ALUMNI COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Council Members in Attendance: Tina Benevento, Jonathan DeLong, Kamyab
Sadaghiani, and Kibibi Springs
Faculty Advisors: Linda Putnam, Karen Myers, Anna Laura Jansma, Ron Rice
Student Representative: Josh Beauregard-Bell, Director of Membership, Communication
Association
I.
Welcome
Linda welcomed everyone. Josh Beauregard-Bell our student representative was
welcomed. Josh is the new director of membership for the Communication Association.
Ron Rice was introduced to the group as the new Chair of the department.
II.
Updates
Ron talked about development. He discussed and distributed information from the
Communication website on “Opportunities for Giving.” He has been involved in
development work in his role as co-director of the Carsey-Wolf Center and as a result has
learned a lot about development. Currently, he is involved in interviews for the Social
Sciences Development officer. According to the Development Office’s records, we are a
Department with an untapped development potential; that is, we have a large number of
alumni who are capable of making donations and have not tapped them. We have 8453
alumni and very few have been contacted by Development. Ron welcomes any ideas that
the AC members have about development.
Linda talked about the Bradac lecture, dedicated a portrait of Jim Bradac, and reception
that took place yesterday. The portrait was donated by Vicki Prentice-Rubin. Members
were given programs from the dedication-lecture.
A. Membership Recruitment and Relations
Leslie Konoff has joined the Council, unfortunately she couldn’t be here today.
Jonathan, Laura M. and Laura R. are leaving or are “on sabbatical” from the Council for
a period. The Council members are very sorry to see them leave, but we understand and
hope that their time away is temporary. We are approaching a few other alumni as
possible candidates for membership.
B. Budget
The budget looks good. We are still missing some membership contributions for the year.
We have about $15,000 in the account.
C. Alumni Database
Karen and Anna Laura talked about the Vertical Response System. We are getting it set up
and learning about its capabilities. We hope to have all the kinks in the database worked
out for Career Day to send out a customized email to all alumni on the list.
III.
Priorities for the Alumni Council
The big topic of discussion was membership. Two issues for potential and current
members are time and money. The Council discussed ideas for different levels of
membership that might make joining and staying more attractive for more people. If we
have different levels, they might resemble (names for these levels have not been
selected):
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Alumni Council Level: the Alumni Council is still the highest and most
prestigious level of membership.
Friend Level: for people who want to give a donation but know they can’t be
involved in meetings and other activities.
Supporter Level: Others might want to be involved at a hands-on level, maybe
because they can’t afford the donation or want direct contact with students and the
department.
Kibibi agreed that more levels are a good idea. Time is so precious to many people. She
suggested that we create something more to offer alumni. Jonathan agreed that we need
different groups. We need people who are willing to do the hands-on and lifting; we need
people to strategize and give advice; and we also need outreach or people to help with
alumni networks. Tina also agreed that multiple levels of membership is a good idea.
Regarding the volunteer membership level, she suggested that there be some financial
commitment in addition to volunteering.
Here were some suggestions about the different types of membership, ways to promote
the memberships, and other ways of connecting with alumni:
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Could there be a monthly fee to make it more affordable? This idea is attractive,
but we do not have a system in place to debit credit cards automatically and it
would be overly complicated. We do allow people to pay for the membership in
installments.
Jonathan argued that we need a way for get people involved from the point of
graduation to 10 years out. Josh agreed but commented on the financial stress of
new graduates. There must be benefits that they can see. A smaller fee is better.
Regarding the volunteer-level membership, can we define roles that we need to
have people fill? Describe how the levels will be done? We can also find
someone who could donate their work through their business? Donations in kind
should also count.
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Kibbi suggested a directory of COMM students/COMM alumni that could be a
useful resource for connecting with other alumni professionally and socially, offer
profiles of alumni and their organizations, publicize jobs/internships, provide
mentoring to students or young graduates (optional), and celebrate successes.
Annual subscriptions should be affordable, maybe as low as $60 annually. How to
make it low maintenance? Could it be maintained by the user? Application
Programming Interface (API). Possibly it could use Linked-in for the interface.
Stream-lined updates with both. The network could be a membership benefit.
Jonathan agreed that the network should allow our alumni to discover each other
and make those close connections. It will be a great way to find employees and
others for professional relationships. Kibibi suggested this would be Google
hangouts just more ways to connect across the miles. Tina suggested that it has to
be a small commitment upfront about $60 for subscription but the relationships
are the most important motivator. Jonathan suggested that it could be a platform
to publicized everyone’s successes.
We need a way to market memberships and the new network to seniors. One way
to attract students is to promote it by mentioning people and the careers of
individuals who are members of the Council
Promote the benefits: Professional contacts, staying in contact with other grads, a
source of information about different types of careers held by alumni, automatic
connections/relationships in a more personal way.
There should be some way for people to indicate whether they are open to
mentoring and being contacted by students and recent grads.
We need to start promoting Alumni Council membership earlier. Get students to
join [at some level] as seniors. Pay a small amount to be a part of the network and
to come to the Senior-Alumni Mixer.
Potential names for the Senior-level membership: “Life-long Communication
Success Program”. CommSuccess.net.
Have memberships to CommSuccess. net available for graduation gifts? $150 for
three or four years?
Jonathan suggested that the biggest risk is not asking for enough. If we ask for
small amounts, people believe they have done all that’s required then they are not
receptive to larger donations.
