Alumni Council Meeting Minutes August 25, 2007
Alumni Council Minutes
August 25, 2007
Bill Roseen, President, opened the meeting at 10 a.m.
Bill announced that Rob Pierce would be our new Chaplain but unfortunately he would not be with us today.
Valerie Loner, Vice President of Young Alumni and Student Relations, opened the meeting for us with a prayer.
Introduction of Alumni Staff:
- Rufus Massey,
Assistant Vice President of Alumni Development and Historic Berry,
discussed changes that had occurred in the Alumni Office over the
summer along with how alumni can contribute to the college (promote Berry, recruit students, and give financially)
- Milton Chambers, Director of Alumni Development, encouraged the council to contribute financially to Berry, need 100% participation from the council
- Chris Watters, Director of Alumni Relations, introduced herself and told a little about her background prior to coming back to Berry, introduced the Alumni Relations staff
Bill introduced the executive committee to the council.
The items contained in the blue folders were reviewed.
Mission Activities Plan (MAP) was presented: this year’s theme is “It’s all about students!”
Why we want to do this:
· Raise money
· Sponsor events
· Give awards – serve as role models
· Preserve Berry’s heritage
· Young Alumni and Student Relations – about students
Strategic Initiatives:
- Broadly define and increase engagement among alumni in the affairs of the Association and the College community
- Increase the visibility and relevance of the Alumni Association to students and recent grads
Bill’s Personal Goals:
· Focus on students
· Support the Vice Presidents
· Work with Rufus and Alumni staff
· Represent the Association well to the Board of Trustees
What can members of the council do:
- Regular attendance at meetings and events
- Contribute to the work of your committee
- Support Berry financially
- Channel questions to the Alumni staff through your Vice Presidents
- Be a goodwill ambassador for Berry in your community
- Identify prospective students
Committee Reports
Awards – Clara McRae
- Increase pool of nominees
- Create flexible but definite criteria for honorary alumni
- Explore feasibility of creating a student award
- Form a subcommittee to establish ethical practices guidelines in conjunction to giving awards
Events – Betty Whitten
- Expand volunteer opportunities – create a volunteer corps
- Encourage alumni to open their homes and other resources to sponsor events
- DVD history
- Work with SGA, Student Alumni Association to increase engagement
- Increase number of families that attend work week
Heritage – Harlan Chapman
- Pictorial history of last 10 years
- Work with the Centennial Subcommittee
- Continue oral histories
- Support “Friends of Historic Berry”
- Voices of the Past
Financial Support – Barbara McCollum
- Focus on first time gifts
- Establish giving patterns
- 100% participation of council – develop a subcommittee headed up by Ed England to focus on this
- Targeted giving – subcommittee will be formed and headed up by Ron Thornton for this initiative
- Increase percentage of college graduate participation
Young Alumni and Student Relations – Valerie Loner
- The committee passed out water for Freshman Move In Day and, once again, it was a success
- Planning to have a social with faculty and staff with a targeted group of students
- Admissions Ambassadors
- Career Development Center social for young alumni
- Electronic communication
Alumni Centennial Subcommittee – Frances Richey-Golby
· Kick off tentatively scheduled for Alumni Weekend 2008 and end on Founders Day 2009
· Focus on enhancing events already planned on campus
· 100 year banners
· Alumni art exhibits
· Book written by Dr. Dickey
Bill announced that the Young Alumni and Student Relations Committee would be joining the other committees at 2:15 p.m.
Dr. Dickey made a
special announcement. In celebration of the Alumni Centennial a
portrait of Walter Johnson is being painted to be hung in Memorial
Library. The unveiling will occur over Alumni Weekend. Names of all
alumni that contributed to the portrait will be printed on the back of
a program.
Dr. Briggs addressed
the council in providing a college update. He presented his strategic
initiatives for the college for the next year.
The Council reconvened at 3:00 p.m. for the closing session.
Each vice president presented the outcomes of their committee meetings:
Valerie Loner – Young Alumni and Student Relations
· Senior
class and young alumni work day with career development event in the
evening – Heather Henderson and Joe James are spear heading the
subcommittee for this event
· Faculty and Staff alumni and sophomores event – Jennifer Beard is heading up the subcommittee for this event
· Admissions Ambassadors – Jennifer Hyer, Howell McCool, and Ray Smitherman are spearheading the subcommittee for this initiative
· Electronic communication – committee and student panel to be formed at a later date
Barbara McCollum – Financial Support
- Ed England is heading up the subcommittee to insure 100% financial participation from the council
- Ron Thornton and Brad Roberts are heading up the subcommittee to focus on targeted giving
- Focus on educating
students on the cost of their education and what donations from alumni
do to subsidize the cost of their education – use the Campus Carrier to
communicate this
Harlan Chapman – Heritage
- Pictorial DVDs
- Centennial report from Dr. Dickey
- Discussed more people to conduct oral histories with
- Viewed DVDs of some oral histories already completed
Centennial Committee – Dr. Dickey
· Trying
to determine timeframe for the events – propose launching the
centennial year during Alumni Weekend of 2008 and running it through
Founder’s Day 2009
· Parade has been proposed that would involve all parts of campus
· Achieve a web presence
· Highlight accomplishments of alumni
· Second
planning meeting being held after the council meeting and they plan to
create more subcommittees to work on different aspects of the project
Betty Whitten – Events
- Discussed the formation of a volunteer corps
- Discussed holding an Alumni Weekend in the fall
- Have a DVD out on the web in 2008
- Hold a Young Alumni workday during spring break of 2008
Clara McRae – Awards
· Discussed ways to increase the nomination pool
· October 15, 2007 is the deadline for nomination submissions
· Created a subcommittee to work on creating a student alumni award
· Subcommittee formed to create guidelines for the honorary alumni award
· Ethics committee was formed which includes Lisa Nichols, Tim Howard, and Bart Cox
Approval of minutes
from February meeting, Tom Bowen motion that the minutes be passed, the
motion was seconded and passed with no opposition.
Bill asked the
council members to provide feedback about the committee meetings and
breakout sessions with the vice presidents and Bill.
Another item of
business that was discussed was whether or not to extend meeting times.
For November’s meeting there will be a panel presenting “Student Life
in 2007”
In closing, the council watched a DVD of pictures put together by Jean Curran to the music of “My God and I”.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:28 p.m.
Kim Terrell, Secretary