College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
From the Articles of Association and Constitution
The objectives and purpose of the Chapter shall be:
 To cultivate friendships and foster mutual aid among it's Members;
 To advance the interests and standards of the engineering, mathematics and science
departments of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science of the
University of Wisconsin Platteville.
 To promote a mutually beneficial relationship between the University and it's
engineering, mathematics and science alumni; and
 To receive, invest and use gifts, contributions, devises, and bequests of money and /
or real and personal property for the benefit of the engineering, mathematics and
science departments of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science of the
University of Wisconsin Platteville.
Present (-in person)
Tom Wisniowski, President
Keena Spencer-Dobson, Second Vice President
Tammy Salmon-Stephens, Past President
Greg Bies, Past President
Kim Schmelz, Director of Alumni Services
George Hellert, Secretary
Kelly Myers, Foundation Office
Jessica Fick, Faculty Liaison
Don Eichmann, Treasurer
Dr. Mesut Muslu, Interim EMS Dean
Julie McDonald, Faculty Liaison
Amy True, Student Liaison Candidate
Jeremy Peterson, Student Liaison Candidate
Absent:
Barb Boldt, Director
Jeff Hoerning, Co-Executive Secretary, Faculty Liaison
Mark Shubak, Director
Joe Bunker, Director
Jim Almquist, VECTOR Co-Advisor
Hayley Norpel, Student Liaison
1) Call to order: Tom Wisniowski at 8:00 AM.
2) Introductions & Welcome: Tom Wisniowski
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
3) Agenda approval: Tom Wisniowski. Greg motion with Tammy second. Motion
carried.
4) Deans Report: Dr. Mesut Muslu
a. There is no official written report from the Dean’s Office. Dr. Mesut Muslu is the
Interim Dean of EMS, and he described the current situation in the Dean’s Office.
He summarized his presentation from the previous night at the Senior Recognition
Banquet. Dr. Muslu also advised that other UW – System four year schools have
started to discuss offering of engineering degrees. The UW – System decided to
conduct a study on what type of engineering is needed in Wisconsin. The report
showed that Wisconsin is on average paying less than the national average. The
need report showed a need for engineering only in what they referred to as Region
5, which is the Fox Valley area. This demand was said to be manageable by a
partnership between UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee or UW-Madison,
without mentioning UW-Platteville. Dr. Muslu summarized the university’s
response to the report in that we support the idea of collaboration to fill the
engineering needs in Region 5; however, UW-P strongly believes that any
collaboration should include UW-Platteville. In order to support this statement,
the Dean’s Office is gathering data on the percentages of students that come from
that area and what portion of our students go to that area to work after graduation
(believed to be around 30%). The Board of Regents should consider feedback
from the institutions involved including UW-P in formulating a decision.
5) Foundation Report: Kelly Myers
a. See Foundation Office Report.
b. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is looking to bid for the SWE Regional
Conference in 2016. They need to raise at least $40,000-$50,000 in pledges or
gifts in order to make the initial bid. In order to host a conference the university
must secure around $90,000. Kelly asked for any suggestions of corporations or
individuals that would like to support this bid for the SWE Regional Conference.
Kelly handed out informational flyers and pledge cards for the Board to look at.
Tammy added information about the conference. She informed the Board that the
region that UW-Platteville is associated with is SWE’s largest region and that if
we were to host conference there would be around 700 women coming to
Platteville. UW-Platteville has a large presence in our region’s SWE. The Board
discussed the benefit of hosting the conference and its impact on the Platteville
area, the UW-P, and UW-P’s students. Sponsor companies have the opportunity
to make a presentation, host a booth at a career fair, and attend CEO meetings to
name a few benefits.
c. Kelly also updated the Board on the Foundation’s effort to work more efficiently
with business partners and how they have been working to create positive and
beneficial relationships with their current business partners. He stressed that the
Foundation is serious about creating partnerships and not just asking for money.
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
d. Kelly and Dr. Muslu have been and plan to continue traveling together to acquire
support and stay aligned with industry.
e. Kelly discussed the EMS Scholarship Banquet and activities around
Homecoming, which seem to have all gone very well.
f. He reminded the Board that the Foundation is always open to feedback from the
members of the Board.
g. ACTION ITEMS: Board members should spread the word to acquire pledges
and gifts for the SWE Regional Conference bid through any contacts they may
have. They should also feel free to communicate any thoughts, comments, or
concerns to the Foundation through Kelly.
