Mit Club of Great Britain

MIT CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN

Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, 11 September 2007 at 6.30 pm

Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE

Attendees:

Clive Norris

Linda E. Morecroft

Christopher Voisey

Juliet E. Lord-Haughton

Ben Maron

Henry M. Goldstein

Marek Banasiak

Vicky Athanasiou

Valerie Wong

Philip Van Overberghe

Apologies for absence from:

Florence Eid

Michael Colao

Scott Warner

Michael A. Talalay

Indy Neogy

Andrew Rhomberg

Paul Tanner

Konstantina Drakouli

George Berkowski

Rodrigo Madanes

Roderick M Logan

Abdeldjalil Chaib

Fehmi Sami

Marc Bartel

Babu Bangaru

Simon Stokes

Eileen Tanghal

Riccardo Merello

Carol Mancke

Ien Cheng

Leon H. Liebman

______

Welcome

1.Meeting Opened

Linda Morecroft opened the meeting, and thanked those present for agreeing to move the meeting from the previous week.

2.Minutes of the meetings on 17 May, 2007

Juliet proposed, and Clive seconded a resolution that the minutes of the meeting be accepted with one correction - the addition to the list of board members and volunteers of Scott Warner.

The minutes of the meeting of the 17 May, as amended, were unanimously accepted.

The revised list is attached

3.Board Members' Updates

Treasurer

Marek reported that the accounts are in a good state, and that no further spurious debits have occurred. He agreed to, and did, email the secretary with the precise balances:

current account - £4,154.62

saver account - £26,621.00

Membership

Juliet reported that, after considerable work, she has reconciled cheques received from MIT with membership payments reported by SmarTrans. Linda thanked her for her work in doing this.

Juliet proposed, and Clive seconded a resolution to revise the dollar-denominated membership fees in view of the current dollar-sterling exchange rates to:

regular membership $45.00

sustaining membership $110.00

The resolution was unanimously agreed. Juliet agreed to modify the SmarTrans pages, and Henry the webpages to reflect this change.

Juliet reported that the club had 5 new members since July, 1 membership renewal, and 49 standing orders. A membership drive will be implemented in September.

It was also agreed that personal emails will be sent in October / November to encourage 'lapsed' paying members to subscribe.

Linda noted that often alumni who were leaving the UK would email her to that effect, and that she would reply to them, informing them how to change their Infinite Connection details. She agreed to copy Juliet on her replies so that Juliet could update her membership information more easily.

Programme

Speaker Series

Chris reported on his activities in trying to get information from MIT about visiting professors as possible speakers - in particular, those writing or publishing new books. He noted that many professors travel in connection with paying work, and that local alumni clubs are not 'on their agenda'.

Philip suggested that it might be worthwhile contacting heads of departments, in a 'top-down' approach, as well as trying to find relevant individual professors to contact.

Chris agreed to try to arrange to meet Florence and Philip to work our a strategy for targeting and contacting potential speakers.

Events

Vicky presented the results of a survey that she had organised. The aims of the survey were to: identify the areas of interest of members; get an idea about partipation intention; and determine price sensitivity for different event categories.

She was encouraged by the response to the survey questionnaire. She concluded that the club should:

Focus mainly on social events and speaker series and less on outings and volunteer activities;

Price event at £20-£50 for social activities (the higher prices for 'prestige' activities, such as Opera / Theatre) and £20 for other activities;

Hold at least one activity outside London.

Vicky said that she was hoping for one event per month.

Linda said that she was looking to arrange for another 'meet the MIT students at Cambridge' event.

Book Club

Clive reported that he planned to issue two newsletters in the next few months – one with book reviews and the other with Christmas gift book recommendations. They will appear on the Club's website.

Sloan Club

There was no report. Philip asked to be added to the list of Sloan Club volunteers as deputy to Marc Bartel.

Enterprise Forum

Linda reported that neither she nor Paul had received further input from MIT. No further action is planned at this time.

MIT - 10

Ben reported that the MIT-10 activity planning group had reached an impasse in finding venues that were central and offered acceptably-priced private facilities.

Members of the board advised that perhaps private space was not a key factor at this time.

Clive suggested, and after enthusiastic input from a number of those present, Valerie took on board the idea of a get-together at a different part of the London area each month. A number of area / pub / restaurant suggestions were given to Valerie.

Webpage

Nothing to report.

Counsel

Simon, with apologies for his absence, had informed Linda that there was nothing to report.

Educational Council

Having offered apologies for his absence, Fehmi emailed the following information for inclusion in the minutes.

College day details are:

Date: Saturday September 29, 2007

Venue: The New Connaught Rooms, 61-65. Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5DA

Linda noted that it would be good if recent graduates attended, as they are most familiar with MIT today.

Last year's statistics:

Referrals: 286 (initial interest universe)
Interviewed: 54
Finals: 86
Admitted: 6 (6.97% admittance rate)
Not Admitted: 79
Incomplete: 200

Also we have 21 educational counsellors registered.

Senior Advisory Group

No report was received

Newsletter

No report was received

5.Alumni Leadership Conference

Linda will be attending (most of) the meeting this year on 28/29 September.

Chris proposed, and Juliet seconded a resolution that Linda's travel costs be borne by the club. The resolution was unanimously agreed, with Linda abstaining.

Chris suggested that the club should sponsor two people to go to the ALC each year. This suggestion met with general approval, but was not put to the vote.

6.Any other business

Linda reminded the meeting of the MIT Externship Program and asked anyone who might wish to offer a place to contact the program organisers; details are on the website.

7.Date of the next board meeting

The next meeting will be held at the same place – Clive Norris' office, on Thursday 29 November 2007 - 6:30pm.