UMass Amherst Alumni Association

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Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Framingham Sheraton
Thursday, October 5, 2006
6:30 p.m.

Committee Members: Elaine Barker, Hal Lane, Christine Lopes, Kathleen Mitchell, Marc Rossen, Kim Sherman and Anna Symington

Absent:Mary Custard, Mike Fiorentino and Sean LeBlanc

Staff: Cristina Geso and Deb Masloski

Call to Order

The meeting convened at 6:40 p.m.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Motion:by Elaine Barker, seconded by Christine Lopes, to approve the August 31 Executive Committee meeting minutes.  The motion passed unanimously.

President’s Report

Hal noted that Homecoming Weekend is scheduled for October 19 – 21. 

The Athletics department plans to transport its RV to the UMass v. UNH football game in November.  Only 200 tickets will be available to UMass alumni through Athletics.

Committee Areas of Focus – FY 2007

Alumni Career Services

Kim reported that the committee has plans underway to host five events this fall in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles, with a possible sixth in the Pioneer Valley, that will each feature components on how to utilize networking to develop career opportunities.  The official kickoff event, scheduled for October 26 in Los Angeles, will feature a panel discussion with four prominent alumni from the entertainment industry.  The committee plans to gear next semester’s programs towards topics related to career transition. 

The committee has implemented a special pricing structure for these programs to incent non-members to join when registering and attend the event free of charge.  The initial implementation of this promotion in May was very successful with approximately 35 – 40% of attendees joining when they registered.  However, because these revenues are allocated to the membership budget rather than the alumni career services programming budget, the committee anticipates a revenue shortfall that may require increased funding during this fiscal year to offset projected program expenses.  Cristina noted that the committee plans to submit a formal request to the Finance and Investments committee on this matter. 

Kim noted that the committee hopes to utilize the expertise of our new marketing director, Norma Heim, to package and market alumni career services programming as a tangible benefit of membership, particularly as the committee works to expand programming through various web offerings and other online technologies.  Marc suggested that the committee consider marketing some or all of their programs exclusively to members, or perhaps allow all members to attend free of charge.  Christine suggested the possibility of allowing members to attend two events at the discounted member price and a third for free.

Communications, Marketing and Membership

Marc reported that the Communications, Marketing and Membership committee is meeting on October 10.  Committee members plan to evaluate the data collected through the recent research survey in preparation for developing a comprehensive marketing plan.

Alumni Clubs

Cristina reported that the Leadership Conference will be hosted on the Amherst campus during Homecoming Weekend.  Volunteers from approximately twenty alumni clubs have registered to date.

Audit Committee

In addition to Andy Hochberg, Bob Stoloff ’71and Barry Rubenstein ’72 have agreed to serve as members of the Audit committee.  Cristina has also invited an alumna who is a CPA with non-profit accounting expertise to join the committee, and hopes to recruit an alumna/us with insurance expertise to serve on the committee.

Finance and Investments

Elaine reported that the Finance and Investments committee is meeting on October 26.  The committee plans to interview potential investment management consultants and develop a possible hiring recommendation for board approval.  The committee will also focus on the review and documentation of various fiscal policies and timelines this year.

Grants Review

Elaine reported that the Grants Review committee met and awarded five grants for the first funding cycle of FY 2007.  The committee also reviewed a funding request from the Cape Cod Alumni Club related to their annual spring fundraising concert.  The committee agreed to fund up to $1,500 to offset expenses incurred by the club to transport UMass Amherst Concert Band students to the Cape to perform at the concert.

Nominating

Anna noted that the Nominating Committee has extended invitations to two alumni to serve as members-at-large of the committee.  The committee will initially focus on formalizing and standardizing application questions, evaluation criteria and related tools to assist in the objective evaluation all nominee applications.  

Programs and Services

Cristina reported that the committee has received a number of very strong nominations for the Distinguished Alumni Awards. 

Student Programs and Services

Kathleen referred to the Campus to Careers brochures included in the board packets designed with the specific intent of driving graduating seniors to the Alumni Association website. Several members of the Student Alumni Association also suggested expanding on the brochure’s game theme next year by adding incentives for students to attend more events.

Cristina noted that both etiquette dinners planned for the fall sold out with 100+ students registering for each and a significant number of underclassmen have expressed interest in participating in the Campus to Career programming.   The Student Programs and Services committee plans to evaluate how to best expand programming next year to be more inclusive of all students. 

Volunteer Advocacy and Public Affairs

Christine reported that the Volunteer Advocacy committee met earlier in the fall and plans to focus their advocacy efforts within the Executive branch this year.  The committee is collaborating with the Alumni Career Services committee to host an event featuring Madeline Kunin ’56 and is actively recruiting other alumni employed at the State House to serve on the committee.  Committee members also plan to expand volunteer appreciation efforts and focus on ways to move active alumni volunteers towards becoming paid members of the Alumni Association.

