Alumni Council Meeting Minutes
February 25, 2009
 
In Attendance:
Executive Board
Corynne Courpas ’76, President
Don Hobart ’62, President-elect
Jonathan Slade ’88, Treasurer
Robin Adams Brenton ’86, Executive Secretary.
Members-at-Large
Wade Heck ’81
Maureen Carroll Martin ’86
Dick Morgan ’69
Alice Smith Rau ’91
Ron Roth ’64
Larry Schmidt ’75
Lynn Klingensmith Williams ’90
Standing Committee Chairs
Rebecca Arnold ’04 – GOLD Committee
Steve Davis ’69 – Outreach Committee
Steve Ports ’83 – Nomination and Governance

Committee Members
Josh Russin ’07

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

The meeting was opened after dinner with students from the Student Alumni Council and Alumni Leadership Program for Seniors. Eighteen students from Student Alumni Council and ALPS were in attendance.

Treasurer’s Report – Robin Adams Brenton
• Report presented and approved.

Committee Reports
Awards – Don Hobart, ex-officio member
• Met in January to discuss biographical forms sent to nominees. A new form has been created to better qualify the information. This form may also be filled out electronically.
• Committee will meet again in March.

Nominations & Governance – Steve Ports, chair
• Currently soliciting new members for committee.
• One of the duties of the committee is to create manuals for each Alumni Association committee. Next task will be to complete draft manuals for Sports Hall of Fame and GOLD committees.
• Committee will next meet in March.

Outreach – Steve Davis, chair
• Committee last met in early February
• Alumni travel – committee reviewed alumni survey conducted by email in January.  Investigating possible trip to Ireland or Scotland in 2010 with Walt Michael.
• Regional events are still focused on Fearless and Bold, A History of McDaniel College 1867-2002 book signings which will soon come to an end.
• College Admissions 101 event for alumni and their children will be held on campus in March.
• Valentine’s dinner for alumni was a great success.
• Alumni service opportunities – a link has been established on the online directory to Facebook where alumni can list service opportunities. Will publicize this link soon.
• Creating a plan for more involvement by Alumni Council at Freshman Orientation in August.
• Committee has assisted with Reunion Weekend by recommending workshop subjects.
• April Johnson, director of career services at McDaniel, will be invited to next committee meeting to talk about how alumni may be of assistance to students in this area.
• Next meeting of the committee is scheduled for May.

Sports Hall of Fame – Robin for Sally Stanfield
• Committee met in early February to evaluate the most recent Sports Hall of Fame banquet; also discussed policies in preparation for this year’s awards process.
• Committee has two meetings planned in June to review nominations and elect this year’s inductees.
• This year’s Sports Hall of Fame banquet will be held on October 23, 2009.

GOLD – Becky Arnold
• Items were collected at Homecoming and twelve care packages were created and sent to military alumni overseas.
• Committee members participated in 100-days party for members of the senior class – Approximately 150 seniors attended.
• Hosted a happy hour at Union Jacks in Bethesda, MD with 21 in attendance.
• Hosted a bowling event at Mustang Alley’s in Baltimore with 31 in attendance.
• Sponsoring Speed Networking events in Baltimore and D.C. in collaboration with Mt. St. Mary’s University, and in Philadelphia in collaboration with Centennial Conference Schools.
• Committee will meet again in April.

Old Business
Member-at-large Email
An email blast was sent to alumni by decade after last council meeting. These will be sent after each council meeting.  Robin will forward a draft to Members-At-Large for their review.

Alumni Association Webpage
• A new web page has been developed on the McDaniel site that provides description of council, lists executive committee and committee members.
• A question was asked by Steve Ports as to why an alumni button is not at the top of page on main page on the website. It was discussed and decided that perhaps a letter from the Alumni Council could be sent to this end.    It was also suggested that we find out how many of the colleges in Centennial Conference have alumni button in top bar. A letter will be composed and dispersed to council members for review and approval.

New Business
Annual Fund Update
• Goal $1.6 million; gifts and pledges are about $20,000 ahead; however, cash coming in is about $90,000 behind
• Some Board members visited the phone center during Trustees weekend. The students are doing a phenomenal job.
• Our job for the Annual Fund is to make sure our pledges are paid, talk to other alumni to give whatever they can as number of givers is as important as money.
• Percentage of alumni participation is steady at 21%.  However we would like to reach our goal of 25%.

Jonathan Slade announced mini-grant to produce interviews with past Zepp Teaching Award winners. Final product will be in Archives. CDs will be for sale.

Next meeting will be Monday, May 18 at the President’s House.  We will begin with a reception to honor graduating seniors involved in the Alumni Leadership Program for Seniors.  A short business meeting with then follow.  Meeting was adjourned.