UMass Amherst Alumni Association

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Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

UMass President’s Office Building
Boston, MA
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
2:58 p.m.

In attendance: Elaine Barker, Mary Custard, Hal Lane, Sean LeBlanc, Kathleen Mitchell, Kim Sherman, Anna Symington

Absent: Marc Rossen, Mike Fiorentino, Christine Lopes

Staff:Deb Masloski and Kevin Fleming

Guests: Bob Goodhue; Ron Grasso

Call to Order
The meeting convened at 2:58 p.m.

Approval of Meeting Minutes
Motion:  By Elaine, seconded by Mary, to approve the minutes from 3-15-07 Executive Committee Meeting.  The motion passed unanimously.

CAAE and University System Alumni Relations Plan – Bob Goodhue
Bob Goodhue provided a background on the Council for Alumni Association Executives (CAAE) organization.  CAAE is comprised of alumni directors from the top 100 alumni associations in the nation, and is by invitation only.  It meets two times a year, and joining requires a lengthy survey about a potential new member’s institution.  Bob noted that several of UMass Amherst’s prior Directors were members (John Feudo and Cristina Geso), and informed the Executive Committee that CAAE had approached him about becoming a member.  He also asked for the Executive Committee’s blessing to be the UMass representative for CAAE.

Bob highlighted several circumstances surrounding his request to be the CAAE representative.  He noted that Keith Motley had asked him to organize a plan for a UMass system-wide alumni program, and thought that the CAAE survey was a good starting point on gathering information.  He also noted that discussions of alumni relations is now taking place at the Trustee level, and is shifting from merely reporting on money raised to reporting on all aspects of advancement (development, alumni relations, marketing, etc.).  Additionally, he described the state of alumni relations at the other UMass campuses, saying that they each had very small resources in terms of staffing and budgets, and each serving anywhere from 35,000 – 70,000 alumni.  Bob noted that, system-wide, alumni relations has been asked to do a great deal, and have not been provided the resources necessary to accomplish these goals.  Finally, he discussed the President’s Office desire to figure out how a system-wide alumni program will be “value-added” to the UMass Amherst alumni program, rather than the “new sheriff in town”.  He is not sure what that structure will look like, but thought it might resemble either a system-wide Alumni Association with individual branch associations underneath that (similar to what is currently in place at the University of Illinois), or taking inventory of what is currently in place at each branch campus and collaborating with one another. 

There were several questions and concerns raised by the Executive Committee members.  Kathleen asked if creating a system-wide alumni program was a foregone conclusion at this point.  Bob said that it was not definite at this point, and described his long involvement and investment in the UMass Amherst Alumni Association, noting his desire to ensure that we continue to build and strengthen our alumni program.  Hal expressed his desire to tap into a huge resource in the other campuses, balanced with his strong concern over the loss of autonomy and independence.  He noted that he had asked to meet with officials from other campuses in the past for certain initiatives, and used the license plate program as an example of an endeavor in which pooling the resources of all the campuses would have been advantageous.  He also believes that Bob has the best intentions for the UMass Amherst campus, but is nonetheless concerned about a UMass system-wide Advancement program. 

Sean asked if allowing Bob to assume the role of the UMass CAAE program would preclude the new Executive Director from participating in CAAE, which is one of the preferences listed in the job description.  Bob thought that it might preclude the new Executive Director from being a member.  The Committee members expressed that they received many valuable ideas from Cristina’s membership, and were concerned about losing this valuable resource.  Moreover, they want to be able to hire the best available candidates in the Executive Director position, which they presumed would be a CAAE member.  The committee members expressed deep concern over losing these capabilities.  Bob suggested that he take the position in the interim, and when the new Executive Director is hired, they can assume the UMass CAAE position if the organization will accept them.
Motion:  A motion was made by Sean, seconded by Elaine, to table approving Bob Goodhue as the UMass CAAE representative until the May 12th meeting.  In the meantime, Bob will look into the feasibility of accepting the CAAE position as a system-wide representative on an interim basis, and then turning the position over to the next Executive Director of the UMass Amherst Alumni Association. The motion passed unanimously. 

