Alumni Board Meeting Minutes

Staff:
Les Garner, President
Debbie Green, Director College Advancement
Ruth Keefe Miller '66, Alumni Director
Dee Ann Rexroat '82, College Communications Director
Bev Moser, Honorary '80, Alumni Programs Coordinator

Guests:
Jerry Ringer '59, Chair, Board of Trustees

The meeting was called to order by President, Julia Gutz. Julia thanked everyone for attending the meeting and extended a special welcomed two new board members Carol Busch Telling '66, and Mark Van Etten, '76.

Julia expressed appreciation to the board for being so active and involved in the life of the college and being visible on and off campus.

Alumni Director, Ruth Keefe Miller, reported on activities of the Alumni Office. Alumni events were held in Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth/ Phoenix, Davenport, Des Moines, and Greater Cornell.

Kristin Still, president of CASA, gave a report on the involvement of the group. They have assisted the alumni office during the past school year.

President Les Garner addressed the group. He informed the board that a search was under way for a Vice President of Admissions and an Athletic Director; Phil Secor (former Cornell President); Ernestine Schlant Bradley, Cornel West, Stephen Carter, and Mary Nelson presented lectures on campus; admitted students for fall 2001 are looking good; academic excellence is alive and well.

Terry Gibson, Vice President for Alumni and College Advancement gave an overview on the Fine Arts and building renovation. Merner Hall is being completely renovated, and will be open for occupancy in the fall of 2001. Alumni Hall will become the art center and will be named McWethy Hall. It is scheduled to be open in the fall of 2002. The theatre at Armstrong Hall will be open in the fall of 2002, and the Music department will be in their new location in the summer of 2003.

Marie Carter contributed $1.5 million for the construction of a ped-mall, which will run from the new theatre to South Hall. Construction will take place between June and August of 2002.

The new track has been completed, and a new physical fitness weight room will be completed thanks to the donation by Kendall and Kathie Adams Meyer.

The meeting continued with adjournment to individual committee meetings. The updated Strategic Plan was passed out. Following committee meetings lunch was served. Dr. Ed Hill, Dr. Richard Jacob, and Dr. David Lyon were presented with Honorary Associate Membership in the Alumni Association. The group then saw the unveiling of the official Cornell Ring.

Meeting reconvened and committee reports were given.

Communications Committee - reported by Barbara Schultz

Endorsed Richard Jacob for honorary alumni award, which was presented at the luncheon today. Voted on Robert Replogle '56 for Distinguished Achievement Award, Phil Gibbs '66 for Leadership and Service Award; Richard Peters and Carey Downs Gibson for Honorary Membership in the Alumni Association.

Robert Replogle, Joan Landquist Kirkpatrick '66 and Doug Kirkpatrick '65 and Phil Gibbs '66 will be given their awards at the Homecoming 2001 Convocation. The class of 1951 will also be given 50-years pins.

Discussion was held on the Young Alumnus Achievement Award to be given to a young alum out of college 10-years or less. Committee voted to proceed with the selection of candidates for the award. A vote was taken to move ahead with the award with one dissenting vote.

Standards for awarding include one or more of the following:
1) Demonstrated leadership capability (established and future)
2) Substantial indication of a commitment to Cornell College
3) Substantial indication of a commitment to the service of others
4) High level of achievement early in their chosen career or profession

Recommendations will come from
Class agents
Area club recommendations
Announcement in Cornell Report and Web site

Objective is to have list of people to consider at the fall meeting in 2001.

Cornell's web page will be changed to www.cornellcollege.edu as of July 1, 2001.

A committee for the sesquicentennial has been formed with Dee Ann Rexroat as chair.

Recommend list of deceased alumni be included in the upcoming Cornell directory.

On Mission/Focus of Alumni Board removed the words "as many."

Review Strategic Plan.

Alumni and College Advancement Committee - reported by Debbie Green

Nels Lindquist led the meeting in the absence of Joe Campanelli.

Accomplishments:

The committee reflected on the class agent and area club activities and accomplishments of the past six months. The college has better informed class agents who appear to be more active. The board's initiative to provide regular appreciation through letters of thanks and birthday cards has been well received.

Club activities have come a long way in the last three years. Board members have been instrumental in getting committees together in the key cities and providing leadership to those committees. In many cases, board members have provided assistance to the Alumni Office in setting meeting and event dates and other event planning details. Of the seven key cities identified for alumni events, six had one or more activities.

