The St. Louis Advisory Council of Rockhurst University Meeting Minutes from September 13th, 2012 The Rockhurst University St. Louis Advisory Council began its fiscal 2013 slate of meetings on Thursday, September 13th at the offices of Frontenac Bank, hosted by Rick Heinrichs, President of the St. Louis Advisory Council for fiscal 2013. Returning members of the SLAC in attendance, (along with their current committee positions) were as follows: Rick Heinrichs, President Cis Thum, Social Chairwoman Juliette Losapio, Spirituality Co-Chair Megan Hoffman (formerly Tietjens) Spirituality Co-Chair Dan Holmes, Service Chair Keith Goltschman, Membership/Recruitment Chair Elizabeth Connelly Mary Carnoali Bill Newbold, Secretary Returning Members of the Council not in attendance were: Dave Herdlick Maureen Hermann (because of a work conflict, Maureen will be Inactive in Fiscal 2013) New Members of the SLAC included the following members, along with our parent representative: Patrick Feagan Ryan Kelly Ted Toczylowski Garrett Fischer Lauren Caldwell Martin Lenihan, Parent Representative Rockhurst University Executive Staff included: Mary Landers, Director of Alumni and Constituent Relations Sue Wallace, Development Officer The purpose of the meeting was to provide an overview of the Council’s objectives, recap key objectives that were met in fiscal 2012, and outline our key objectives for fiscal 2013 and beyond, as determined by the Council’s Strategic Plan. In addition, the Council will need to discuss and approve the Strategic Plan. Rick Heinrichs began the meeting by welcoming everyone to the SLAC and opened with a prayer, with special recognition to the new SLAC members, as noted above. Rick then suggested that each member of the Council introduce themselves and give a little background information as to their graduation year and place of employment, and previous involvement with the university. Rick outlined the plans and agenda for the meeting and asked Mary Landers from RU to present her Directors Report to the Council. DIRECTOR’S REPORT by MARY LANDERS, Rockhurst University: Mary began her report by enthusiastically reporting that Rockhurst University is enjoying its largest freshman class ever, with a freshman enrollment of 449 for the Fall Semester. This was up significantly from the 326 freshmen the previous year, and eclipsing the previous enrollment record of 417 students in 2009. The increase in enrollments was largely attributed to the university spending more time communicating with potential students and their parents, insuring that families knew the opportunities for attendance at Rockhurst University. In addition, the university worked hard to make a Rockhurst education attainable by increasing academic scholarships. Following the enrollment update, Mary mentioned that the campus looks great and the beginning of the academic school year was exciting and vibrant with the increased enrollment and mentioned several events that should drive awareness and attendance to the university, namely the following: The Leadership Series, featuring Mr. George Will on September 27th Family and Alumni Weekend on September 28th and 29th The Family and Alumni weekend will be packed with sporting events and various alumni events, including an Alumni Awards banquet. Mary encouraged members to attend the Family and Alumni weekend. Mary then mentioned the work that she and the Executive Members of the Council (Rick Heinrichs, Cis Thum, and Bill Newbold) undertook to recap the previous fiscal year and to outline the Councils goals and objectives. She mentioned that those items would be discussed at this meeting by the respective Council members and that the full Council would have time to discuss those items as part of our meeting objectives. Before concluding her presentation, Mary reminded the SLAC that her team had developed a central location for the SLAC to access meeting documents and other items of importance. Mary said that Council members can visit the St. Louis Advisory Council Electronic Handbook that her team has posted online. If the above link does not work, you can access the sited at www.alumni.rockhurst.edu/stladvisorycouncil. Mary emphasized that this will be a great tool for Council members and asked that members save this important resource to their “favorites” list. In addition, Mary reminded Council members that we need to formally approve the Strategic Plan for fiscal 2013 and that we need to fill the following committees with Chairs: Admission and Recruitment Development Chairman Young Alumni Rick thanked Mary Landers for her great work with Alumni Relations. She is very committed and offers the Council a great resource for building the St. Louis area outreach. The Electronic Handbook mentioned above is just one of the many resources that Mary and her team have built for us. In addition, she has worked very hard to help Alumni Councils around the country become more effective and to help build the brand of Rockhurst University. REGIONAL REPORT by SUE WALLACE, Rockhurst University Sue began her report by highlighting alumni events and plans to continue to build awareness throughout the St. Louis Alumni base and how her outreach efforts were developing. Sue mentioned that the university’s outreach continues to build through a number of channels, including social media and special events designed to bring alumni together and build relationships with the entire RU community in St. Louis. The new Facebook page for St. Louis alumni opened in July and highlights upcoming alumni events. Other notable ideas included Continuing Education events, where Rockhurst Alumni can gather to earn professional education credits for their profession (largely legal, accounting, and financial professionals) and business networking events among RU alumni. Sue mentioned that she will continue to expand the social media channels as part of her objectives and she encourage the Council for feedback and participation in developing these channels. Sue also mentioned the continued success of the Arch Angels Scholarship program, whereby groups of alumni commit to 4 years of donations to fund a scholarship for a