Alumni Council Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, October 2, 2004

Welcome—Alex Wilson ’73
Alex brought the meeting to order by welcoming council members and guests and urged them to help themselves to the buffet lunch, at which point we would start the formal business meeting. Alex then asked for reports from committee chair.

Committee Reports/Updates

Admissions and Financial Aid—Janice Wood Parsons ’65
Jan reported that her committee had heard from Parker Beverage regarding the statistics for the entering class. More than 50 percent of the Class of 2008 is from outside New England, with increasing numbers of international students. There are 45 legacy students, 30 first generation college students, and the median SAT score is 1360.

The admissions staff is now traveling abroad in an effort to attract more international students. Parker Beverage has been to London and India. The Admissions Office has not abandoned Maine students, however, and it will sponsor two breakfasts for Maine guidance counselors to ensure we continue to attract the best and brightest of Maine students.

Sammie Robinson is a new member of the admissions staff for multicultural admissions. He comes from George Washington University and is a graduate of Bowdoin College.

The committee is planning a legacy admissions event for later in the fall in southern Connecticut.

Alumni Fund—Jessica D'Ercole Stanton '92
Jessica reported that the fiscal year 2004 Alumni Fund finished (June 30) at $3,552,544 and exceeded the $3.5 million goal with a 6.6 percent increase over the year before in dollars received. The fund dropped a little below the goal of 51 percent participation but reached 50 percent for the sixth year in a row. The fiscal year 2005 goal will be $3.75 million and 50 percent participation once again.

The committee is planning a volunteer thank-you event again this year for class agents, to be held in Dedham, Mass., on October 30. More than 600 volunteers are invited from across the country, and the committee invites other council members to join them at the event to thank the Alumni Fund volunteers for their work.

Athletics—Art Brennan ’68
Alex Wilson reported for chair Art Brennan. Alex indicated that Athletic Director Marcella Zalot had reported to the committee about a possible mentoring program between alumni and various varsity teams. The plan is to start with Alumni Council Committee members and one varsity team, as a test case, with the hope of expanding to other teams and alumni from those teams. The College is also looking at a leadership institute for developing student leaders—not just varsity sports captains but student government and club leaders. The 101st C Club dinner was held the previous night and honored retired track coach Jim Wescott as the C Club Person of the Year. The club also honored two students, Warner Nickerson '05 for winning a Division I slalom ski race, the first by a Colby Division III athlete, and Nick Bayley '05 for attaining academic All-American status.

Awards—Byrd Allen ’75
Byrd reported that once again his committee work could not be shared at this time, but he looked forward to publicly announcing the 2005 honorees at the January meeting.

Career Services—Patricia Whittemore Jenkins ’67
Sara Dressler '02 reported for chair Patty Whittemore Jenkins. Sara reported that Friday afternoon the Office of Career Services and the committee had a fun networking event for students, parents, and alumni. There were about 28 students, 12 parents, and 12 alumni who participated as part of the Family Homecoming Weekend activities.

The Office of Career Services is also working on a trial mentoring program, starting with the Alumni Council. Many of the audience had received a letter about the program, and the 25 Alumni Council members who responded will be matched with 25 first-year students, with hopes that the program will expand to other alumni and students once the bugs are worked out.

The office also sponsored a Senior Jump-Start Day in early September. 185 seniors signed up, and 140 attended the program, which had two tracks, one for jobs and the other for graduate school issues. The sessions took six hours, or a full day, which was determined to be too much, and they will perfect the agenda for future years.

In addition, the office will be coordinating a job shadow day with alumni in Boston and Portland over Fall Break, October 18-19, for the fourth year in a row. The other news from career services is that the internship coordinator has left, and they have begun hiring a new person and will be centralizing the program at the same time.

Nominating—Barry Potter ’60
Barry Potter reminded the audience about the role of the Nominating Committee. They need to nominate two alumni trustees for terms beginning at commencement in May and will be reporting on their progress soon. They also will be nominating two members-at-large to the council for terms that are expiring and one resignation. As the need arises, they also work to fill class representative vacancies.

Alex thanked everyone for coming and for their work in the committee meetings and urged them to enjoy the rest of the weekend's activities.