ALUMNI COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Attendees: Scotty Carper, Cody Corona, Leslie Klonoff, Fran Mancia, Justine Miller (via Skype), Alexandra Platt, Matt Schermerhorn, Sally Tannenbaum, and Heather Wilburn
Faculty Attendees: Anna Laura Jansma, Karen Myers and Linda Putnam
UCSB Development, Division of Social Sciences: Marcie Marsh
Introductions and Updates
Linda began the meeting by asking everyone to introduce themselves. She then distributed the Alumni Council directory and asked for updates.The group acknowledged Fran’s selection as an alumni regent on the UC Board of Regents. This is quite an honor and we are proud to have such a distinguished member.
It also was announced that Leslie had been selected by the Department as this year’s Sara Miller McCune Service Award winner. This award was named in honor of Sara Miller McCune, co-founder and Past President of SAGE Publications. The award is given to someone outside the department in recognition of and involvement in the intellectual and professional life of the department.
Finances
The Alumni Council Financial Report (as of April 30, 2016) was presented. Currently, the account has $13,495. The estimated costs for Career Day are $5,000, but we approximately $10,000 will be added after 2016 dues are entered. Another $1500 are pending from 2015 and another $1000 has been promised for next year. The resulting balance will be approximately $20,000. She asked whether the Council would be open to entertaining proposals from the department asking for support. The Council said they would and suggested that the department make specific needs. Fran suggested that the Council might be willing to help raise funds for important departmental needs or targeted campaign projects. The other Council members agreed. Council members might also be able to help by providing services to the department. For example, Scotty said that he might be able to help the Department with web design services.
Reports were not available yet on the results of “Give Day” (April 15). Marcie said it was the first year for the event and it’s hoped that it will gain more momentum as the idea catches on. Heather suggested they consider “Give Week.”
Career Day Plans
Anna Laura reviewed plans for the day and the list of alumni who signed up to participate.
Alumni Database Committee
Leslie discussed the database committee and its activities. We have about 10,000 communication alumni to contact. Using LinkedIn, about 4,000 have been contacted. The committee has been sending LinkedIn messages and some alumni are responding. Leslie sends a message using LinkedIn and then follows up with an email. Committee members acknowledged that Leslie has contacted the vast majority of them.(Thank you, Leslie!) Leslie said the goal has been to contact everyone by July, but that goal might be a bit unrealistic at this point. Still, they will get through it. Leslie said she needs help. Sally and Scotty will help Justine, Mary, Tamara, Matt and Leslie. Each said they will attempt to step up to the task a bit more.
Alumni Council Membership and Recruitment
The Council discussed the optimal number of its membership. Currently, the Council has 18 members. Everyone agreed that growing a bit more, to around 25, would be favorable for engaging in activities. This growth allows for the fact that some members will be more active than others and, at times, even active members are busy with other responsibilities.
Everyone agreed that when alumni respond to the initial outreach, we need to follow-up quickly with a personalized message. We need to develop a system to ensure that quick follow-up occurs. Alumni should have the opportunity to talk to a number of other alumni who are on the Council. Leslie suggested that she will come up with a new system to contact alumni by the end of May. The group discussed targeting certain types of individuals for better diversity. We need to prioritize alumni who come back for Career Day and are participating in other ways. All agreed that Career Day is a great venue to attract and get to know potential members. Alex volunteered to look over the growing list of contacts to determine how we might target our effort. She will accomplish this task in the next couple of weeks. We will aim for a plan for identifying and processing 5-7 new members by the end of May. We will also focus on alumni volunteer participants for Career Day and research out to see if any folks are interested. Scotty will pass along names of alumni he knows that might be interested.
Digital Mentoring
Cody discussed his idea for digital mentoring. The Alumni Association has a virtual advisor system. Alumni can sign up to participate and then the system pulls in information about the alumni from LinkedIn. Alumni can specify their capabilities and when they are available. Everyone seemed very interested but wondered whether we could limit the connections to within COMM. Cody wasn’t sure. Cody said he would attempt to learn more about the system and its capabilities to report on this during our next conference call. He will report on creating profiles, key word usage, and ways to use the system to contact alumni interested in serving as mentors. Justine, Heather, and Scotty volunteered to help Cody and to form a Digital Mentoring Committee.
Senior Mixer, Saturday, October 22, 2016
Linda described the Senior Mixer that would occur on October 22 on the balcony of the SSMS building (outside the COMM department). The morning will begin with an Alumni Council luncheon meeting held inside the Annenberg Conference room. The afternoon would include a mixer with 40-50 seniors and 8-10 alumni and potentially several local business persons. The mixer portion is much like the format of Career Day, but it is smaller and more focused. After the mixer, both students and alumni will gather for a wine reception and more conversation. Alex is chairing the committee and committee members are Tamara, Cody, Sally, and Scotty. Linda will work with the Alumni Relations Committee in the Department to organize specific tasks, especially related to recruiting seniors.
Alumni Council Fellowship
Karen announced that Carla Ni joined the Council as a 2015 Fellowship student and that her term will soon expire. Council members decided to continue this program next year. Karen will put out a call for applications for the Fellowship and circulate names to the Council.
Follow-Up for Career Day
Leslie will create a google.doc for Council members to share notes and comments about the 2016 Career Day event. She encouraged everyone to make suggestions for what they liked and ways that we might improve Career Day for future years. Council members should do this while ideas are fresh on their minds.
Next Conference Call
The Council suggested we have our next conference call in early June. Karen will send out a doodle poll to schedule it.