UMass Amherst Alumni Association

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Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Worcester Crowne Plaza
6:15 p.m.

Executive Committee Members:  Mary Custard, Kathleen Mitchell, Andy Hochberg
Hal Lane, Anna Symington, Kim Sherman, Sean LeBlanc, Ron Spicer, Christine Lopes, Ron Grasso

Absent: Mike Fiorentino

Staff: Deb Masloski, Kevin Fleming

Guests:  None

Approval of Minutes

Sean made a motion, seconded by Mary, to approve the minutes of the May 12, 2007 Executive Committee meeting.  The motion passed with 9 ayes and one abstention (Christine).

Anna made a motion, seconded by Kim, to approve the minutes from the June 13, 2007 Executive Committee meeting.  The motion passed with 8 ayes and 2 abstentions (Christine & Sean). 

President’s Report
Kathleen thanked Hal for the fantastic job he had done in his tenure as the President of the UMass Amherst Alumni Association.  She then discussed the current situation with the Chancellor’s upcoming departure.  She relayed several conversations with Gordon Oakes ’63, who expressed concern that the Alumni Assoication did not officially advocate on behalf of Chancellor Lombardi.  Conversely, Glen Mangurian expressed strong support for the President’s Office, and extolled the benefits of collaboration between campuses.  She noted that she discussed with these individuals that the Alumni Association needed to represent all alumni, and maintain a neutral stance on the reorganization until more information becomes available.  The Committee members thought that it would be a good idea to have a delegation to talk to Stan Rosenberg to educate him on the Alumni Association’s position on this matter.

Executive Director’s Report
Deb discussed a memo from the Music and Dance department requesting $3000 from the Alumni Association to enable the wind ensemble to travel to a prestigious competition.  She noted that the group would also like to organize a reception or performance with the alumni in the DC area.  Normally, this request would go through the grants review process, but in this case, the ensemble needs to R.S.V.P. before the grants committee convenes.  Hal thought it was a lot of money, and Sean noted that the added cost of a mailing and reception pushes the costs significantly over the initial $3000 request.  Kathleen thought it was great to be asked, and believed that requests like this are a great way to demonstrate that the Alumni Association has relevance to the campus community.  Andy thought that this would be a great event to pair with the DC alumni club, and Deb noted that the event was a good opportunity for fundraising and inviting higher-level donors.  Several members noted that, were the Committee to approve the funding request, the Alumni Association would need to include stipulations that would ensure prominent exposure for their support.  It was agreed that these stipulations could be generated in the future by the Membership and Marketing or Grants Review Committees.  During discussion, Christine asked if the Alumni Association is in financial trouble with the current $100,000 projected budget shortfall.  Deb responded that the Alumni Association was not in any financial trouble, and noted that the Board of Directors had recently approved the 2008 operating budget that included the projected shortfall.

Motion:  Sean made a motion, seconded by Mary, to approve the funding request with the notation that the Alumni Association would follow up with requests for quantifiable exposure on their financial support.  The motion passed unanimously. 

Deb also discussed the impending departure of Chancellor Lombardi for LSU, and the plans developing on campus for a “thank-you” celebration for his work at UMass Amherst.  Deb wanted to provide the Executive Committee with an opportunity to say “thank you” by way of a contribution to the event, noting that the maximum event cost would be $15,000 based on 400 people in attendance.  She relayed that there would be 7,500 invitations sent out noting Alumni Association sponsorship.  Several committee members had reservations about being the sole sponsor of the event, and believed that it may be difficult for the general alumni population to distinguish the amount of support that the Alumni Association provided to the event. They believed that co-sponsoring the event was the best way to show gratitude for the Chancellor while obtaining broad publicity, quantifiable gain for the alumni Association, and not incurring overly large expenses.  Committee members also pointed out that the Alumni Association contributed about $50,000 to Chancellor Lombardi’s Inauguration, and would probably be asked to make a similar contribution to the incoming Chancellor’s Inauguration.  Hal asked if we might be able to rename the 21st Century Leaders Scholarships to honor Chancellor Lombardi, which the Alumni Association funds.  Deb noted that this might be difficult given the many political considerations involved as well as the fact that Chancellor Lombardi had actually named the scholarships.  As a final note, Christine asserted that the Executive Board members needed to view their decision as setting a precedent for how the Alumni Association thanks departing Chancellors in the future.  Andy suggested an amendment that the event be promoted as “the UMass Amherst Alumni Association & the UMass Amherst Foundation invite you to….” 

