Alumni Council Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, January 13, 2001

Welcome—Lou Richardson ’71

Vice Chair Lou Richardson opened the meeting and thanked everyone for coming. She welcomed past Alumni Council Chair Clifford Bean '51, who was in attendance. She then asked for a moment of silence for Trustee Emeritus Edson Mitchell '75 and current Alumni Council member Richard Armknecht '50, who had both passed away in the last month.

Lou asked for a motion that the October minutes be approved as mailed. Whitman moved, and Bourne seconded; the minutes were unanimously approved. She then asked that the waiver of the by-laws for election of alumni trustees be approved to allow for a special election due to the inability of Marina Grande '94 to serve a second term. The waiver of by-laws was approved.

Lou then gave a short overview of the Alumni Council Executive Committee meeting held the previous day. She indicated they had discussed the current strategic planning process at the College and informed everyone that as part of the process there would be a random survey to about 10,000 alumni. She urged everyone to reply when they received the survey. The ACEC also had a presentation from Career Services and discussed the role of alumni in career networking with students.

Committee Reports/Updates

Admissions and Financial Aid—Chris Tompkins ’89
There were 15 members in attendance, and after their regular meeting the committee met jointly with the Clubs Committee. Admissions staff members Parker Beverage and Judy Brody gave the admissions statistics for this year. There is an increase in overall applications, but they are still looking for assistance with increasing ALANA students. They discussed what the committee will be doing, including offering financial aid workshops. They will also be assisting with yield/retention events in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Fairfield County, Conn.

Alumni Fund—Todd Halloran ’84
The year-to-date performance for the Alumni Fund is 1.16 million. We are up in dollars across all categories, but the number of donors is lower in young alumni because the phonathon was moved to January from the fall. Good news is that participation of the Alumni Council Executive Committee in the Alumni Fund is 100 percent. Also, 100 percent of the entire council gave to the Campaign for Colby. They are discussing what can be done electronically via the Internet for both solicitations and class reporting, especially for class agents. In the long term, they hope to implement all of what volunteers want to make their jobs easier and more effective when soliciting their classmates for the Alumni Fund.
 
Alumni on Campus—Phil Wysor ’70
Phil thanked the council for its continued support and attendance. His committee had a guest speaker, Rusty Atwood, major gifts officer in development, who explained what he does at Colby. The potential new alumni house continued to be a topic of discussion. As of October 2000, a total of $2 million had been earmarked for a new alumni house (if its construction is approved). Today that number is up to $3.1 million. Phil thanked Margaret and the Alumni Relations staff the success of last fall's Family Homecoming Weekend.

Athletics—Alex Wilson ’73
Lou Richardson announced that Alex will be the new vice chairman of the council in the fall when Lou assumes the role of president. Alex explained that a sub-set of the Athletic Committee are leaders of the C Club. C Club membership participation was up to 970. The spring C Club awards dinner, which recognizes Colby athletes, will be held April 30 at the Marriott in Portland, Maine. Elmer Bartels '62 will be awarded the Carl Nelson Award. Patty Smith presented a draft proposal to the committee on increasing diversity and getting more women to participate and serve on the Athletic Committee and C Club Committee. They will be presenting the final report to the Alumni Council Executive Committee in June.

Awards—Hope Palmer Bramhall ’56
Hope thanked her committee for the great attendance. She indicated this was the fun part of her work, when they could finally announce the recipients of the upcoming awards for 2001. Colby bricks: Robert M. Furek '64, Ronald W. Lupton '71, Dianna P. Hermann '80, Cythia L. Auman '80, and Dr. Gerald and Myra Dorros P '93 '96 '98 '01. Distinguished Alumnus: David Miller '51, Outstanding Educator: David O. Rae '71, Marriner Dinstinguished Service Award: Robert W. Burke '61. She also announced that a special new award that honors Edson B. Mitchell '75 has been created. The Edson B. Mitchell Distinguished Service Award recognizes younger alumni, 25 years out or less, for distinguished service to the College. It will first be presented in June 2001 to Edson Mitchell's family in his memory. The committee is not sure if everyone is aware of all existing awards, and they hope to have the new award announced in Colby magazine along with a description of all awards. The committee encourages everyone to look for classmates to nominate. It can be done via letter or e-mail. They will look to get something on the Web (Note: www.colby.edu/alumni/awards done by staff in March '01).