Investment Management Consultant – Ron Grasso
Ron noted that the Finance & Investment Committee is ready to go forward with recommending Linsco/Private Ledger for the Alumni Association’s investment management consulting firm.  Ron noted that their goal was to seek a company that would advise us where to invest our money, and not a specific company in which to invest our money.  He then briefly described the process the committee used to arrive at its recommendation.  About a 9 months ago, the Committee sent out a request for proposal to companies around Massachusetts.  They had several rounds of interviews, evaluating four components of each company: 
1)  Platform/infrastructure and ability to provide us reporting, data, etc. to ensure due diligence
2)  Competence
3)  Intangibles, such as investment philosophy, etc.
4)  Value (while our consultant fees may increase, we would get much greater return on our investments).
In the end, it was a close decision between two able candidates – Merrill Lynch and Linsco.  As each company seemed equally capable, the decision came down to cost, and Linsco had a lower fee.  Ron also discussed the Linsco representative, John, noting that he is quite responsive and has experience that will fit nicely with the needs of the Alumni Association.  Sean also noted that, though he did not know the names of the representatives during the process, he had actually offered John a position with his company at one point, so he highly endorses John’s work.

President’s Update
Hal provided a summary of recent and upcoming events.  He told the committee that the recent Library event was very good, and that it raised about $20,000 that night.  He noted that more money might come in from a partnership with Dell, and that the library had raised a significant amount of funds over the last few years.  He also reiterated his comments from the last meeting that Commencement will be very different this year, and that Deb is working to make sure that the 21st Century Leaders award winners will be announced at graduation (even if they are not presented to the students at commencement).  Commencement Ball will be on Thursday, May 24th; 21st Century Leaders Awards will be on Friday, May 25th; and graduation will be at noon on Saturday, May 26th.  He reminded the Executive Committee that reunion weekend will be June 8th – June 10th.  Hal also noted that the men’s basketball banquet was held on April 11th, but that no one seemed to have heard about it nor received invitations.  The committee also noted that the hockey banquet had flown under the radar as well. 

Hal wrapped up the President’s Update with the announcement that the Alumni Association has established a 10% discount with American Airlines for Association members.  It was the result of working with a current student’s father, who is an executive with American Airlines, about donating a halftime prize for a game.  Afterwards, a small conversation led to a fantastic opportunity for partnership. 

Executive Director’s Report
Deb distributed several reports related to the Alumni Association’s funding support of alumni programs and services over the past several years.  Deb indicated that it would not be detrimental to the UMass Amherst Alumni Association if Bob Goodhue became the CAAE rep, as the organization is about information sharing and Bob would provide that information to us.  However, she thought that this request was indicative of a trend towards further centralization, and asked the group to think about how to best partner with the other campuses without sacrificing aspects that are vital to our success.  Further discussion arose about a system-wide alumni community and advancement structure.

The group felt that this might be an amplified version of the struggles over the UMass Club.  Hal feels it is important to find a middle ground, where we can tap into other campus resources without sacrificing our identity.  The group thought that data Deb shared about Alumni Association funding of programs and services since 2000 clearly showed that UMass Amherst should have a large say in future discussions about centralization.  It was also agreed upon that our alumni data and online community are vital to our success, and Kathleen asked who owns that data.  Deb explained that we own the rights to the online community, but that, up until now, there has only been a “gentlemen’s agreement” in place that UMass Amherst owned the rights to alumni data.  All agreed that it was imperative that we have something that legally establishes our exclusive rights to that data.  Additionally, the group felt that the President’s office did not seem to have a plan in place on how to integrate itself into advancement efforts, and that it would be beneficial for us to create a plan and present it to them. 

Membership numbers were distributed in the Board packets.  Deb noted that the data will likely be presented by membership type (new member, life member, joint member, etc.) as well as by life-stage segment, on the new Board website that will be presented at the next Board meeting.  She asked the Committee members to provide any feedback on information that should be included on the new Board website.

She also updated the Committee about the progress towards choosing a new online vendor.  We have narrowed the search to two candidates – Harris connect and I-modules.  Both have impressive capabilities that meet our needs, and both have advantages and disadvantages over each other.  The Presidents Office is conducting a similar vendor review and will most likely opt to partner with Harris Connect, and would prefer UMass Amherst to head in the same direction.  However, it is ultimately our decision, because we own the rights to the online community.  Several Committee members thought that the online community could be a good revenue generator if we charged other departments to use it, and Hal asked the group to think about this prospect.