Motion:  Mary made a motion to fund half the cost with the UMass Amherst Foundation up to $7,500 as amended.  Christine seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. 

Deb also discussed the likely time frame for filling the vacant positions of Chancellor, Vice Chancellor of Advancement, and Executive Direct of the Alumni Association.  She noted that Governor Patrick’s higher education task force will not present their findings until at least March, and a Chancellor will not be hired until after that, at which time the Vice Chancellor of University Advancement search would begin.  She estimated that it would be at least a year, and perhaps longer, before a new Executive Director of Alumni Relations would be hired.

Deb provided updates on several marketing and promotional initiatives.  The staff is negotiating on sponsorship proposals, including a number of radio and TV advertising spots on WGBY’s World War II program and possibly the Antiques Road Show.  The staff has also been working with the UMass Amherst Library to provide business and academic research online to Alumni Association members.

Deb noted that another task force convened to examine the feasibility of UMass Amherst football entering Division IA.  The Alumni Association will ask for representation on this task force.  Deb also noted that the new Alumni Association web site purchased through Harris is scheduled to be online in mid-October.  Finally, the new auditor is scheduled to be on-site in mid-August. 

Committee Assignments
Deb distributed copies of the Board of Directors Committee assignments.  She stated that she needed to identify two additional Board and non-board members to participate on the nominating committee as outlined in the standing rules.  Christine volunteered to be on the Nominating Committee.  Deb will finalize the non-Board member Committee assignments over the next several days. 

Strategic Discussion – Leadership Action Plan
Kathleen expressed her desire to establish roles and responsibilities of Executive Committee members, as well as plan out the events that each Committee member will attend for the upcoming year.  She noted that, as she called volunteers for Presidential appointments to the Board, many of the individuals did not know who she was.  She believed that she had not been proactive enough about “getting her face out there” at events, and that all Board members need to do a better job of becoming familiar faces to alumni.  She looked to the Executive Committee members for ideas on how to A) commit to attending events on the event calendar, and B) be proactive about developing strategic partnerships across campus.

Ron inquired if the Executive Committee members thought that they needed to create an official event attendance requirement.  Kathleen thought that it might be a good idea to send out a sign-up request for those events that are typically not well attended by Board members.  Deb noted that the Executive Committee should consider emphasizing the importance of attending events and promoting membership to all Board members. She also noted that the committee might want to develop a reimbursement policy related to board attendance at events. 

Kathleen asked for suggestion on ways to form strategic alliances with key constituent groups across campus.  Sean suggested that we make a list of 15 or so people of influence, such as Deans or Vice Chancellors, who can get things done within their sphere of influence.  When we need to ask for anything from people within the sphere of influence of that individual, we have that person advocating for us.  This way, it reduces the amount of time and effort the Board needs to exert, yet greatly extends the influence of the Board of Directors. 

Christine asked the Committee members to consider how to provide focus to the Alumni Association so that the Board is not spreading itself out too thin.  In her tenure on the Board of Directors, the Board has done some things well, but believes that the Board can do some things really well if they focus on a few key goals.  She noted that membership growth and career services have become the primary focus over the past year, and that all committees should work together to benefit those two initiatives.  Deb believed that the program review is intended to help focus all committees on membership.  Kathleen also told the group that she would like to generate a concise, one page strategic plan to help the Board and committees maintain appropriate focus and direction.

Student Programs & ServicesDeb relayed the content of a meeting that she and several staff members had with Mike Gargano.  They presented him with a listing of all student programming that the Alumni Association organizes, as well as ideas for future student programming.  Mike had expressed that he was looking to the Alumni Association to help establish a network of internships and mentors, as well as to assist in the “Residential Academic Programs” for freshmen, which would likely require additional financial assistance beyond the $162,000 the Alumni Association already provides for student programming. Deb suggested that the Programs & Services and Communications & Marketing Committees be charged with developing a proposal for increased engagement of current students that will support long-term membership growth.  She also noted that the Board may need to re-examine student programming if our efforts are not translating into memberships when students graduate.  Kim suggested that we make Career Beam available to students.

