McDaniel College
Alumni Association
Alumni Council Meeting Minutes
May 18, 2009

In Attendance:
Executive Board
Joan Develin Coley, College President
Corynne Courpas ’76, Alumni Association President
Don Hobart ’62, Alumni Association President-elect
Robin Adams Brenton ’86, Executive Secretary

Members-at-Large
Dick Morgan ’69
Alice Smith Rau ’91
Alice Yearley Snyder ’51
Lynn Klingensmith Williams ’90

Standing Committee Chairs
Rebecca Arnold ’04 – GOLD Committee
Steve Davis ’69 – Outreach Committee
Julie Biddinger Jones ’90 – Awards Committee
Steve Ports ’83 – Nomination and Governance

Committee Members
Skip Amass ’57
Caroline Babylon ’76
Ellen Earp Baker MEd’87
Betsy Beveridge ’07
Mary Schiller ’81
John Warman ’63

Student Representatives
Holly Debaugh ’10 – Student Alumni Council President
Yemi Oladiran ’09 – Senior Class President

The meeting was opened after a reception with members of the Alumni Leadership Program for Seniors (ALPS) and President Coley.  It is a tradition for the Alumni Council to host this event during Senior Week to honor and congratulate these senior leaders on their upcoming graduation and to talk with them about involvement with the college following graduation.  Thirty students from ALPS were in attendance.  Corynne congratulated the seniors on their accomplishments, shared information about the Alumni Association and encouraged their continued involvement following graduation.  Pat O’Toole, was introduced as the college liaison with GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) and Corynne also introduced Becky Arnold ’04 as the current chair of the GOLD Committee.  The seniors then departed for other activities associated with Senior Week.

Treasurer’s Report – Robin Adams Brenton
• Report presented; Don motioned to accept the report as read; Steve Davis seconded the motion.

Board of Trustees Report – Corynne
• Corynne provided an update from the Board of Trustees meeting held on April 18.

Committee Reports
Awards – Julie Biddinger Jones, chair
• Committee met in March and finished the update of the form sent to alumni nominees so that better information will be provided to the committee for review and selection of award winners.
• Voting process was also reviewed and updated to complement the new forms and additional information.
• The two-volume notebooks that contain all award nominations are in the hands of the committee members who will spend the next few weeks reviewing the forms and providing their ballots to the Alumni Office.
• Committee will meet again on June 4 to make their final decisions on Alumni Association Awards for 2009.
• The Awards Brunch honoring these winners will be hosted on Homecoming morning, October 24, 2009.

GOLD – Becky Arnold, chair
• Committee met on April 16 and were pleased to have a number of very recent graduates in attendance at the meeting.
• Regional competition is being held for Annual Fund gifts. Washington D.C., Frederick/Westminster, Baltimore and Philadelphia areas are in the competition.  Currently each region has an 11-12% participation rate which is very good.  Winning region will be awarded a happy hour for all alumni in the area in a location of their choice.
• Orioles Bird Bash scheduled for June 13 at Camden Yards is almost sold out.
• Bus trip to Hersheypark is being planned for August.

Nominations & Governance – Steve Ports, chair
• Committee had four Member-At-Large positions to fill for upcoming year.  The following slate of candidates was proposed by the committee for approval by the Alumni Council:
o Robert Butler ’57
o Linda Mahaffey Spear ’66
o Jeff Carter ’70
o Lisa Pearre Hill ’97
• Don Hobart moved to approve the slate; Steve Davis seconded the motion.  The slate was approved unanimously by the Council.
• Green Terror Sports Hall Policy Manual draft was completed by committee in March and sent back to SHF Committee for final review and hopeful approval. 

Outreach – Steve Davis, chair
• Committee met on May 16
• Part of this committee’s task is to encourage alumni participation with students in the area of Career Services.  College staff provided a report to the committee on current involvement. 
o 148 alumni signed up to be mentors
o The Career Services Office scheduled 21 appointments with alumni
o Alumni have participated with students in workshops
• An alumni trip to Ireland hosted by Walt Michael is being planned in September, 2010; tentative plans are in the works for a California wine tour in the future.
• Two events were recently hosted in Frederick, MD – a Frederick Keys game and a walking tour of Frederick with renowned artist, William Cochran ’77.  Both were successful.  The Fearless and Bold Book Tour is primarily completed with the possibility of an additional one or two events next year. 
• Committee reviewed possibility of participation in National Day of Service in January, 2010 plugging into existing projects in Westminster and Baltimore.
• Committee members will participate in McDaniel new student orientation on August 19.
• Reunion Weekend was a great success with 430 alumni in attendance representing 23 states. 
• Committee will meet again on September 19.

Sports Hall of Fame – Robin for Sally Stanfield
• Committee has not met since last Alumni Council meeting but they do have their notebooks in hand and are reviewing all nomination forms for upcoming selection meeting.
• Thank you to the Nomination and Governance Committee, under the great leadership of Steve Ports, who spent many hours reviewing and updating the policy manual.  The Committee will discuss the latest draft at the next meeting.
• Green Terror Sports Hall of Fame Banquet will be hosted on Homecoming Weekend, Friday evening, October 23, 2009.  In addition to the normal program, we will also host the 50th reunion of the 1959 Green Terror soccer team that beat Drexel.
• Committee will meet on May 27 to narrow down pool of nominees and again on June 9 for the final vote to select the Green Terror Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2009.

Old Business
Alumni on the Web
• As a follow up to the discussion at the February meeting, Corynne shared that a letter had been drafted under her signature and that of Don Hobart to be sent to Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Rich Kief.  The letter is in response to the Alumni Council’s request to consider a more prominent entry from the main page to the Alumni pages on the college website.  Corynne promised to keep the Council posted on progress surrounding the letter.

New Business
Annual Fund Update – Don Hobart
• Good news and not so good news.  Gifts and pledges (that’s the total of gifts already paid and pledges not yet in) currently stand at $1,335,387 – $33,000 ahead of last year.  This is a great place to be especially in these challenging economic times.   The more important number to review is our cash – since that is the actual money we have in hand.  Our current cash total stands at $957,306 – $71,000 BEHIND last year. 
• The Alumni Relations and Annual Giving team is working very hard to get pledges fulfilled and bring in additional gifts so we can reach our $1.65 million dollar goal by June 30.  BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP. 
• If you have a pledge – please fulfill it as soon as possible.  If you have not yet made a pledge or gift – please do so.  EVERY GIFT COUNTS.  Whether it is $10 or $1,000 your gift will help McDaniel students – and will help increase our alumni participation.  AND, PLEASE encourage your friends and classmates to fulfill their pledges or make their gifts.
• Thank you for partnering with us to make our alma mater great!

Skip Amass, Steve Davis, Dick Morgan, Steve Ports and Alice Yearley Snyder were recognized for the end of their terms on the Council and presented with a small token of appreciation by President Courpas.

Corynne wished everyone a good summer and shared that information on the next year’s meeting schedule will be shared in July.  Meeting was adjourned.