COMMUNICATION ALUMNI COUNCIL
MINUTES FROM MEETING
October 13, 2012
Council Members in Attendance: Jonathan DeLong, Kamyab Sadaghiani, Mary
Shirley, Kibibi Springs, Laura Roenick (virtual).
Absent: Tina Benevento, Laura McHugh, Fran Mancia, Vicki Prentice Rubin, Rebecca
Law Stone
Faculty Members: Linda Putnam, Karen Myers, Anna Laura Jansma
Student Representative: Lauren Maser, Communication Association
Guest: Ann Hagan, Director of Development, Division of Social Sciences
I. Welcome
A. Linda welcomed members and updated everyone on activities in the
Department.
B. She noted the following important occurrences:
1. Dr. Dana Mastro, full professor, new faculty member has joined the
Department from the University of Arizona. Her specialty is media
studies, race and ethnicity.
2. The department has decided to hire an undergraduate student, Cynthia
Ni, who will be a paid Intern for work with public relations and especially
social media. She will help the Department promote events through
Twitter, Facebook, Link-In, and blogs. Council members suggested that
we write up a summary of the Council meeting and post it on Facebook
and Link-In and provide a way that viewers could tag it if they were
interested in joining the Council.
3. The Department received a 2nd in the nation ranking in the number of
citations to faculty publications. UCSB averaged 442 citations per faculty
for 947 publications from 2007-2010 for 16 faculty members. 60
universities were included in the study.
3. Three faculty members have received top awards to be presented at the
National Communication Association meeting in Orlando, FL, Nov. 1417, 2012.
1) Howie Giles received the Gerald M. Phillips Applied
Communication Research Award.
2) Linda Putnam received the Samuel Becker Award for
Distinguished Service in the profession. Both awards are
association-wide recognition.
3) Tammy Afifi received the Franklin Knower Best Article award
in Interpersonal Communication for the best publication in the past
5 years. The publication cited was co-authored with two of our
graduate students.
II. Membership Recruitment and Relations
A. Linda announced that Liz Rockhold, Amy Stoody, and Valerie Walker had
resigned from the Council, for a variety of reasons. The Council is now 10
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alumni and we continue to recruit new members. We sent letters and emails to 7
alumni in April and May. Tina Benevento joined the Council and Amanda
Johnson wanted to but it did not work out.
B. We identified the following alumni to recruit for membership: David
Hefferman, KEYT3; Steve McCarty, Stanford McCarty Commercial Real Estate;
Aaron Kaplan, HP Americas Channel; Anton Anderson, SPL Financial Group;
and Heather Wilburn, Google. Linda has sent or will be sending letters and
follow-up emails to each of them.
C. Council members volunteered to schedule telephone calls with any alumni who
want to talk with them. Linda will provide an email introduction and Council
members will recruit and ascertain interest in the Council. Kibibi Springs
expressed a willingness to contact Debbie Miller, who declined in April, but said
maybe later.
D. The Council members discussed the idea of a new title for alumni who support
the Council financially, but did not want to join. A suggestion was made for a
title such as Honorable Mention or Alumni Support Member for alumni who want
to help, but cannot give the time commitment.
1) Ann suggested that we might aim for 30 Council members and an
Executive Board. Members would support the Council financially and
attend meetings now and then while Executive Committee members
would meet regular and do more of the work.
2) Executive Council could be 2-3 year terms, renewable; stagger rotation
so never lose everyone at once
3) New Council Members make new connections—add diversity in age,
gender, location and industry.
4) The Department should recognize the Founding Members of the
Alumni Council on our website.
III. Budget Update
A. Including Career Day donations included, the Council has raised $25,981 since
its inception. Expenses for the Council’s total activities are $8,160.84 leaving
$14,520 as a balance as of September 2012.
B. Mary asked about how the donations for Career Day doubled from last year.
Linda recognized Jonathan and Karen who spearheaded a major fundraising drive
to bring in the $3000 to support Career Day. Everyone applauded.