Old Business
Proposed Event with Governor Patrick – Christine brought up the Advocacy Committee’s previous recommendation for a fall event on the UMass Amherst Campus with Governor Patrick, tying into the bio-technology industry.  Ron G. and Andy both thought that it would very positive to bring the Governor to campus and have it be associated with the Alumni Association, but wanted to make sure that we could fill the event to capacity at $100 per plate.  Many of the other committee members did not think it would be a problem to sell out the event, given that capacity was 200 people or so. 

There were several other concerns about the event that the Committee members discussed.  Sean thought the event was a great idea, but wondered if it was the right time to organize it given recent occurrences.  Kim also asked if hosting the event on campus could be perceived as an example of not being collaborative with other campuses.  Anna thought that tying in the bio-technology aspect would make the UMass Amherst campus the natural place to hold the event, because the campus has recently had a number of exciting breakthroughs in this field, and raises the profile of UMass Amherst on a topic that Governor Patrick is passionate about.  Kim agreed that, when the topic becomes the focus, it made sense to promote the event on campus and as a UMass Amherst Alumni Association event.

Motion:  Andy made a motion, seconded by Sean, to accept the recommendation by the Advocacy Committee for the event with Governor Patrick.  The motion passed unanimously.

Pricing & Ticket Allocation Guidelines – Deb noted that feedback was provided by many of the committees, and the final document was the result of several revisions based on that feedback.  Club leaders have been made aware of the policy, and staff have received a couple of responses from leaders who had concerns about the policy.  Sean asked who would be the person ultimately responsible for implementing the policy.  Deb noted that it was ultimately Janine Sicks, but that it would mostly fall on the Clubs staff to work with the volunteers to ensure compliance.  During discussion, Ron S. suggested that further consideration be given to Life member benefits and recognition.  Hal also suggested researching how to reach out more to Life members as possible donors, as well as how to better utilize the current Life member endowment account.  Deb suggested that the Communications & Marketing Committee take these suggestions under consideration.

Motion:  Kim made a motion, seconded by Christine, to approve the pricing & ticket allocation guide as presented.  The motion passed unanimously. 

Membership Dues – The Membership & Marketing Committee is recommending a “golden life membership” for people 65 years of age or older.  These individuals are in a stage of life where they want to give back, but are also concerned with the perceived worth of a life membership at this point in their life.  Ron G. noted that Life membership is the only segment of membership that has grown over the past year, and suggested that the price for life membership should be increased. 

Motion:  Hal made a motion, seconded by Mary, to approve the membership dues structure as presented by the Membership & Marketing Committee.  The motion passed unanimously. 

Board of Directors Website & Reports – Deb sought feedback on the information provided on the Board website, particularly on the membership report.  She noted that the staff is currently developing a report to track overall renewal rates of new members one year after joining, as well as Board participation at events.  Sean stated that he would like to see the fiscal budget from FY 2007 as well as minutes from Executive Committee and Board meetings on the website for the general alumni membership.  He also asked if there could be a year-end report online.  Deb noted that the Alumni Association did not compile a year-end report last year, but was working on one this year. 

New Business
Sean noted that he has received some feedback from his postings on UMassHoops.com inquiring why the Alumni Association does not organize more events for students.  He suggested the idea of organizing a bus trip for students to the UMass vs. BC game.  Mary thought that this would be good for sports in all seasons.  Deb noted that there are a lot of things that the Division of Student Affairs is already organizing similar to this idea, that the Alumni Association could consider sponsoring.  Christine also thought that sponsoring something like this might be a good life member appeal.  Sean asked if any preparations were being made for the football National Championship game.  Deb noted that the staff was working with a tour company, and that the Programs & Services Committee would be evaluating all athletic programming in FY 2008

Mary also expressed her concern that all of the 21st Century Scholars recipients seemed to go to students from Commonwealth College, and she did not want the perception to become that these scholarships are just for Commonwealth College students.  Deb suggested that the Honors and Awards Committee be charged with reviewing the criteria for the scholarship.  Additionally, Mary was concerned that one alumnus received both the Distinguished Alumni award and the Honorary Degree this year.  Deb noted that staff and University officials have discussed the situation, and have implemented new procedures to resolve the issue going forward.

General Announcements -  None

Adjournment – 9:03 p.m.

Next Meeting – August 14, 2007