San Francisco.
The USASBE is the largest international organization of entrepreneurship educators. It aims to provide the network to advance business development through entrepreneurship education and research, according to usasbe.org.
The Family Business Special Interest Group is a smaller section of the USASBE. Wittmeyer has been involved with the group for over a decade.
“It’s just something you have to be a part of, if you have any interest in it,” Wittmeyer said.
The group has more than 200 members, many of which are other teachers and professors meeting together to learn from each other. Its members share syllabi, curriculum and teaching methods, said Wittmeyer.
Wittmeyer hopes to get a wider student body involved in the group this year. She is trying to organize a general student survey, including students of all majors, to see what students are part of a family business and then introduce them to the group. Wittmeyer wants to incorporate different schools and extend the general student survey nationally.
Wittmeyer also wants to set up a family business exchange program. This program would allow students to “swap mentors” (which are more often than not their parents) in order to learn about business from someone other than their immediate family. She said this program would be difficult to establish because family businesses are usually very private.
“Any student who is a part of a family business should learn some basic training skills that the group can teach,” Wittmeyer said. “Even if they don’t become a part of their own family business, in one way or another, they will serve some family business in the future.”
Wittmeyer hopes to expand students’ knowledge on family business.
“Students know so much already—we can do a better job of inviting them to share what they know,” Wittmeyer said. She sees this group as a way of doing just that, which is why she is establishing it as a minor at St. Bonaventure.
