Alumni Council Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, October 19, 2002
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Welcome—Lou Richardson ’67 Lou Richardson '67, chair of the Alumni Council and president of the Alumni Association, welcomed council members and guests and began the lunch meeting with a special awards presentation ceremony. She presented Colby's Outstanding Educator Award for 2002 to Diane Scrafton Ferreira '61. Diane traveled from Hawaii and was able to attend the Family Homecoming Weekend activities and to share the award presentation with 18 members of her extended family who were able to join her. Lou asked everyone to enjoy his or her lunch, with the formal business meeting of the alumni council to begin shortly. Ms. Richardson asked for approval of the June 6, 2002, Alumni Council General Meeting minutes as previously mailed. Todd Halloran '84 moved to accept the minutes, with Alex Wilson '73 seconding. The minutes were approved unanimously. Ms. Richardson then asked for reports from committee chairs (or their appointed representatives) in attendance. Committee Reports/Updates Alumni Fund—Todd W. Halloran ’84 Todd reported the 2002 fiscal year ended at $3,318,000, a 7 percent increase in dollars collected. He thanked all class agents and staff for their hard work throughout the year, and he especially recognized the classes of '67, '72, '92, and '97, who each set reunion giving records last year. The Alumni Fund participation rate ended at 50.89 percent, just 27 donors shy of the 51 percent goal. The goal for FY03 is 3.5M, a 5 percent increase, and the participation goal remains at 51 percent. Alumni on Campus—Philip C. Wysor ’70 Phil reported that, as chair of the Alumni-on-Campus Committee, he had been participating as a member of the new Alumni Development Building Planning Committee all summer. The committee had been meeting with the architects and with the Campus Master Plan group and now have some preliminary concepts for the building to share with the council. Phil showed the council some drawings from the architects, which depicted schematics of where the building would sit on the new Colby Green across Mayflower Hill Drive. Another view showed the internal plans for public functions, meeting spaces, and the College Relations offices. Phil invited those who wanted to review the drawings more closely to come up after the meeting. Athletics—Patricia Valavanis Smith ’80 Patricia reported that the annual C Club dinner had been held the night before and included a nice mix of current students and their families with alumni attendees. One goal for the C Club is to increase membership, and there is now a C Club membership form on the Web that allows for secure credit card payment. The Athletics Committee, C Club, and Colby Club of Boston are co-sponsoring a reception after the Nov. 2 football game at Tufts, and all were invited to attend. The Carl Nelson Award will be presented next spring on campus, and Laura Halldorson, past women's ice hockey coach at Colby (now at University of Minnesota), will be honored. The event is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, April 13, 2003. Next year will mark the 100th year for the C Club and the Athletics Committee, and the C Club will be looking for distinctive ways to recognize that achievement. Patricia also reported they are particularly pleased that Colby has a new full-time sports information director, Bill Sodoma, and that they are pleased to be working with Bill and Marcella Zalot, director of athletic. Awards—Hope Palmer Bramhall ’56 Byrd Allen '75 reported for Hope that the Awards Committee had had a very successful session in making the confidential selections for the 2003 alumni award winners. The awardees will be announced publicly at the January meeting. The committee is always looking for nominations from alumni, and these can be made via the alumni Web page or by contacting the Alumni Office. Career Services—Frank Finizio ’66 Frank reported that his committee had been active over the summer and early fall and had added five new members recently. They had also been working with the Career Services Office to help coordinate a Career Week at Colby, which began on Tuesday this week and would end the following Tuesday. The career-related events planned for current students this week included:
Clubs Committee—Heather Daur ’00 Chris Sullivan '97 reported for Heather that the Colby Regional Clubs program had an active fall, with Welcome to the City Events held the evening of Sept. 18 in 18 cities around the world, including London and Tokyo. Many of the clubs will be including a volunteer or community service effort in their planning this year. Some may include a literacy focus, to further Colby's educational mission, or a child focus such as Toys for Tots, where clubs may join to purchase Colby stuffed mules to donate to area needy children. They are working to encourage new club areas and support for club volunteers and are updating a packet for new volunteers who may want to plan regional events in their areas. Chris also thanked the Alumni Relations staff for their support of the regional clubs, because, as the president of the Colby Club of Boston, he has networked with other Boston regional volunteers from the NESCAC schools who do not enjoy the same level of support from their College. Communications Committee—Eric F. Rolfson ’73 Eric reported that his committee had split up their duties to each attend a different subcommittee and report back to the Communications Committee. The plan is to create a summary document that will help class representatives to the Alumni Council with material for their annual class letters. Eric urged everyone to look for the summary in both electronic and hard copy version and to feel free to use all or none of the material as desired. Nominating—Wendy Kennedy Ralph ’90 Peter Merrill '57 reported for Wendy. Peter placed in nomination three candidates for alumni trustee. For re-election for a second three-year term to begin at Commencement 2003 were Andrew Davis '85 and Kate O'Neill '85. Nominated for a first term as alumni trustee was William Goldfarb '68. Jay Whitman moved we accept the nominations, Alex Wilson seconded, and they were unanimously accepted. There was one opening for a member-at-large position on the Alumni Council, and Jeff Bistrong '84 was nominated for his second three-year term, to begin July 1, 2003. Jay Whitman moved we accept the nomination, Alex Wilson seconded, and Jeff Bistrong was unanimously accepted for a second term. Other candidates were discussed for current class representative openings and would be contacted as to their interest in serving on the council. Their nominations will be presented at the January meeting. Financial Affairs Committee—Karl Dornish ’54 Karl reported that his committee heard from Patricia Murphy, Colby's director of physical plant, who shared how we keep Colby looking like it does. The physical plant includes 62 buildings of 1.3 million square feet; with 31 residences; 31 other buildings; and over 700 acres of property, of which only 10 percent is lawn and 5 percent parking lot. There are about 100 people in the Physical Plant Department and an operating budget of about $8 million, of which one half is labor expenses, one quarter utilities, and one quarter all remaining materials. Colby, amongst other academic institutions in the state, is in the lead for keeping the campus "green" (i.e., environmentally friendly), and won a governor's award for our efforts. We have our own steam plant, and we generate about one half of our own power needs. Student Affairs Committee—Susan Maxwell Reisert ’86 Susan reported that her committee heard from Dale DeBlois, Colby's environmental initiative coordinator, and Sharon Treat, coordinator of environmental studies, who talked about Green Colby, the Environmental Advisory Group projects, and Project RESCUE. Green Colby is an environmental awareness group that looks for ways the campus can encourage conservation and recycling. Projects include sponsoring a Web site; composting food waste for Dining Services; and the Colby RESCUE program, which began last spring and involves gathering all the furniture, computers, and clothes left by students at the end of the semester and salvaging useful material, which is then either donated to area charities or resold to next year's students, rather than being sent to landfills. |