C. Anna Laura brought up the problem of scheduling Career Day—needing a
guarantee of the courtyard and room assignments before the beginning of the
quarter and the difficulty of getting this request through scheduling. Ann Hagan
said that she would talk with the Alumni Association and see if we could get this
event pre-scheduled and reserve the rooms the quarter before the event.
IV. Afternoon Events—Workshop for Seniors and Alumni Wine Tasting
A. Seniors Workshop—2:00-3:30--Anna Laura reviewed the procedures for the
Workshop for Seniors. 5 additional alumni will join the 4 Alumni Council
members for this event. Anna Laura will ask Alumni to introduce themselves to
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the 25-35 students who have RSVPed that they are coming. Lauren Maser will
introduce Comm Association Officers.
B. Alumni and faculty will sit at tables with a mix of students and students will be
asked to rotate tables. Refreshments will be served in the lounge area.
C. Winetasting Event—4:00-6:30 at Kunin Tasting Room, 28 Anacapa in Santa
Barbara. This event was advertised through punchbowl as a social networking
that alumni who were here for Career Day suggested. Another 8-10 alumni and
guests have RSVPed for this event. The Council thanked Jonathan for his
contact. Jonathan suggested that we talk with Seth and Megan about developing a
reciprocal relationship in which Kunin sponsors Career Day if we schedule winetasting events for future alumni events there. Linda and Jonathan will look into
this option. Jonathan agreed to give an announcement at the Winetasting Event
about the Council.
V. Priorities for the Alumni Council
A. Chair of the Council. Karen led a discussion on whether we need a Chair for
the Council, a person to liaison with the Department and with Development. This
person could be given a title and a term of service. The job description will
evolve as the position gets enacted. This might be a rotating position and should
be added to the list of 2012-2013 Project Tasks. A motion was made and passed
unanimously that Jonathan DeLong be the Council chair. Linda will forward this
motion and get a vote from all Council members.
B. The Council considered how we could scale back commitment of time and
effort and made the following decisions:
1. Conference Calls—should be quarterly rather than monthly. Need to
have at least one call between meetings. Sub-committees or project
groups might connect. Might do some online meetings or communicate
through Google.doc or chat.
2. Council Meetings—Meetings are a vehicle for Council retention. Two
options exist:
a) Have 2 per year, but have one virtual—have portals and have
virtual participation.
b) Face-to face meeting. Maybe piggyback on another meeting—
the Chancellor’s Foundation meeting. Invite alumni, get a table
together, maybe go out to dinner together. Other events that might
be a trustee’s meeting, the Legacy Tea—for UCSB alumni who are
involved in estate planning, with a reception on Friday night or an
Alumni Association event, like in Malibu Vineyards. Many of
these are set up a year in advance. We could look at the ones
available and pick the one that best fits our agenda.
c) The Council would meet twice a year—once at All Gaucho
Reunion and a second meeting in conjunction with a Chancellor’s
or Alumni Association Event
C. Priorities for Project Tasks—Buckets of Responsibilities. Karen conducted
a survey of member preferences for working on projects. Projects are bite size
chunks of what the Council should be doing. We need to move away from the
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heavy lifting on these events and partner, delegate, and collaborate to deliver it.
Partner with Communication Association, Alumni Association, and Development.
We should not be the organizers, but follow the mandate of augmenting and
improving on what students do.
1. Council Membership Recruitment –should be after Career Day.
Jonathan and Kibibi will help with this task.
2. Alumni Career Profiles –Council members liked the idea, but felt that
we may be creating what we already have. The best idea would be to send
a questionnaire and have alumni fill it out or continue the spotlight in the
Gaucho Communicator. Putting profiles on the web would require
updating them. Transcriptions of interviews seemed costly and timeconsuming. Members rated this project task as lower in priority.
3. Internship Mixer—partner with Communication Association for an
event in February. Council helps with local employers who could come
and support the event. Maybe two employers on two panels to kick it off
or provide a list of local companies how have internships and could be
contacted. Tina and Jonathan signed up to assist Communication
Association.