student that otherwise cannot afford an education at RU. Given its success, the program has been rolled out to other cities, and Sue mentioned the opportunity to start new Arch Angel groups and she would be happy to offer her assistance for any member who would like to participate. Sue also highlighted upcoming marquee events, namely the first recipient of the school’s Magis Award, Tony Tocco (PhD in Accounting and the long-time Men’s Soccer Coach) to be held on Saturday, January 13th at the The Heart of St. Charles Banquet Center. The entire RU community is excited for this event because of Tony’s reach throughout the school among its numerous accounting and business majors, along with a sizeable number of soccer alumni in the St. Louis area (including Keith Goltschman and Bill Newbold from our Council). Sue encouraged all members to attend and mentioned there are sponsorship opportunities at the Award Dinner. Sue then mentioned how the work of the university and committed alumni is building awareness in St. Louis and other Rockhurst communities. Giving participation rates are up and recent campaigns have been very successful, namely the Project 700 campaign, which encouraged participation of 700 new alumni donors to the University. Participation rates increased from 11.3% to 19.3%, placing RU among the leaders in participation rates among universities. Both Sue and Mary Landers emphasized in various segments of their presentations that the key to growing donors is to increase attendance at events. This sense of belonging fosters giving among alumni and broadens the reach of alumni donors for the university. Sue and Mary reported that initial correlation levels of attendance to alumni giving were 44% but that the correlation levels grew to 60%. So the emphasis is clear, alumni that attend events tend to give to the university and that we should be focused on driving attendance to our events. The Council commended Sue for her great work and highlighted that the awareness level within the St. Louis community of RU alumni is much higher given her presence in the community and her work in meeting with various alumni over the years. Sue then concluded her remarks and mentioned that she is always open for ideas as she continues to build the university’s reach among alumni. There being no questions for Sue, the Council moved on Rick Heinrichs presentation, providing a recap for Fiscal 2012. RICK HEINRICHS – OVERVIEW of FISCAL 2012 Rick began his presentation by stating the fiscal 2012 was a good year. We continue to build awareness among the St. Louis Alumni community as evidenced by our participation rates with respect to Alumni giving. As mentioned in presentations by Mary Landers and Sue Wallace, alumni participation was up from 11% last year to 19% this year, largely driven by Project 700. Rick emphasized that our objective is meant, not solely to drive alumni giving, but to advance the awareness and effectiveness of the SLAC within the alumni community. And Rick believes that our efforts have reached new alumni, as evidenced by the new faces at our major events. Rick mentioned that 60% of the attendees at our Christmas Party were new attendees, thereby showing that our outreach is effective. In addition, with 43% of the incoming freshman class coming from St. Louis, Rick mentioned that we have a unique opportunity to cultivate and build the presence of the SLAC to a broadening audience of current and future alumni. There being no questions or comments, Rick moved into the discussion of the Strategic Plan for fiscal 2013. STRATEGIC VISION for FISCAL 2013: Rick Heinrichs and Mary Landers laid the foundation for the discussion by mentioning that members of the Executive Team (Cis Thum, Keith Goltschman, Rick Heinrichs, and Bill Newbold) met August 16th, 2012 to revisit the key objectives for the 1-3 year strategic plan for the SLAC. As part of our structural duties, this plan would need to be approved by the SLAC tonight so we can enact the plan for fiscal 2013. Rather than re-type the document, SLAC members can access the Strategic Vision Plan on the St. Louis Advisory Council Electronic Handbook site, but the crux of the report and the primary objectives of the plan were centered on the following: Council Structure Admission and Recruiting Advancement and Fundraising Alumni Events and Programming Discussion on each metric above, followed by the primary objective of each concentration, along with some notable discussion items, were as follows: Council Structure: Objective: In order to successfully advance the efforts for the St. Louis Alumni Chapter it was determined that the following development practices should be integrated into the current council structure. It is recommended that the following committees be established which will adequately represent the strategic efforts of the council: 1. Spirituality 2. Service 3. Social 4. Advancement/Fundraising 5. Admission/Recruiting 6. Membership 7. Young Alumni 8. Continuing Education The St. Louis Advisory Council will integrate measurable goals for each council member. This includes specific committee assignments for each council member and/or active chairman role. Council members will be responsible for forming active, vibrant committees as deemed necessary by the council structure. Council members will be responsible for reporting committee progress at quarterly council meetings. As mentioned previously, there are three chair positions open that needed to be filled. After some discussion among the Council, the following committee’s were filled as follows: Admission and Recruitment – Mary Carnoali Development Chairman – Lauren Cardwell Young Alumni – Ted Toczylowski The St. Louis Advisory Council will seek to increase event participation by 10%. This goal will be based on individual events and will use attendance numbers from FY11 as the baseline for measuring success. ADVANCEMENT/FUNDRAISING Objective: The St. Louis Advisory Council is committed to increasing the percentage of alumni giving in the St. Louis area. In order to successfully reach this goal the following initiatives are suggested. The St. Louis Advisory Council will recommend