UMass Amherst Alumni Association
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Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Memorial Hall
Saturday, February 10, 2007
8:30 a.m.
In attendance: Elaine Barker, Mary Custard, Hal Lane, Kathleen Mitchell, Kim Sherman, Anna Symington, and Mike Fiorentino
Absent: Sean LeBlanc, Christine Lopes and Marc Rossen
Guests: Ron Grasso
Staff: Deb Masloski
Call to Order
The meeting convened at 8:40 a.m.
Approval of Meeting Minutes
Motion: by Mike Fiorentino, seconded by Kathleen Mitchell, to approve the minutes of the January 11th Executive Committee meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
Investment Management Consultant
Ron reported that the Finance and Investments Committee distributed a request for proposal to approximately ten management consultants, along with the Alumni Association’s investment policy statement and portfolio summary. The committee evaluated initial responses based on several criteria including:
- Length of industry service
- U-4 status
- Current assets under management
- Percentage of 501(c)3 assets under management
- Manager evaluation process
- Client Service Model
The committee invited five consultants to interview, including representatives from UBS, Sovereign Bank, Wachovia Bank, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. At the conclusion of the interviews, the Committee agreed to invite back representatives from UBS and Merrill Lynch to join a sub-committee group, comprised of Ron Grasso, Joel Slovin and Paul Sienkiewicz, for further discussion. They also agreed to invite a representative from Linsco Private to interview with the sub-committee. After completing these additional interviews, the sub-committee presented a unanimous hiring recommendation to the Finance and Investments Committee on January 30, which the Committee agreed to forward to the Board of Directors for approval in February.
However, in continuing his due diligence efforts, Ron has since identified an area of concern related to the committee’s original hiring recommendation. Both Ron and Elaine recommended that the proposed vote to approve the hiring recommendation, scheduled for the board meeting later today, be tabled until the Finance and Investments Committee can be apprised of and evaluate this new information. Ron will update the board on this situation later today.
President's Report
Hal and Marc Rossen attended a very positive meeting with Norma Heim and Deb Masloski to review current and proposed communications, marketing and membership initiatives. Norma will provide a membership update during today’s board meeting due to Marc’s illness.
Hal reported that the Tribute to UMass Football in Boston was an excellent event and very well attended. The Alumni Association plans to co-sponsor the Football Banquet in March and offer invitations to members only. Hal will also have an opportunity to speak for a few minutes at the banquet. He suggested that moving forward we consider honoring athletic achievements in both the Boston and Western Massachusetts areas when appropriate.
Hal received a memo from Mike Morris, Sr., legal counsel for the Alumni Association, regarding recent correspondence between two board members. Deb and Hal had asked Mike to review the correspondence to determine whether there is reasonable cause for disciplining one or more board members for the alleged activities and actions outlined within the correspondence. Mike does not recommend taking any formal disciplinary action at this time; however, he did express concern that this private controversy between two board members resulted in additional expense to the Alumni Association in legal fees, staff resources and overall public image and credibility. Hal plans to distribute the memo to all board memos.
Related to his review of the aforementioned correspondence, Mike drafted a proposed bylaw amendment to Article VII that speaks to the requirement of all officers and directors conducting themselves in accordance with the Alumni Association’s Code of Conduct, Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest. Based on counsel’s recommendation, Executive Committee members agreed to table today’s board vote on the original amendment to Article VII proposed by the Governance Task Force. Instead, they will distribute the amendment proposed by counsel for comments. A final version of the amendment will be distributed for vote at the Board’s May meeting.
Executive Director’s Report
Deb reported that she and other staff members are conducting a comprehensive review of all programs and services, communications and marketing initiatives, and volunteer opportunities based on the specific life-stage segments and affinity groups identified by the Communications, Marketing and Membership committee. Upon completion of the review, she hopes to work with chairs of the various program committees to identify trends and overlaps in programming, as well as evaluate how well current programming is supporting achievement of the Alumni Association’s strategic goals and membership initiatives. Deb anticipates developing recommendations for new and/or expanded programming, enhanced communications and marketing initiatives, possible staff or committee restructures to support proposed changes, and any associated budget ramifications.
Deb provided a status update on the PCI implementation project. The Alumni Association contracted with PCI two years ago to implement a new online alumni directory and five additional interactive modules. At this time, the vendor has implemented only four of the six modules, none of which Deb feels are functioning satisfactorily. Deb has spoken with the vendor regarding their ongoing substandard performance and successfully negotiated a 50% reduction in contract fees; nevertheless, she expressed great concern about the vendor’s future ability to meet all software development and other contractual obligations. Deb recommended that staff begin researching other possible online community vendors and develop a proposal for future committee consideration. Committee members asked Deb to begin the review process as soon as possible.
Committee Reports
Finance and Investments – Elaine reported that the FY 2006 audit was complete and copies are included in the board meeting packets.
Nominating - Anna reported that the committee hosted an information reception in Newton for nominee candidates interested in learning more about the Alumni Association. The committee has developed standard interview questions and two committee members will participate in each nominee interview.
Student Programs and Services – Kathleen noted that the program review mentioned earlier by Deb might result in a recommendation to merge all alumni and student programming initiatives into one committee, with all award and scholarship review responsibilities merged into another committee.
Old Business
Deb reported that she has rescheduled the April meeting of the Executive Committee to Wednesday, April 11 beginning at 2:30 p.m. at the President’s Office.
Elaine inquired as to whether the Executive Committee could reschedule their March meeting to Wednesday, March 14. Deb will distribute an email to all committee members to determine their availability for this new date.
New Business
Anna noted that the leaders of three alumni clubs distributed an open letter to the entire Board of Directors yesterday. The letter included concerns related to the proposed nomination and election standing rules for the clubs representative position, as well as a specific call to the Board not to approve the rules at their vote later today. Anna expressed concern that the letter included several misstatements of fact that she would address during discussion of the motion to approve the standing rules. Kim noted that the Nominating Committee should draft a formal response to the letter after today’s board meeting.
Elaine reported that the library would be hosting a fundraising dinner on Saturday, March 31 and suggested that the Alumni Association consider sponsoring the event. Deb said she would forward the information along to Norma Heim for consideration.
General Announcements
None
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 9:55 a.m.