6) Secretary’s Report: George Hellert
a. See Secretary’s Report.
a. Approval of minutes of the 27 July 2014 was motioned by Don and seconded by
Keena. The motion carried and the minutes were approved.
b. Secretary’s report
i) The webpage is woefully behind and is in desperate need of updating with
meeting minutes, Board member pictures, and other information. This needs
to be a priority of the Board moving forward. Greg has a copy of the old
webpage. Tammy suggested that the Student Liaison needs to have a contact
on campus for updating the webpage such as a Faculty Liaison. George
suggested that the webpage update needs to be in collaboration with the
College of EMS.
ii) ACTION ITEM: Kim will set up meeting to delegate responsibilities for
updating the webpage and to reach a consensus on content for the webpage.
The people involved in this meeting would be Greg, Hayley, Phillip Parker,
Julie, Kim, and George. Kim will set this meeting up. The plan will be to go
through links and then content. This will be completed by December 1, 2014.
iii) ACTION ITEM: Meeting minutes will be sent to Board members within a
month of the meeting as a draft document and reviewed for suggestions prior
to posting on the webpage. They will then be posted on the webpage as a draft
until the following meeting where they will be reviewed and voted on for
approval by the Board.
iv) ACTION ITEM: New Board members are requested to provide an
electronic photo and contact information in order to update the Board
Member’s web page.
7) Treasurer’s Report: Don Eichman
a. See Treasurer’s Report and the EMS Alumni Chapter Budget.
a. Budget Discussion
i) The EMS Alumni Chapter is over $21,000 in the black this year in the
checking account, which is almost $13,000 above what the Board had
budgeted. Don feels comfortable that the Chapter will stay within the budget
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
and has a positive outlook on how the budget will end up. Looking forward,
the year-end report and financial reporting will follow the ledger instead of the
bank account. Using the checking account can be slow causing discrepancies
due of outstanding or intended but unwritten checks not being reflected in the
checking account balance as well as issues with supporting member
accounting. Don is in the process of redesigning the budget tools and ledger to
form of a single document with instructions built in. This will facilitate
automatic report generation and be much better for transitioning the
Treasurer’s office holders change in the future. In this, he is simplifying and
broadening the budgeting categories rather than listing specific budget items
that make dynamic/changing expenditures difficult to follow throughout the
year. The checkbook ledger will continue to document the detail of
expenditures.
ii) The Board then discussed the excess in the checking account versus the
budget. They looked at the Chapter’s biggest expense and sought Kim’s input
from the Alumni Office’s perspective. Kim suggested that the Board might
consider using some of the money to reach out more to students. Tammy
suggested that the Board could help support the travel grants and research
grants offered through CenterPOINT. The Board felt that having a cushion of
$2,500-$3,000 (~ 30% cushion) is a good target. The Board also expressed the
importance of spreading excess budget funds out over a longer period as to
better publicize the EMS Alumni Chapter’s contribution to the UW-P campus.
Don moved to approve a $3,000 cushion for the budget and Tammy seconded.
Greg motioned for one friendly amendment that the Board does a little more
research on what an acceptable cushion is for a non-profit organization in
order to follow best practices. Don restated the motion with the added
amendment as a motion to establish a $3,000 cushion pending confirmation
that this is an acceptable amount for the EMS Alumni Chapter. Tammy again
seconded the motion. The motion carried.
(1) ACTION ITEM: Don will research appropriate cushion amounts for
nonprofit organizations to ensure that the Board’s decision to keep a
cushion of $3,000 is appropriate.
iii) George made a motion that the EMS Alumni Chapter pledge $5,000 towards
the SWE Regional Conference bid. The Board then discussed this motion.
Tom pointed out that this represents only half of the excess funds in the
account above the cushion that was previously voted on and accepted by the
Board. This would put the EMS Alumni Chapter at a Gold Sponsorship level
and help to spread the EMS Alumni Chapter’s name to students on campus.
The motion was carried. Tammy abstained from the discussion and voting due
to her status as SWE Adviser. She expressed her gratitude and excitement
with the decision.
iv) Deb Rice Kloster, who works in Criminal Justice, advises the Dance Team,
and is a large supporter of the band, submitted a request for funding towards
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
the new band uniforms, which can be seen via the link below. The Foundation
has worked with the band to help fund these new uniforms, because they were
in such a need on a short timeline. The Board discussed the issue of funding
one request over others and the need for setting up a standard process in order
to ensure that funding is dispersed in a fair and equitable manner which aligns
with the goals of the EMS Alumni Chapter. In order to do this, general
standard criteria would need to be established around the Chapter’s
mission/purpose to ensure that the decisions of the Board are properly aligned
and to create visibility for potential fund requesters in the long term. In
discussing the request from Deb for the band uniforms, the Board considered
the breakdown of the students involved in the band (~50% EMS majors), the
visibility of the band, and the support of the Alumni Association and the LAE
Alumni Board that each gave $1,000 to the band uniform fund request.