How to implement? Ron added that there could be some platforms that are
available that are already set up that won’t require our labor to do. Or, this could
be a class project for a Computer Science class. Jonathan suggested that we could
fund it through a kick-start campaign. Look for possibilities for people to develop
it for us. We could do an honors contract with students that would have students
to find these opportunities. We could also have an intern and/or pay a graduate
student.
Jonathan mentioned how valuable the network would be to employers.
The Council discussed possible changes to the Alumni Council membership:
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The Council decided that we should have three membership categories—Council
members, Friends, and Supporters. We discussed the idea as to whether Friends
should pay less that the full Council membership.
Jonathan suggested that the biggest risk is not asking for enough. If we ask for
small amounts, people believe they have done all that’s required then they are not
receptive to larger donations.
We agreed that the main membership is the Alumni Council and that the
membership donation should remain the same with the same perks. Jonathan
highlighted the digital parking pass as a big perk as well as the Chancellor
Council. Council members decided that Friends should pay the same as full
members and get the same perks, but not be expected to attend meetings or be
involved in events.
Name of the Council. Tina said that at times she gets so many emails from the
Alumni Association that it can be confusing about whether the communication is
from the Department of Communication’s Alumni Council or the university’s
Alumni Association. Should we change the name to the Department of
Communication Council? Members disagreed on this issue and related it to
whether we wanted non-alumni to be part of the Council. Anna Laura said that we
do not need to raise this issue yet and that it should be separate from deciding on
levels of membership.
Should we meet less often? Is twice a year too often? Members said “no,” twice a
year is optimal for connecting with each other. If people can make it in person,
connecting to the meeting virtually should be offered.
Linda asked what was Office of Development’s role in recruiting Kibibi and Jonathan?
They said it felt like a special invitation. Michael Miller (the development officer who
recruited many of the founding Alumni Council members) talked about the university
level and challenges that the university was facing while the Department Chair or Alumni
Council faculty discussed the departmental accomplishments and needs. . Jonathan added
that we are doing a great job of developing curiosity in the Department and the Council,
but we need someone to be the closer. It needs to be someone who can represent the
university. Members talked about how something as simple as parking passes are
extremely useful for Council members and just another little prestigious benefits that is
important for many members. Later, Kibibi suggested offering a discount at the bookstore
to Council members.
IV.
Afternoon Senior-Alumni Event, Reception
The mixer is taking place 2:00-3:30 today on the balcony. Students are very excited to
participate. 50 students signed up right away. The issue has been getting alumni to
participate. We do not know why. We talked about offering the Senior-Alumni event as a
benefit for those who are a part of the CommSuccess.net program (others would pay a
small fee), but if we can’t attract alumni, this could be a problem. The wine and cheese
reception will follow in the Commons and balcony at 3:30.
V.
February Internship Mixer (Communication Association)
The mixer is scheduled for February 26 in Corwin Pavilion. Last year it was in the
Student Resource Building and it was very crowded. We hope to be able to have signs
and tables for all the organizations providing internships. Local employers will
participate—maybe seated at tab les. Students are members of Communication
Association or they pay a $5 fee. This event is very successful and students often walk
away with internships. If we have CommSuccess.net, students could get in free.
VI.
Career Day 2014—April 26
Many students think it is a career fair and only come when they are on the job market.
Should we change the name? “Meet the Pros.” “Communication Professional Forum.”
Career Day: Communication Professional Forum. 30 Pearls of Wisdom. 30 things you
can do. Since it is the 30th Anniversary of the Department, we build this into the title,
planning, etc. The goal might be to get 50 alumni involved.
. Should we change the format? Some students came for the first panel only and leave at
the intermission. Students have suggested they want more time to connect with
employers. One idea that Anna Laura share is holding the panels then open up full
Corwin for employers/Comm alumni to sit at tables to talk to students—more of a mixer
format. Another idea suggested was having a mixer going on at the same time as the
panels. The fear is that students won’t attend the panels. One suggestion was to create
punch cards or hand stamps for events and give prizes to students who have the most or
set up a raffle with tickets for attending events.
Should we change the date? Are alumni too busy attending other events as part of All
Gaucho Reunion? The Council decided there are too many benefits to having the event
during the AGR, especially receiving promotion for the Department’s event on the
Alumni Association’s website.
A big problem last year was too few students attended Career Day. We are looking at
new ways to promote the event to students and faculty. Karen will focus on promoting
the event for better attendance—in class announcements that enforce that the event is for
all students—not just seniors. Students can learn about careers, in general. Faculty can
provide extra credit or assignments for attending the event and optional assignments for
students who are unable to attend. Another idea might be to have students RSVP and feel
some commitment to attend. This way we would have their email address to contact them
after the event with a feedback survey about it.
Jonathan asked why students come and what they receive from the event. Linda and
Anna Laura noted that students learn about daily work activities, the broad range of
careers that are available, how to market the major, lessons on the job, and general career
education. Kibbi noted that a real benefit is the reality check of one’s job—bridging life
between school and the workplace.
Because there were too few students, we are not trying to get donations from
organizations this year. Perhaps if numbers increase for a few years, we will try again.
We are also looking at ways to cut back on costs—less food and drink. We have not
discussed any receptions that might be held for alumni after the event.
The Council meeting adjourned at 1:30 to prepare for the Seniors Mixer.