in the bylaws that each council member be responsible for a minimum $500 annual (FY) contribution to the Rockhurst Fund. Exception will be made for council members who classify as Young Alumni (graduated 10 years or less and/or are under the age of 35) who will be asked for a $100 minimum annual (FY) contribution to the Rockhurst Fund. The goal of the St. Louis Advisory Council is to continually develop initiatives to increase the alumni participation giving rate each fiscal year. The St. Louis Advisory Council is committed to being a 100% giving board. ADMISSION/RECRUITING Objective: The council recognizes the great history and tradition of St. Louis students that attend Rockhurst University. In an effort to cultivate future students and aid in the recruitment efforts the following initiatives are suggested. The St. Louis Advisory Council will assist in suggesting, selecting and inviting St. Louis alumni to host “in home” receptions for admitted students in the St. Louis area. These receptions will be coordinated through the Rockhurst Office of Alumni and Constituent Relations and the Office of Admission. The St. Louis Advisory Council will serve as a resource to the Rockhurst Office of Admission by providing alumni resources for college fairs, high school visits and other recruiting initiatives as needed and coordinated through the Office of Admission. The St. Louis Advisory Council is committed to increasing the alumni participation rate at the annual St. Louis Send- off Picnic held each summer. As a reminder, the entire Strategic Plan can be found on the Council website as previously mentioned throughout these minutes. After several minutes of general group discussion, a motion was presented by Elizabeth Connelly to the Council that the Strategic Vision for Fiscal 2013 be approved for the Council’s activities. The motion received a “second” and was unanimously approved. There being no further comments, the final presentation was that of the Social Chair, Cis Thum. SOCIAL CHAIR Cis mentioned that our social activities will continue to focus on four primary events within the RU alumni base and these events tend to well-liked and well-attended. In addition, we will layer in special events, like the Magis Award dinner and smaller events to supplement our activities. The events, along with the scheduled dates and times, are: 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) Palm Sunday Mass – Sunday, March 24th at 10:00 AM Christmas Party at the Kirkwood Train Station – November 30th (Friday) SLU versus RU in basketball – Scheduled for November 3rd at 2:00 PM (Saturday) St. Louis Cardinals Baseball - TBD Magis Award Dinner Special Event – Saturday, January 12th from 6-10 PM at the Heart of St. Charles Banquet Center (1410 South Fifth Street) Cis then mentioned that her goals will continue to center on increasing attendance and building diversity among attendees. Cis mentioned to the group that in order to achieve these goals, we would need to increase our exposure to parents, younger alumni, and those groups from the “missing decades”, which Cis mentioned as the 60’s, the 70’s, and the 90’s. In order to reach these “missing decades” we will begin utilizing “class captains”, which will focus on reaching those specific decades. In addition, we will try to incorporate “service” into our events in an effort to reach broader groups and fulfill the “service to others” aspect of our alumni community. As part of the discussion, Cis mentioned that we will change some events up this year in an effort to reach more people. Here are some of the changes that will occur as to our events: With respect to the Christmas Party at the Kirkwood Train Station, we will schedule the event on a Friday night in an attempt to avoid office Christmas parties that can hamper our attendance. We obviously can’t avoid all schedule conflicts, but Cis felt that we should try this in an attempt to drive more attendance. The Council agreed and the Christmas Party is scheduled for Friday, November 30th at the Kirkwood Train Station. As to the Cardinals game, there was active discussion about potentially moving the format to “every other year”, as attendance continues to decline for this event. The Cardinals-Cubs baseball weekend in Chicago continues to draw very well and that may be hampering attendance at the St. Louis baseball event (alumni may just be picking one baseball game per year to attend as an alumni and the Cardinals-Cubs weekend may be the more attractive draw). In addition, extreme heat and location of the venue versus the original location (when RU alumnus Mark Lamping was president of the Cardinals) may also be impacting attendance. The council will continue to consider how we package the venue in order to maximize our participation and we will explore other ways to restore the event’s luster with the St. Louis Alumni community, but we have decided to skip the summer of 2013 until we can get a better feel for the event. With respect to the Palm Sunday Mass, it was agreed that this was our strongest event. It draws over 200 attendees and draws rave reviews from the families that attend. The Mass and our gathering is at the core of all that the university stands for and represents a wonderful way in which alumni, parents, and new enrollees can come together. It was decided that an Easter Egg Hunt was not needed to enhance the program. Mary Landers then asked the group to discuss the best way to communicate with alumni and that the group should consider the merits between e-mail and “save-the-date” postcards. The SLAC encouraged that the Alumni office moves away from postcards and rely more on electronic communication, when possible. There may be times and events when a postcard makes sense but in an effort to reduce costs, the Council recommended prudence when using traditional mail. There being no further discussion on the Social area, President Rick reminded the SLAC of the upcoming meeting dates for the Council. They are as follows: 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) November 15th, 2012 January 10th, 2013 March 14th, 2013 May 9th, 2013 Respectfully submitted, Bill Newbold Secretary