Revisions to the Strategic Plan and Future Goals:

Long Term Objective #1 - Class Agents
· Have an active class agent for every class
· All classes will receive regular class agent letters

Annual objectives #1 - Class Agents
· Board members will continue to write letters of thanks to agents
· Staff will continue to send birthday cards to agents
· Staff and board members will share responsibility for writing class letters to classes with no agent

Action Steps #1 - Class Agents
· Tom Reinhard will write the spring 2001 class agent letter to the classes of 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1944 and 1959
· The Alumni Office will write the fall 2001 class agent letter to the current classes with no agents
· A letter of thanks will be sent to all class agents in August/September.
· Staff will sign birthday cards on a monthly basis.

Long term Objective #2 - Area Club Activities
· Establish a connection between alumni from their area clubs with each other and between the alumni and the college

Annual objectives #2 - Area Club Activities
· Continue to identify and maintain board leadership for the seven key areas, whose purpose will be to work with the area club committees in planning activities. Current leadership is identified to be Joe Campanelli - Greater Cornell; Ann Parker Foote, Julie Gutz and John Lively - Twin Cities; John Gilliland, Nels Lindquist, Michael Mudlaff, Tom Reinhard and Lu Ann White - Des Moines; Ruth Brown Ward - Quad Cities; Lynn Luce - Denver, and Joe Morton - Phoenix.

Action steps #2 - Area Club Activities
· Reactivate the St. Louis area by identifying leadership in this area and recruiting a board member from St. Louis
· Continue to recruit key people for the alumni board with the purpose of providing area club leadership.
· Consider other ways that this committee can provide leadership and structure to area club committees so that they can be more self-sufficient.
· Encourage area club committees to piggyback events on existing programs in their communities

Long term objective #3 - Awareness
· Raise awareness of the alumni association to other groups, i.e. students and parents

Annual objective #3 - Awareness
· Continue to be a presence at orientation for new students
· Identify ways to connect with parents

Action steps #3 - Awareness
· Give some type of "freebie" to new students at orientation
· Give parents brochure on alumni association
· Invite a parent to an alumni board meeting
· Assist in calling "Legacies" and their parents

Student Assistance Committee - reported by Michael Mudlaff

I. Admissions
a. Alumni letter project-we have seven new letters, but need pre-med, computer science, and fine arts. Michael, with Lu Ann, will continue to coordinate. Michael will contact Dee Ann Rexroat regarding prospective letter writers.
b. Need to continue to recruit for alumni calling prospective students. Ruth Miller will research recent graduates to find out where they are. Will specifically target former CASA members. Kirk Wilkie suggested having alumni from the seven-targeted areas available during graduation week to contact new grads.
c. Hotel interviews will be set by admissions. Counselors schedules will be determined by mid-September. This is a difficult task because prospective student interviews change and become somewhat spontaneously scheduled. We can do some preliminary recruitment now.
d. Sibling Weekend-CASA working on this. They will invite younger siblings to come for a stay on campus with their sibling.
e. Alumni Board-members need to contact alumni about adding their children to prospective student list. Talking points will be distributed by Sharon Grice. Ruth Miller will coordinate. Fall is target date.
f. E-mail-We have 200+ alumni contacts, over 890 prospective students have asked for a contact. List is excellent-but we do not need to target this project for new volunteers.
g. Yield Events-Targets admitted, but not deposited prospective students. Budget restriction currently limiting number of events.
h. Methodist Youth contacts-New recruiting idea. Lu Ann coordinating. She will contact Iowa Methodist Conference headquarters. What about campus availability for retreats, etc. No food service and not all facilities available. Lots of ideas were brought forth. This will be a long-term project.
i. We need alumni to staff table at Homecoming this fall.

II. Clasp Update
a. Alumni list has not grown much. The Career Services Office is beginning to see more inquiries by students. Internship involvement is the key focus now.
b. Faculty is usually the first contact by students regarding internships. Faculty set these up independently. Keith Munson is pursuing more coordination between the faculty and Career Services so that students are more apt to use the Career Services Office and the CLASP database of alumni. Carol Busch Telling may pursue involvement as a parent and alumni board rep on developing a faculty career services task force.
c. No alumni board assistance needed at this time. Better utilization between administration departments is pending.

III. Alumni Presence on Campus
a. Yes we want to continue this. We will re-think details of our orientation presence. Ruth Miller will look into bags. A new college ring is being developed, and some of the profits from the sale of the ring will go to the Alumni Board fund. Orientation is August 29. We will request Greater Cornell alumni for legacy events.
b. Want to re-try, re-emphasize alumni/church relations.
c. Need to not schedule this spring alumni board meeting during block break so that we can participate in a presence on campus' events while here.