UMass Amherst Alumni Association

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Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Saturday, February 2, 2008
Memorial Hall
UMass Amherst campus
8:30 a.m.

Absent:                       Mary Custard, Hal Lane, Ron Spicer,   

Staff:                            Deb Masloski and Kevin Fleming

Guests:                                   Ed Godek

Call to Order:  The meeting convened at 8:35 a.m.

Approval of Minutes: 

Motion:  Sean made a motion, seconded by Kim, to approve the minutes for the January 7, 2008 Executive Committee.  Jackie noted that she was present at the meeting, but was not listed as attending on the minutes.  The motion passed unanimously as amended.

Motion:  Sean made a motion, seconded by Jackie, to approve the minutes for the January 10, 2008 Executive Committee.  The motion passed unanimously. 

President’s Update

The Chancellor’s search committee will meet on Monday to hone in on a select group of candidates.  They hope to narrow down the field to 3 or 4 finalists.  Once the search committee has selected the finalists, the campus community will have the opportunity to meet with them.  Kathleen noted that the pool of candidates is very strong. 

The Database Resolution Subcommittee and Mike Morris, the Alumni Association’s legal counsel, met with President Wilson and Katherine Smith.  President Wilson brought up 2 bills proposing funding for the UMass system currently in the state legislature – a one billion dollar capital funding proposal, and a one billion dollar life-sciences funding proposal.  The UMass Amherst campus will receive a significant portion of the funds in these bills if they are approved.  President Wilson appealed to the UMass Amherst Alumni Association to help support the bills, and sent talking points to Kathleen.  She will distribute these talking points at the Board of Directors meeting. 

Additionally, the Database Resolution Subcommittee, Mike Morris, and President Wilson and his team discussed some matters concerning the proposed centralization of the alumni database.  Mike Morris suggested that he and Jim Julian, the UMass system legal counsel, initiate ongoing conversations related to the Alumni Association’s concern about centralization.  President Wilson committed to involving the Alumni Association in future discussions regarding the alumni database. 

The Executive Committee discussed what they thought President Wilson’s goal might be for using the alumni database, to see if there were any ways to help him achieve his goal without compromising the ownership of the database and the integrity of alumni information.  President Wilson has expressed that he would like to coordinate donation solicitations so that different campuses do not ask the same donors multiple times.  Committee members conjectured whether or not this would affect the ability of UMass Amherst fundraisers to approach donors, and if this meant that they would need permission from the President’s Office.  They also worried that the primary point of contact for developing relationships with major donors might shift from the Chancellor of each campus to the President’s Office, perhaps resulting in the President’s Office influencing the direction of donors’ gifts rather than the individual campuses.  Finally, the committee discussed how to collaborate with the President’s office without acquiescing ownership of the alumni database, the Alumni Association’s most significant asset.  Andy & Christine suggested that we might want to involve an individual with expertise in either IT and/or intellectual property Law in future discussions. 

Executive Director’s Report

Deb discussed the proposed hiring of a consultant to review, examine and strengthen the programs, services, relationships, and operation of the UMass Amherst Alumni Association.  She inquired about such a review with a number of colleagues around the country, and many of them suggested “E-Advancement.org,” a consortium of Advancement professionals.  She followed up with an individual from the consortium to request more information and pricing, and found out that there are several levels to the review, and we can choose the level that we feel is appropriate:

1. A “ kick the tires” audit, which involves an intensive 5-day campus visit where they review how we allocate our money, as well as delineate what we currently do well as opposed to what we can improve upon.  This will cost an estimated $10,000.
2. If we progress from there, they would incorporate an alumni survey.  They would use the same researcher who has surveyed alumni at other schools they have reviewed, which allows them to make comparisons amongst alumni from other schools as well.  This would cost anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 additional.  Deb noted that other companies asked for as much as $200,000 for this type of review alone. 
3. If we chose to progress from there, they can help us create an action plan based upon the results of the first two stages of the review.  Creating the action plan can either be driven by the consultants, or they can help guide us to collaboratively generate the plan with a variety of campus constituents.  This can cost anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000.

Deb noted that, if the Alumni Association were to proceed with this review, it could cost $75,000 or more.  Because the review is expensive, Executive Committee members wanted to ensure that the results of the review would justify the expense.  Deb noted that she talked to her colleague at the University of Virginia Alumni Association, who relayed that they implemented major changes there because of the review.  One such change was a memorandum of understanding between the UVA Alumni Association and the University detailing the expectations, responsibilities and funding allocations of both parties, and outlining how they would work together.  Jackie also asked if we might get many of the same results from the alumni survey that the Alumni Association analyzed last year.  Deb noted that the prior survey primarily focused on garnering information as to why alumni do or do not join as members.  Deb thought that a survey implemented as a component of a larger comprehensive review would most likely reach and incorporate different constituents with more targeted questions, and might be a good opportunity to strengthen relations with many constituents.  The Executive Committee members believed that they had an obligation to undergo periodic self-assessments, that they were trying to solve a number of difficult challenges facing the Alumni Association, and that sometimes an outside observer is the best guide to help find solutions to those problems.  They also noted the need to discern exactly what level of review they really need to undertake to accomplish their goals, as well as the cost.  They do not want to spend a lot of money only to find out that they have only partially accomplished the goals of the review. 

Deb also updated the group on the search for the Executive Director position.  The job description has been augmented to focus on strategic development of the organization, and less managerial.  Alumni Relations experience is preferred but not required.  Deb will be forwarding the job description to Human Resources in the near future. 

Committee Reports

1. Alumni Career Services – Six events are currently scheduled, including an event with Madeline Kunin revolving around her new book about women in politics.  The committee will also be examining how to best capitalize on CareerBeam once it is up and running. 
2. Alumni Clubs – None
3. Audit Committee – Andy reported that the committee is reviewing proposed procedures for a reimbursement policy and asked whether the Audit Committee, Finance Committee or Board of Directors would be responsible for approving the proposals.  The Executive Committee thought that the Board of Directors would need to approve the reimbursement policy proposals. 
4. Communications, Marketing, & Membership – The new website will be launched on February 28, 2008.  The Communications, Marketing & Membership team will also be building in “Vocus” software into their next fiscal-year budget.  This software provides a platform to broadcast information we wish to communicate to a large audience through a variety of mediums, as well as identify targeted mediums in specific markets.  “Vocus” software would also allow us to search a variety of media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) for specific names of individuals, which will make us a valuable resource to our colleagues in Development.
5. Finance and Investments – They will continue to examine the reimbursement policy, and the committee is leaning towards not providing travel reimbursement.  Ron also noted that the investments report will show an end-of year gain of 2.3%, but will not include the January numbers in which our investments took a hit.  He noted that, overall, investments are down 4.5%, but that is much better when compared to the national average.  Ron also noted that the committee had a proposed revision to allow the Finance Committee to make small tactical changes to investments within a given percentage range.  Further, the committee will be looking at breaking equities into sub-assets.  Finally, the committee will be discussing “socially-responsible investing.” 
6. Grants – None
7. Governance – None
8. Honors & Awards – None
9. Nominating – Anna will be presenting the changes to the standing rules for nominations and elections to the Board.  The Committee has also revisited some of the interview questions and rating sheets, and has streamlined parts of the process.  Nominations close on February 13, 2008, and they are filling 5 vacancies. 
10. Programs & Services – None
11. Volunteer Advocacy & Public Affairs – None

Old Business – None

New Business –

Anna noted that she received a mailing at her business address with her title, and that this was not her preferred address.  The staff will look into why this occurred.

Adjournment – The meeting concluded at 10:02 a.m.