Deb asked the Committee members for any agenda items for the May 12th agenda.  When asked about the election process, Deb noted that the slate will be presented, nominations will be taken from the floor, and then the slate is voted on – there is no discussion of the process or the candidates allowed.  Sean noted that, from an applicant’s perspective, the process was very fair.    Kim noted that Anna recused her self from the last part of the process because she was on the ballot for Executive officers to ensure fairness. 

Program Review
Hal thought the program review document was excellent. Deb noted that this is only from a staff perspective, and noted the need to bring it back to the committees for discussion.  She also discussed the request for additional funding included in the Program Review.  Looking at the chart of changing assets and liabilities, she pointed out that assets have increased by 65% in the last 5 years, and reiterated Marc Rossen’s message that we need to take risks to increase membership.  Additionally, Deb pointed out that the Alumni Association lost $400,000 in funding 5 years ago, and we are still suffering from it.  Thus, there is an additional $120,000 for salaries, independent of the Program Review increases, that we will be asking the University to fund.  If this funding increase is not approved, she will look to the Alumni Association Board of Directors to fund this shortfall.  Deb asked the Committee members if they had any concerns with this, and no concerns were voiced. 

Bylaw Amendments
Deb discussed that she was not sure if it was appropriate to outline the UMass mission in our bylaws, and asked if there were any concerns regarding the changes to Bill’s suggestions.  The group thought that they were appropriate, but thought that Deb should contact Bill to discuss them.  Sean noted that article 9 & 10 was written by legal counsel and that there was no disputing the language within those articles.   
           
Motion:  A motion was made by Elaine, seconded by Mary, to recommend the bylaw amendments to the Board of Directors for Approval.  The motion passed unanimously.

Committee Reports
-  Alumni Career Services:  The Committee has established the following upcoming events for May and June:  Entrepreneurship Panels on May 2nd in Boston and May 16th in New York City; a career transition seminar in Philadelphia on May 22nd, and are working to organize an event in the Pioneer Valley and New York City in June.
-  Clubs Committee:  The Committee has been working on the programming and structure of the 2007 Leadership Conference.  Additionally, Sean also included a request on behalf of Bob Graham and Bob Shaughnessey to ask for approval for participation by proxy in meetings.  The committee noted that proxy is typically used by stock corporations, and that Roberts Rules typically frown on this type of participation.  They reiterated the policy that all meetings are open, but people cannot participate and/or speak on behalf of someone unless recognized by the chair.
-  Audit Committee – None
-  Communications, Marketing and Membership – None
-  Finance & Investments – The Committee will begin work on the FY 2008 budget now that the program review is complete.
-  Grants Review – Have awarded several grants, and Board members will have the opportunity to use sponsorship tickets to some of these events
-  Governance – The committee will be meeting on Friday, April 14. 
-  Nominating Committee – Elections are underway, and the committee will be reviewing Officer Candidates.
-  Programs & Services – They have a meeting upcoming on Tuesday, April 24th. 
-  Student Programs & Services – The Committee is preparing for a number of events coming up in May.
-  Volunteer Advocacy & Public Affairs – They held the reception for State House employees this morning, which went well.  They also distributed gifts to the offices of Representatives, though they noted that many of the Representatives were not in their offices.

Old Business
Deb noted that some concerns have come back on the proposed event pricing structure, particularly from the clubs area.  It was noted that we do not want to focus so much on increasing membership that it becomes detrimental to event attendance.  It was also noted that, in the past year, 70% of all our events were not at a 20% price discount.  The Marketing Committee is discussing having a larger price break on inexpensive events and a smaller price break on more expensive events.  They believe this might help because it becomes more difficult to spend $40 on membership in addition to the event registration for more expensive events.

New Business
Mary asked if it was appropriate for Board members to make recommendations for alumni profiles, and if so, how to make a recommendation.  Deb thought that this was appropriate, though she could not guarantee that the recommendation will be used.  She encouraged Mary to make their recommendations to the Alumni staff, which will then be forwarded on to the appropriate people.  Additionally, the group thought that we should have an Alumni Board member on the Alumni Magazine committee again, as we had in years past.  Deb will find out if the Magazine committee still meets, and if so, she will ask if we can have a representative on it. 

General Announcements
None

Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 5:14 p.m.