4. Creating Collateral for Research Initiatives
a. Way to tell the story of funding research initiatives. Narratives
are research descriptions, grant proposals, or grant reports
translated to create marketing collateral. Way to take faculty
passion for a project and integrate it with donor passion and/or
Dean’s initiatives.
b. Extremely important in terms of development. It is critical to
examine how the description is presented or how it is worded.
c. Alumni interested in the project task—Jonathan, Vicki, Rebecca,
and Mary
1) Jonathan expressed preference for Communication Technology,
and Organization Speaker Series working with Dave Seibold.
2) Mary expressed interest in working with Research and Programs
on Aging in Society with Howie Giles
3) Kibibi expressed interest in working with Research and
Engagement in Organizational Social Responsibility working with
Cynthia and Michael Stohl.
5. Career Day –Council’s greatest success. Provides the department the
most benefit and meets needs of alumni.
1) Might consider getting a big speaker or big event. Get a
company to underwrite it.
2) Increase the brand—collaborate with other social science
departments to host it in ways that cross departments. Avoid
having multiple Career Days on campus, have communication
become the nexus for it.
3) Look at 5 years and see what we have accomplished. Perhaps
make in parallel with other career initiatives—Strategic Business
Partners (certificate program between economics and Extention);
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Career Connection—internship opportunities for students. These
could be complements to Career Day.
4) Get to Ann—Develop a 1 page description of Career Day—
talking points for why a company might endow or underwrite
Career Day—philosophy and beliefs about the event, how feed into
growth strategy for it, need for jobs and internships, cover number
of alumni attend and number of students involved. Give preview of
Council members—their backgrounds and companies involved.
5) Plan a winetasting event as part of All Gaucho Reunion—
continue this ideas for alumni to network and get together.
VI. Development Discussion—Ann Hagan, Guest
A. Development Activities and Events
1. Annual fund—calling alumni for donations
2. Regional outreach—Chancellor level support to reconnect with UCSB
alumni
3. Mixers—development office has a goal to get people in the door; not
necessarily a donor
4. Now able to do a restricted ask—like for Career Day or features in the
Communication Department
a. Winetasting event—cultivate the community before the event;
include selected people with special email, calls, email blasts,
reception cards.
b. Need to work out what strategies are in place about getting
alumni back to campus.
5. Question about how Alumni Council member could help if they identify
a potential donor or supporter for the Department
a. Get their name and contact information
b. Share it with faculty or Ann
c. Update alumni records; department database
d. Contact them about annual fund, send link to Gaucho
Communicator, get back to campus for lunch or coffee.
e. Get Ann involved. She can ask questions about career, family,
levels of involvement, how take to the next step to partner with
faculty and development.
f. Career Day—open doors to others in organizations.
g. Have a special meeting with what we might want to accomplish
or want to discuss. Take baby steps and build a long-term
relationship. It is important to know the alumni members interests
and passions.
6. Development projects
a. Event or Endowment Support for Career Day. A company
might have a number of connections to the department and be
interested in Career Day, but we need to offer them publicity,
special recognition, and opportunities to receive interns and
connect with students. We could aim for $5000 a year for 10
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years. We need to think big and leverage the event for the
Department and the Council.
b. Collateral—need to focus on specific initiatives, handouts,
reasons to look at the department. Developing collateral to help
with fund-raising would be very beneficial.
VII. Summary –Council members thanked Ann Hagan for joining us and her excellent
suggestions. Linda indicated that we will contact all Council members about election of
Council Chair. Linda, Anna Laura, Karen, and Council chair will meet to work on next
steps based on these discussions. Several agendas seem particularly salient—1) more
collaboration/partnerships on events, especially with Communication Association, 2)
quarterly conference calls, 3) selecting a Chancellor’s or Alumni Association event for
fall meeting, 4) developing material related to underwriting or supporting Career Day, 5)
deciding on other priorities related to developing collateral and membership recruitment.
Next Meeting: Saturday, April 27, All Gaucho Reunion
Meeting Adjourned at 1:50 to get ready for Seniors Workshop
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