Alumni Executive Council Business Meeting Minutes

June 9, 2018

Agenda

Miss Terrillion called the meeting to order beginning at 10:32a.

Following the roll call by Ms. Lloyd, a quorum was recognized.

Present:
Abernethy, Acevedo, Bates, Beyer, Brown, Colucci, Danielson, Faulkner, Frank, Giles, Hakewill, Hann, Hughes, Jeffress, Jenkins, Jensen, Kadick, Kallet, Kuno, Lawler, Lee, Lloyd, McKee, McSweeney, Michaelson, North, Patrick, Peterson, Price, D. Ryan, M. Ryan, Santini, Sethness, Terrillion, Thomson, Wells, Weiland, Willis

Not Present:
Sears, Cochran, Dana, Egbert, Glass, Hallock, Montgomery, Murray, Rood, Scuteri, Taylor, Twombly

President’s Report

Miss Terrillion asked for Council approval of March 24, 2018 and December 2, 2017 Meeting Minutes, moved by Ms. McSweeney and seconded by Mr. Ryan.

In her President’s Report, Miss Terrillion recognized that there were 650 people in attendance for Reunion 2018. Alumni citations including the Sol Feinstein award were presented. Council participated in the Service of Remembrance and a well-attended class parade. Miss Terrillion will attend the Board of Trustees meeting Jun 22-24 and will provide notes to Council members following.

Campus Report

Ms. Hissong provided a brief report with details related to the campaign launch this fall. As a reminder, book housing ASAP as this is a high traffic Oct weekend. She will be working with the officers over the next few months to prepare the Council schedule for the Campaign launch weekend. It will be a dynamic weekend with many activities. Half of council are LINC mentors and Laurentians in Residence is also taking place. Stay tuned for more updates.

Student Delegate Report

Miss Price thanked the council on behalf of the student delegates. Each of the students shared a brief bio. Mr. Brown has been in involved in Thelmo for two years, studied abroad in London, and was a LINC mentee of Doug Stern. He shared that the program was very helpful and they remain in touch. He and Doug will be grabbing coffee in NYC next week. Brown shared feedback for Council: he would like to see more young alumni involved in LINC as it helps with social barriers. He shared that he speaks with Stern about life advice and his career path.

Miss Price – from Toronto, in her second year on AEC is part of SAA and captain of the alpine ski team. Price participated in the San Francisco SLU Connect Program. She was provided a cultural sense of a new city and was able to understand new industries by visiting several. She hopes to bring Senior Leadership Society, started by former student delegate Laura Jennings, a running document, to Council. Miss Price will be leaving tomorrow for her summer internship in Oslo and will be meeting with an alumna who lives there. She reached out via LinkedIn. Miss Price shared her idea for alumni involvement in the classroom with Skype calls into the classroom, related to that area of study.

Ms. Peterson asked that the Senior Leadership Society and SAA be brought to the Fall agenda.

Mr. Acevedo was born in D.R. and has lived in Brooklyn for the last 8 years. He is an economics major, has been to London and works as a Community Assistant to help first-years adjust to the new culture of St. Lawrence. He enjoys the role so much; he will be a CA again this fall. For Acevedo, alumni connections have benefit him by connecting to alumna in NYC. Mr. Acevedo is interested in connecting with more young alumni minorities.

Miss Jensen is from Binghamton and studied abroad in France and Kenya in 2018. On campus Miss Jensen is involved in many organizations including ODK, Senior Leadership Society and Reunion Planning. Throughout her time on Council, Jensen hopes to increase student and alumni relations and build on transparency by creating a better relationship with the Student Alumni Association and Alumni Executive Council.

Treasurer/Finance & Resources Committee Report

Mr. Danielson made modifications to the 2018-19 budget to align with the new year goals. He noted Council’s fiscal year is Jan 1-Dec 31. Another change in the budget from last year is the Internship Reimbursement. Thanks to Mr. Rood and the Endowment Fund this amount is no longer taken out of our budget. However, we are declining at about $6,000 per year; a concern for the Council and a F&R focus. The University has hired a new CFO. F&R will meet with him in January.

Ms. North understands we are in a deficit spending situation. It is unclear whether we will get more money for Council. Part of the conversations that need to take place are communications with University Advancement; reviewing budgets and where we are spending.