November Board Meeting – Format and Content

Based on feedback received from board members at the September board meeting, Hal asked Marc to facilitate a discussion around membership at the November board meeting.  Committee members discussed several ideas for the format and content of the discussion and ultimately agreed to ask board members to breakout into smaller discussion groups.   A member of the Communications, Marketing and Membership committee will be assigned to each group to help facilitate discussion on the various life stages that the committee presented to the board last February.  All groups will be asked to report back to the full board on their ideas and suggestions.  Marc and his committee members will evaluate all feedback as part of the process to develop an integrated marketing strategy for further discussion at the February board meeting.  Hal and Cristina will develop a list of breakout assignments for all board members and Deb will distribute a copy of the committee’s plan to all board members for review prior to the meeting.

Implementation of New Board Policies

Committee members discussed appropriate avenues for distributing and collecting signed copies of the two recently approved board policies.  Copies of the Board of Directors Commitments and Expectations and the Volunteer Code of Conduct, Confidentiality and Conflicts of Interest documents will be distributed to all board members prior to the November board meeting.  Board members will be asked to sign and submit copies of both documents to Deb at the November meeting.  Committee chairs will speak with non-board members serving on their respective committees to outline the Volunteer Code of Conduct document and ask them to submit a signed copy as well.  An acknowledgement stating that the board member or volunteer has read the policy will be added to each document.

List Request Policy – UMass Club Request

Committee members discussed the most recent email from Lorrey Bianchi, on behalf of the UMass Club in Boston, requesting access to the Alumni Association’s membership list.  Both Hal and Marc agreed that providing this information to the UMass Club would be a good faith effort on the part of the Alumni Association in demonstrating our support of the university system, and would provide added value to our members. 

Motion: by Marc Rossen, seconded by Hal Lane, to approve release of the Alumni Association’s membership list to the UMass Club for telemarketing purposes.

Cristina explained that our current policy and practice has been to restrict the release of our alumni list and use of the Alumni Association name and logo to volunteer leaders and affinity partners.  We release the lists only after the requestor has agreed to certain licensing conditions, primarily related to privacy concerns, as well as appropriate compensation to the Alumni Association for use of the list in the case of affinity partners. 

Several committee members expressed concerns that releasing the list to the UMass Club, a for-profit organization, would not be in the best interests of the Alumni Association’s membership, particularly without a licensing agreement in place.  Kim suggested that the Executive Committee approach this request as they would with any other affinity partner by asking the UMass Club to submit a formal affinity proposal that specifically addresses their accountability to the Alumni Association for the appropriate use of our mailing list and compliance with related privacy concerns.  Most committee members agreed that they would be supportive of the UMass Club’s list request if the club established a formal licensing agreement with the Alumni Association.

Motion: by Elaine Barker, seconded by Anna Symington, to table the motion to approve release of the Alumni Association’s membership list to the UMass Club for telemarketing purposes.

Cristina will speak with a representative of the UMass Club to ask them to submit an official affinity partner proposal for consideration.

Executive Director’s Report

Cristina noted that the Alumni Association currently partners with Collegiate Funding Services (CFS) to provide student loan consolidation opportunities to our alumni and their parents.  The federal government recently cited Nelnet, the main competitor of CFS, for exploiting a legal loophole that allowed Nelnet to overcharge the government various fees for loans issued by Nelnet.

A recent article in USA Today commented on the release of student data by ten major public institutions to their affinity credit card partners for direct marketing purposes.  The UMass Amherst Alumni Association’s affinity credit card contract does not permit direct marketing to our students by mail or telemarketing; however, our provider may table on campus as long as they comply with the campus’s vendor policies and procedures.  Our provider has not tabled on campus for more than a year, as these efforts have not proved fruitful to them.

Old Business

None

New Business

UMass Board of Trustees – Chair Appointment

Hal noted that he has received several contacts from alumni inquiring as to whether the Alumni Association has a formal position on the recent appointment of Stephen Tocco as Chair of the UMass Board of Trustees. 

Christine proposed that the Executive Committee add an agenda item to their monthly meeting related to media issues regarding the Amherst campus or system-wide concerns.  She hopes that timely discussion of these issues will allow the Executive Committee to:

• Keep all board members adequately informed on these matters so they may appropriately respond to alumni inquiries  
• Develop specific communication and action plans to address certain concerns if warranted
• Help assure our members that the board is monitoring these types of issues. 

Christine will work with the Volunteer Advocacy and Public Affairs committee to develop a recommendation on how to effectively communicate these issues to the board.

Board Travel Reimbursement

Hal noted that he received a formal request from an out-of-state board member asking the Executive Committee to consider implementing a reimbursement policy for board travel.  Elaine noted that directors have not been reimbursed for their airfare or mileage expenses historically, but they have typically received complimentary lodging when invited to attend a board meeting or other event on campus.  Complimentary meals are also provided to all board members.  Hal suggested that the board might be able to encourage more participation by out-of-state alumni if travel reimbursement was available to them.

Motion: by Kathleen Mitchell, seconded by Kim Sherman, to forward the request for board travel reimbursement to the Finance and Investments Committee for review and recommendation.

General Announcements

Cristina reported that Athletics will be raffling off two airline tickets to students and Hal will make a presentation to the winners during the Homecoming football game.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.