Executive Committee Members

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Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

May 2, 2008

Location:  School Room, Abbot Campus

Members present:

Chris Auguste (VP, Multicultural Affairs), Tom Beaton (Non Sibi Day), Al Blum (AGB, Alumni Trustee), Mark Cutler (faculty), Susan Donahue (VP, Governance, Special Events), Abby Harris (Athletics), Peter Hetzler (President), Sara Su Jones by phone (AAR, Bylaws), John Kane (Athletics), Michael Koehler (Mentoring/Young Alumni), Michael Marrus (AAR), Stephen Matloff (VP, Strategy Innovation), Stefanie Scheer Young (Class Secretaries/Web Editors), Michael Schmertzler (Alumni Trustee), Morissa Sobelson (Mentoring/Young Alumni), Mary-Ann Somers (AGB)

Staff present:

Mike Ebner (Alumni Affairs), Dick Howe (Alumni Affairs), Peter Ramsey (OAR)

Others present:

Les Callahan (CLAC), Bill Kummel (Member-at-large), Mike Meiners (Regional Associations)

Members absent:

Christine Balling (CLAC), Alan Cantor (Class Secretaries/Web Editors), Rosalina Feliciano (Multicultural Affairs), John James (Regional Associations), Murrey Nelson (Regional Associations), Lucy Schulte Danziger (Alumni Trustee), Louis Elson (Alumni Trustee), Susanna Jones (Alumni Trustee)

Peter Hetzler called the meeting to order and welcomed all members.  The minutes of the meeting of January 31, 2008 were approved.

Nominating Committee Report

Susan Donahue described the work of the Nominating Committee in contacting some 50 suggested candidates for Alumni Council and providing them with information about the Council and the responsibilities of membership.  She presented a slate of 34 candidates.  Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to accept the following slate as presented:

 

Note:  Blaise Zerega ’83 subsequently withdrew from consideration and Ryan Coughlan ’02 was added by email vote of the Executive Committee.

There was a brief discussion of the Alumni Trustee election, the results of which will be announced at Reunion Weekend in June.  The general consensus was that the electronic voting option had worked well, with a participation rate well above those of previous elections.

There was a brief discussion of committee co-chairs for next year.  Mike Marrus recommended Kate Bartlett ’01 as his new co-chair for the Admissions Reps. Committee.  Mike Koehler recommended Lisa Chioffi ’86 as a co-chair of the new, combined Mentoring/Young Alumni Committee.  Chris Auguste recommended Sidney Smith ’85 as his co-chair for Multicultural Affairs.  Michael Meiners ’91 was recommended as the new co-chair of the Regional Associations Committee.  Susan Donahue recommended Brian Elworthy ’98 as the new co-chair of Special Events/Reunions.  Upon motion duly made and seconded, these recommendations were accepted by the Executive Committee

Use of Wiki for Committee Minutes

Steve Matloff demonstrated the use of a Google wiki as a site for posting Council documents, in a location where all Council members may collaborate on minutes and other documents.  The following committee reports were presented and subsequently submitted to Steve for inclusion in these minutes

Communication Liaison to the Academy (CLAC)

After an introduction by Les Callahan about CLAC’s historical roots and efforts and an update on the redesign of Andover.edu by Steve Porter, the committee discussed the evolving nature of web development and its implications for an information backbone for Alumni Council.  The committee recognized that, as paraphrased by Mike Meiners, "Web development is now a moving target," and that constant and inexpensive testing of information management tools has significant benefits. The committee agreed to the following goals:

SHORT-TERM

Consider available online tools that could address 2-3 challenges faced by 3 committees:

·         for Class Agents, matching/assigning agents to classmates and tracking of agent contacts and success in soliciting giving

·         for Class Secretaries, providing a class page, reunion page, and ability to track names in notes

·         for Regional Associations, ability to generate alumni lists, to manage events (especially “Who is coming”), and to have an online presence

LONG-TERM

·         Continue constant and inexpensive testing of communications tools

·         Emphasize the fact that Andover classes and groups already have organized away from Andover.edu on Facebook and other social networking sites

Non Sibi Day

Tom Beaton provided an update regarding the on- and off-campus activities relating to the second Non Sibi Day (September 13, 2008).  He pointed out that during 2007, the Alumni Council seized the initiative, with terrific help from Jenny Savino and others at OAR, and acted as the catalyst for the process.  He was pleased to report that due to the first Non Sibi Day's success, 58 students had already signed up to be Project Leaders.  Tom viewed this as a very positive development.  He then encouraged members of the Council, as leaders of our global alumni body, to sign up to be Project Leaders or Members for Non Sibi Day 2008.  14 Council members stepped forward to be Project Leaders and 12 volunteered to be Project Members.  Tom encouraged everyone to contact him, Jenny Savino, or Non Sibi Day's summer intern, Tori Wilmarth, if they had any questions about the process.

