EMS Alumni Board - Secretary’s Report
10 October 2014
1) The EMS Alumni Chapter web pages are now linked through a drop down box from the
College of EMS’ web page.
2) Changes to the EMS Alumni Chapter web pages have evolving slowly in concert with the
web updating process initiated by the University in 2013.
3) As the web updating process evolved, there was consensus among representatives of the
EMS Alumni Chapter and the College of EMS that the EMS content would eventually be
able to be changed/modified autonomously by designated EMS Alumni Chapter Board
representatives following training and in collaboration with (and assumed oversight by)
representatives of the College of EMS.
4) Training has been completed for President, Greg Bies, and the Student Liaison, Hayley
Norpel.
5) The EMS Alumni Chapter web pages linked from the College of EMS’s web site remain
significantly out of date as of 2 October 2014. Examples: Geri and Jeff are still listed as
Board members, William Hudson and Lisa Riedle are still listed as Dean and Associate Dean
respectively of the College of EMS, the latest minutes of the EMS Alumni Chapter Board
date to April 2013, and the latest EMS Alumni Chapter budget noted is for 2011/2012.
6) As always, Board members are requested to review the EMS web site from time to time and
advise of changes that need to be made. The only thing more frustrating than no information
is wrong information.
Communication Plan:
While the secretary’s duties to the EMS Alumni Chapter and its Board are not officially undertaken as
a “committee,” the secretary’s duties are fulfilled through a collaborative effort, which is the essence of
a committee’s primary method of operation.
The most basic purpose of the secretary’s position is to keep accurate meeting minutes and to
communicate same to the Board and to alumni. To this end, an effort has been made to publish minuets
of the most recent Board meeting in draft on the EMS Alumni web site in advance of the next meeting.
In addition to keeping the minutes, the secretary’s duties include updating the web site in general.
Various committee chairs/members can and should continue to update the web site pursuant to each
committee’s work. The secretary can assist with specific updates when requested and more broadly
reviews and updates the web site on a periodic basis. An example of this is the collaborative effort with
Web Development to revise the Board Members’ contact information web page to include a photo of
each Board member to assist alumni and others who may access the site to quickly identify and to
facilitate contact with Board members so that Board members can better represent alumni interests.
The secretary may also, from time to time, write articles for the GEODE.
The secretary’s function is shared with a student liaison. The student liaison receives a stipend for
typing minutes and coordinating web changes to the EMS Alumni web site. The student liaison’s
assistance is instrumental to the success of the communication plan for alumni members, and in
recording/tracking the work of the EMS Alumni Chapter and its Board of Directors.
George Hellert