Tammy moved that the Board allocate $1,000 toward the band uniform
fundraising efforts to match the donations of the Alumni Association and the
LAE Alumni Board. George seconded this motion. The motion carried.
(1) See the request from Deb Rice Kloster.
8) Committee Reports
a. Geode: Kim Schmelz
i) Working on November issue of the Geode. Two hundred hardcopies were
mailed out. Phillip Parker is managing this for the College of EMS. They
would like to have additional content/articles from the EMS Alumni Chapter
in each edition. They have October, November, and December planned, but
would like some additional planned content for January through May (five
articles). The Board brainstormed ideas for articles. The ideas included an
Awards article from Barb, scholarships sponsored by the EMS Alumni
Chapter, webpage updates, Student Liaisons, an article on what the Chapter is
funding across campus, and a testimony from one or more Supporting
Member(s).
(1) ACTION ITEM: The Board will ensure that these articles are written and
provided to the Geode Committee. Mark and Joe will communicate with
Kim who should be highlighted among the Supporting Members.
b. Honors, Awards & Scholarships: Tom Wisniowski
i) See Awards Committee Report.
ii) As defined in the Awards Committee Report, Barb has a communication plan
for getting nominations for Awards. She will place a call for nominations in
the Geode in January and follow up with the Alumni Office. Barb and Kim
will work jointly to help boost communication.
(1) ACTION ITEM: The Board will communicate the Award nomination to
friends, coworkers, and other contacts to boost visibility and increase the
number of nominations.
c. Supporting Members & Membership: Tom Wisniowski
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
i) See Supporting Members & Membership Report.
ii) Funds for Supporting Members are looking good with $5,000 raised to date.
The committee has a goal of $7,000 in Supporting Memberships.
d. Constitution and Bylaws: George Hellert
i) See Constitution and Bylaws Report.
ii) After the discovery of minor errors in the Constitution and Bylaws a couple
years ago, the Board decided that a review and update was in order. Due to
the long distances between subcommittee members, and confusion regarding
recommended electronic tools/applications needed to facilitate the work no
update or changes have yet been made. George suggested utilizing the existing
Alumni Association’s Constitution and Bylaws as the foundation for a rewrite of the EMS Alumni Chapter’s Constitution and Bylaws. That approach
should help keep the Constitution and Bylaws current and provide consistency
with the parent Alumni Chapter. George suggested that someone chair the
committee who is comfortable with Google Drive, Sky Drive and “the
Cloud.” He also suggested holding conference calls, and online meetings to
facilitate the update. Tom suggested that the new members could be involved
in this committee to make updates. Don, George, Keena, Greg, and a new
member will make this committee. Don was chosen as the convener.
(1) ACTION ITEM: The committee will meet in January to work on
updating the Constitution and Bylaws. Kim will send George any updates
that have been made to the Alumni Office’s Constitution and Bylaws.
e. Special Events
i) While rhere is no written report, the consensus is that Recognition Banquet
was well attended and was very well received.
9) Alumni Office Report: Kim Schmelz
a. See Alumni Office Report.
b. The Alumni membership is up from this time last year, which is exciting. There
were roughly 185 runners at that morning’s Homecoming Hustle 5K, which is up
from 140 runners last year. The Alumni Association raised around $5,000 on that
event. Future plans include;
i) In October they have a Pabst Brewery Tour,
ii) A Legacy Breakfast during Family Weekend to acknowledge scholarship
recipients, and Toppers Pizza Factory Tour in Whitewater
iii) A November Wilderness Weekend, which is a fundraiser in Wisconsin Dells.
c. At the December Commencement, the Alumni Association honors Outstanding
Alumni and this fall there will be two recipients from EMS. They are Robert
Hendrickson, 1999 Industrial Engineer who works as the Director of Engineering
and Maintenance for Frito-Lay along with Chad Schakelman, a 2000 Civil
Engineer who works as the Industrial Division Manager for JP Cullen & Sons.
d. The Alumni Association is planning four trips in 2015.
e. In January the Alumni Directory Project will begin.
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
i) ACTION ITEM: Members of the Board are encouraged to respond to any
postcards or communication they receive regarding this project promptly as to
aid in the success of this project.