 

Strategy Innovation

With many of the components of the Alumni Council’s Strategic Plan completed, Steve Matloff reported that we’re starting to infuse ongoing strategic planning thinking into the Governance Committee’s activities. The 4 areas of focus likely will be:

 

1.       continuing to work on the idea of decoupling content and distribution in several areas of communications,

2.       continuing to instill an environment of constant experimentation with new ideas for events, communications and collaboration (including the use of a wiki and taking real-time notes in meetings that are immediately accessible, as being tested during this Executive Committee meeting),

3.       employing “crowdsourcing” where possible – that is, creating environments and processes that encourage the broader alumni community to provide new ideas for events, communications, collaboration, etc. (a possible test is related to the Alumni Council New Member Nomination process – we may try to allow anyone in the alumni community to nominate for consideration any other alum, including self-nomination), and

4.       continuing to push the Council to view the “digital divide” as an Education Frontier opportunity to educate a portion of our community rather than an issue that should slow the testing of new electronic tools.

 

Admission Representatives Committee

The Admissions Office will be sending out an end of the season summary letter to AARs.  The overall results continue to impress at all levels and we are excited about the needs-blind dynamic going forward.  From an AAR perspective, AARs have done ~20% of annual interviews this year which is fairly consistent with past performance (2,300 candidates, 462 AAR interviews) and substantially in excess of the contributions from AARs at other schools.

2 especially impressive data points:

1.       Of 103 Andover-Exeter crossover admits, 53 are coming to PA, 33 are going to PEA

2.       Of 46 Andover-St. Pauls crossover admits, 32 are coming to PA, 7 are going to SP

 

Most of our peer schools host 12-15 outreach evening programs during an admission season.  The PA admissions team hosted approximately 70 nights of outreach programs this year, traveling extensively, and it seems to be effective – not only getting the word out but reinforcing prior year's efforts to continue to build as wide-ranging and diverse an applicant pool as possible.

Other statistics from the admissions season just completed: Alumni admit rate = 52% parental legacy and 29% "other" legacy, as compared to 17% admit rate for those with no alumni connection.  19% blended admissions rate for all applications.

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         Continue to expand mission of Committee

·         Where were the candidates who account for the 114 principal interviews (school heads)?  Try to match with AARs instead of principals

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         Continue to increase alumni connection with Admissions

·         Pick up more AARs, especially in underserved markets – engage alumni in regions to identify uncovered schools

·         Need to educate non-AAR alums that they are eligible for this program locally –   perhaps "broadcast" this message through PA's electronic newsletter

·         Develop concept of AAR Regional Coordinator more in conjunction with Admissions Office

·         Attempt to identify other underserved areas that should garner more focus

ANNUAL GIVING BOARD

#s looking good in $, participation % down -- consistent with other institutions and largely tracking macro environment -- drivers:

1.       Decreasing # of gifts < $250

·         make solicitation more specific/tangible -- all giving levels matter -- SHORT-TERM COMMITTEE GOAL

2.       Younger classes' participation very low  No, actually participation among the 10 youngest classes was very good, due to the 20/20 initiative

·         20/20 (20 people focus on youngest 20 classes) -- nationwide effort, largely regionally-based -- have identified problem areas & started to address how to deal with issues

3.       Classes of '60s & '70s were a bit soft and special consideration will be given to strengthening this group

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         See above

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         Integrating Andover Fund goals/messages/communications with those of overall campaign

·         Make special effort to upgrade participation by 60's & 70's, similar to 20/20 initiative

·         Consider ways to improve annual giving stewardship 

QUESTIONS:

Koehler:  How has Needs Blind announcement impacted giving trends?

Somers:  Message very powerful.  People with clear understanding of Academy's Strategic Plan more likely to give -- HUGE OPPORTUNITY.

Schmertzler:  This came up in Board meeting, as well.  No answers, but awareness.

Ramsey:  Positioning is getting stronger vs. several years ago.  We all can help:  focus on connection and giving as form of expression of how alumni value their experience and this community.  Setting foundation for future.

ATHLETICS

As requested by Mr. Hetzler, the Athletics Committee considered ways to align its areas of concern more closely with the Council's Strategic Plan.  Ms. Harris reported the output of that discussion to the Council.  Three points were identified.

1.       Methods should be identified through which alumni provide mentoring to students and among themselves on athletic issues (eg, youth coaching, competitive experience).  This could include speakers/panels/dinners on campus.

2.       Opportunities should be identified for alumni to provide volunteer services in athletics, on campus (eg, ARC) and in their communities.

3.       The Committee discussed an Online Athletics Network where ideas and information could be exchanged.

CLASS SECRETARIES/WEB EDITORS

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         Have each secretary work with Academy to get rich information on individual members of class to better cater contact with them.

·         Better tracking of various communications with individuals.

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         Maybe have multiple secretaries per class or someone who can act upon information that a secretary is accumulating.

·         Class Notes now considered a bit dated when released, this is especially sensitive on obit news, at least certain news needs to reach classmates faster.

·         Web pages/blogs/etc., some classes already have independently put them in place. In blogs, people tend not to report traditional Class Notes content, but rather use them more for discussing shared interests, they are often organized along these lines.

·         Set up listservs for secretaries.