Career Services
No report.

Clubs—James Bourne ’81
Jamie reported that his group had an amazing meeting and thanked everyone and the staff of the Alumni Office. On average the clubs sponsor approximately 120 events annually. The number of events is increasing, and events are better quality. The Welcome to the City events have grown in popularity, and the Presidential Welcome for Bro Adams events have been well received. We look to coordinate community service events in various cities. So far, two events are set up for the May/June period, and we hope to do six. The clubs out west are maturing with more leadership and events than ever. We are improving the use and effectiveness of e-mail communication with both volunteers and potential event attendees. The Alumni Relations Office is now using an e-mail signature that has an upcoming list of events on all outgoing e-mails.

Communications—Jan Weddell Magyar ’71
Jan reported that the Communications Committee had a very spirited meeting. There had been concerns that the alumni Web site was difficult to use. Web masters are not thrilled with password protection on class sites that resulted in reduced traffic. Currently, each class site must have a Web master. There will be ongoing review of what the Communications Committee will be doing as they continually evaluate the concerns of alumni. Jan explained everyone should expect to hear more in the future, especially as the Web continues to evolve.

Nominating—Woofie Fleming Amidon ’75
Woofie reported that her committee will also be meeting on March 9 and 10 to interview for the young alumni trustee position now that the waiver to hold a special nomination has been approved. They will be presenting their final candidate at the June meeting. Woofie then asked for approval of the following candidates: Brooke Coleman '92 member at large, approved for a three-year second term. James Harris '98 and Walter Wang '99 approved for first term as members at large. The candidates were unanimously approved as nominated.

Academic Affairs—Becky Birrell ’92
Past committee chair David Bergquist '61 presented for Becky Birrell who was unable to attend. David indicated that his meeting was informative. Dean of Faculty Ed Yeterian gave an overview of the strategic planning process for the academic side of the College. They are doing intensive study to help draw important conclusions to establish what the specific unique qualities of a Colby education are. Colby's majors have shifted over the years. Biology and economics are now the strongest majors. The social sciences are lacking space and need a building. The full strategic review will be happening this winter with a full report this spring. It will include a recommendation for the future needs and direction of all the academic departments at Colby.

Financial Affairs—Karl Dornish ’54
Karl reported his committee heard from VP of Administration Arnie Yasinski, who gave an overview of how Colby's financial picture changed from 1980 to 2000. The current fee of $32,500 is very large and has increased from $6,500 in 1980. How did we increase that much? Inflation is part, a 3.3 percent annual increase in real dollars. Information technology is another; the ITS budget is now over 3.4 million annually. Construction was $3.8 million in 1980 versus $24.4 million now. Athletics was $450,000 then, $3.1 million of the budget now. Salaries are a big part of the budget. We have gone from 452 to 638 employees in this period. How does this all get paid for? Tuition, fees, annual fund, and endowment: Colby went from 8th to 7th place in NESCAC in total endowment. We were at 23 million in 1980 to $379 million now. But that still leaves us well behind our peers and thus more dependent on tuition, which makes us less flexible to adapt or add new programs and ideas.

Student Affairs—Wendy Kennedy Ralph ’90
Dean of Students Janice Kassman brought Lisa Hallen, director of student activities, to speak. Lisa coordinates everything for students from COOT to commencement. There was an interesting discussion on what is happening on campus now. What are the students like today? There are four substance-free residence halls, more and more cultural activities than we remember, for example, the annual Mr. Colby pagaent and the Millionaire game. The committee will hear a talk on alcohol policy at the June meeting.

Planned Giving—Ernie Fortin ’51
Ernie reported that Colby is making progress. We do not possess an endowment fund comparable to peers, for example $475 at Bowdoin while we are at $373 million. All planned giving agents were sending letters talking of gift planning and tax deductions. They explain how with a charitable gift annuity or gift trust alumni can receive back payments. This is how we must catch up with our peers. Director of Annual Giving Dave Beers is busy meeting with the class of '53 regarding their 50th class reunion in 2003. Ernie's Class of '51 is doing very well on the 50th reunion giving efforts, and he expects to have a very exciting report next June.

Lou thanked the Chairs and their committees and reminded everyone that the next meeting would be Saturday, June 9, 2001, on campus at reunion.