10) Elections/Appointments
a. The Board went through the Bylaws in order to validate the election process and
appointments they would be making. Joe’s second consecutive term as Director is
up and according to the Bylaws; he is not eligible to continue as a Director for a
third consecutive term.
b. Tammy moved that the Board nominate Keena as 1st Vice-President. George
seconded the motion. Motion carried.
c. There are two open Director positions, one open position as 2nd Vice-President,
and three candidates.
i) See Director Candidate Biographies.
ii) The Board had familiarized themselves with the candidate’s biographies prior
to the meeting.
iii) Tammy moved to nominate Greg Jewell as 2nd Vice-President. Don seconded
the motion. The motion carried, and Greg Jewell was elected 2nd VicePresident.
iv) Tammy motioned to nominate Adam Kaiser to a Director position. Keena
seconded the motion. The motion carried, and Adam Kaiser was elected to a
Director position.
v) Don motioned to nominate Brad Samz to a Director position. Keena seconded
the motion. The motion carried, and Brad Samz was elected as a Director on
the Board.
vi) ACTION ITEM: Kim will contact the new members with their new positions
on the Board.
d. There was discussion about having a third Faculty Liaison working with the
Board to increase communication with the Dean’s Office. Faculty Liaisons’ could
split up responsibilities and work together to increase communication efficiency
on campus. Greg made a motion to add a third Faculty Liaison to the Board, and
Don seconded the motion. The motion carried.
i) ACTION ITEM: Julie will talk to Dr. Mark Meyers as to his interest in the
position as Faculty Liaison.
11) New Business
a. The Board discussed the pros and cons of documenting the role/responsibilities of
the Faculty Liaisons, and the autonomy that the Liaisons have to split up roles
based on their strengths and capabilities.
b. The Board discussed the need for a documented description of Student Liaison
roles especially if the Board opts to have two Student Liaisons moving forward.
George created and distributed a draft of the roles and responsibilities for the
Student Liaison position. Comments from the Board have been requested.
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College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
12) Next Meeting
a. As time was running short, the Board decided to wait to schedule the spring
meeting.
b. ACTION ITEM: Kim will send out a Doodle Poll in order to gage when the
optimal date of the spring meeting will be. Members should participate in the poll
in order to ensure the highest attendance possible at the next meeting.
13) Adjournment: Tom Wisniowski
Key Take-Aways and Action Item Summary:
Foundation Office: Board members should spread the word to acquire pledges and gifts
for the SWE Regional Conference bid through any contacts they may have. They should
also feel free to communicate any thoughts, comments, or concerns to the Foundation
through Kelly.
Web Page Updates: Set up meeting to delegate responsibility for the webpage and
update the webpage. The people involved in this meeting would be Greg, Hayley, Phillip
Parker, Julie, Kim, and George. Kim will set this meeting up. The plan will be to go
through links and then content. This will be completed by December 1, 2014. Also new
Board members are requested to provide an electronic photo and contact information in
order to update the Board Member’s web page
Meeting Minutes: Meeting minutes will be sent to Board members within a month of the
meeting as a draft form and reviewed for suggestions prior to posting on the webpage.
They will then be posted on the webpage as a draft until the following meeting where
they will be reviewed and voted on for approval by the Board.
New Checking Account Cushion: Don will research appropriate cushion amounts for
nonprofit organizations to ensure that the Board’s decision to keep a cushion of $3,000
was, in fact, appropriate.
Geode: The Board will ensure that the necessary articles for January – May are written
and provided to the Geode Committee. Topics that were brainstormed are defined in the
minutes. Mark and Joe will communicate with Kim who should be highlighted.
Award Nominations: The Board will communicate the Award nomination to friends,
coworkers, and other contacts to boost visibility and raise the number of nominations.
8 of 9
College of EMS Alumni Chapter Board Meeting Meetings
Prepared by Hayley Norpel
Saturday, October 11, 2014
1500 Ullsvik Hall, UW-Platteville
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Constitution and Bylaws: The committee will meet in January to work on updating the
Constitution and Bylaws. Kim will send George any updates that have been made to the
Alumni Office’s Constitution and Bylaws.
Alumni Office: Members of the Board are encouraged to respond to any postcards or
communication they receive regarding the Alumni Directory Project promptly as to aid in
the success of this project.
New Board Member Election: Keena Spencer-Dobson was elected 1st Vice-President.
Greg Jewell was elected 2nd Vice-President. Adam Kaiser and Brad Samz were elected as
Directors. Kim will contact the new members with their new positions on the Board.
Roles and Responsibilities: Prior to the meeting, George created and distributed a draft
of the roles and responsibilities for the Student Liaison position. Comments from Board
members are requested.
Faculty Liaison: Dr. Jessica Fick is now a Faculty Liaison. Julie will talk to Dr. Mark
Meyers as to his interest in the position as Faculty Liaison.
Next Meeting: Kim will send out a Doodle Poll in order to gage when the optimal date
of the spring meeting will be. Members should participate in the poll in order to ensure
the highest attendance possible at the next meeting.
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