Mr. Danielson shared that we have three options: cut back on what we are spending, get additional money from the University or split cost with the University on certain events.

Mr. Ryan commented that the Council sponsors many activities for roughly thirty thousand dollars, i.e. time resources vs. financial resources. i.e. thank you note writing does not cost.

Mr. Danielson reviewed the budget timeline beginning in June when goals are presented through budget submission and budget approval at the December meeting. In January the budget is in effect.

Ms. Faulkner suggested a change in wording of goals shared vs. University sharing their goals first so that we can work our efforts around theirs.

Ms. Wieland asked if the $10,000 in reserves is something that we can place in another account as a way to add interest if we do not need it for 5 years. Mr. Sullivan shared that the money is not actual funds that we have access to.

Mr. Danielson briefed Council on the F&R meeting. There is a need of transparency of the budget from each committee chair.

Committee Report and Working Group Update

Admissions

Mr. Santini met with Mr. Freeman and Mr. Felix who shared updates on the recent yield event and two programs that are a work in progress: the Alumni Greeter program and the Laurentian Admission Advisor program. LAA is where alumni attend college fairs in their local communities and interview students when a representative from campus cannot attend. Mr. Santini reviewed the incoming class statistics. Yield events were held in Darien and two in MA on the same day due to space constraints which is something that needs to be addressed. Mr. Santini requested Ms. Hissong’s help in connecting the Committee with the new Dean of Admissions.

Advancement & Engagement

Mr. Abernethy reminded Council that Advancement and Engagement made a change for the new Council year. Advancement and Engagement are two sub-committees within the A&E Committee. There is a focus to improve retention. We lose 25% of donors year over year. A Council sponsored challenge is continuing to be brainstormed. A plus one challenge, similar to the ice bucket challenge, competitive in nature is a strong idea. Increasing the participation rate by 1% is 280 people. There is also interest in smaller affinity group challenges. Ms. Patrick shared that the Engagement side has many ideas as they focus to assist Mr. Keniston. She touched on an affinity group that we can engage by thanking them for their services, ROTC. Affinity groups are challenging and we must be mindful of budget. Ms. Patrick also discussed celebrating and recognizing Laurentian life events such as weddings, change of address and births. Lastly, Ms. Patrick shared an update on the Alumni Association pins handed out at graduation welcoming new class to the Alumni Association. An email letter was sent at 5p that evening sharing more about what it is to be a Laurentian and requesting to stay in touch. The university received 60 responses from the class of 2018. There was some discussion during Ms. Patrick’s remarks in keeping St. Lawrence email addresses following graduation. Today they stay active for approx. six months.

Membership & Honors

Mr. Lee provided an update for new members on the role of the Membership and Honors committee. They have focused on a Leave Policy, the Election Process and the Nomination Policy which moved to an electronic form last year. Mr. Lee encouraged all members to nominate other Laurentians for Council. There will be a need in the Fall for Cluster 4, Class years of 1992-2006. He also encouraged members of Council to come to them with any issues including those affecting ability to serve.

Student Services

Ms. Kadick met with Ms. Larrabee and Mr. Albertson of University Career Services. The Student Services Committee focus programs will be shifting some items that normally take place in Fall; will move to Winter. They are planning a networking event during Homecoming, Sept 7-9. During Family Weekend they are looking to a parent panel vs. student and parent panel. Homecoming is Sept 28-30. They committed to communicating better and more often. Ms. Peterson shared ways we can support parents. Ms. Kadick will share SLU Connect dates when they are announced. There was discussion around creating a video of what the connect programs are by University Videographer, Joe Blum. 109 students participated in SLU Connect events last year. Ms. Peterson shared that Mr. Lawler will be charged with Career Conversations in the Fall.

Faculty Engagement Working Group

Ms. McManus advised that the Working Group (WG) is interested in engaging with faculty but not to be a burden. The WG is welcome to ideas as they are currently in a research phase. Some ideas the WG will look into include using alumni to connect with academic departments to not stop our engagement at the career level. There is interest in alumni skyping into classrooms. They also discussed cocktail receptions with faculty to leverage are relationship; meeting with alumni in the field as they have book tours or present research at a conferences.

New Business

There was no new business to report.

Motion to adjourn by Thomson, second by D. Ryan.

Meeting adjourned at 11:58a.

Submitted by Chelsea Lloyd '10, Secretary.