·         Bridge generations and pair up classes to educate each other (down and up), maybe through shared reunion cycles.

DISCUSSION:

Al Blum:  Maybe challenges are replicated between class.

QUESTIONS:

Les Callahan:  Is there currently a listserv used for communication?

Stefanie Scheer Young:  A listserv had existed but is not functioning now.

Michael Schmertzler:  Are blogs that exist listed in Class Notes?

Stefanie Scheer Young:  Individual secretaries list them in their notes if they have them or want to list them.  There is still ongoing discussion of what works best and no uniformity between classes.

Dick Howe:  The Class of '64 has a Yahoo List-serve, a portion of the class uses it, and a portion doesn't, but it is productive.

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE

A review of the Alumni Council Job Description included a discussion of whether to include a requirement that members be regular donors to the Andover Fund.  The Committee agreed to leave the job description as is without a giving requirement.  There was also discussion of an exit process for outgoing Alumni Trustees and Alumni Council members, focusing on an exit interview, an exit evaluation survey, and keeping alumni engaged after they leave Council.  In addition, there was discussion of a post-meeting evaluation tool for Alumni Council meetings.  Finally, the committee discussed the nominating process, with the perennial plea for an early start date and an expanded pool of candidates.

MENTORING/YOUNG ALUMNI

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         Replicate mentoring events in additional regions across numerous professional and interest groups

–         Videotape events or simulcast events online

–         Invite students to Boston-area alum events

–         Employ current faculty where appropriate to speak at events

·         Continue to support the Mentoring Module on www.andover.edu

·         Connect more people to the Mentoring Module, especially seniors and alums coming back for reunion

–         Get all seniors registered on the Mentoring Module

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         Determine ways to connect through Facebook

·         Better define our relationship with current students and current student groups on campus (e.g., the Phillipian, Community Service, WPAA, athletic teams, etc…)

·         Have a summer job/internship event to help current students find opportunities (work with Roxy Barry)

·         Compile a list of all the ways that Andover communicates (Facebook, LinkedIn, mail, etc.)

·         Enable members on the Harris website to include a link to their Facebook pages

·         Get more mentoring stories/testimonials

·         Host events with faculty to help re-establish faculty-student relationships

MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         Work with CAMD on planning the Af-Lat-Am 40th anniversary celebration to be held in the spring of next year and the Gay Straight Alliance reunion to be held in February 2009. The Committee will assist in setting an agenda, reaching out to alumni and providing a mentoring platform.

·         Linda Griffith, of CAMD, reported on the success of the Asian and Asian-American Alumni reunion that was held in April.

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         We discussed replicating the New York gathering for new admits of color and their parents with alumni and Admissions.  In the last two years, over 90% of the new admits who attended decided to attend PA.  We will continue to work with Admissions to determine other locations where this type of gathering can be held.

·         We should work with the Mentoring Committee to assist with mentoring

·         Considered arranging panel discussions with current students

We also discussed CAMD's role on campus, which included CAMD's name, how to reach students, how students reached out to CAMD, mentoring and increasing alumni interaction with current students, and addressing the positive and negative experiences of life at Andover for students of color.  Our hope would be to "reach out" to alumni of color who would "reach back" to the students of color and interact with them about life at PA, college and in their careers.

REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

The Committee concluded that Regional Associations are essentially the Academy's communications liaison with distributed centers around the globe whose goals are closely aligned with those of the Communications Liaison to the Academy (CLAC).

 

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         To test the use of a shared drive on the web for common regional association documents that would be accessible to RA heads and the Alumni Affairs office.

·         To prototype an online "event management tool" to test the efficacy of central third party tools. The tool should facilitate:

–         Get all seniors registered on the Mentoring Module

–         Calendar

–         Registration

–         Payment (PayPal)

–         Attendance Lists

–         Demographically sorted email lists from the alumni database through filtering

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         If these tests return positive results...the long-term goal would be to integrate them into Andover.edu and, where appropriate, open them up for use across the alumni population ultimately making use of the entire alumni population to farm the best event ideas and generate greater interest through "crowdsourcing."

DISCUSSION:

Mike Ebner asked if there was any discussion at the Regional Association meeting regarding the difficulty of generating good attendance numbers at regional events, pointing out that we are underperforming our peer schools.

Mike Meiners replied that there was no specific discussion but that attendance at events is the principal concern of the regional associations and so colors the discussion as a whole.  One major challenge regional associations face is keeping track of alumni as they move around the world.  RA's are often working with outdated information.

Dick Howe remarked that the most successful events have been the ones leveraging online tools and networks.

Mike Meiners replied that Chicago alums at a 20/20 brainstorming dinner expressed a desire to connect with the school using online tools and networks.

Al Blum said that direct contact has made a huge difference in getting alums out to events.

 

 

SPECIAL EVENTS/REUNIONS

SHORT-TERM GOALS

·         Find sustainable model for Broadening Horizons

·         Mini-reunions

LONG-TERM GOALS

·         Explore idea of alumni stories in context of special events (NPR Storycorps model with pre-specified questions) -- becomes part of content library. 

The meeting was adjourned.