TULANE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Board of Directors Meeting

Minutes of April 19, 20 2013

Present: Gina Airey, Rob Alexander, Meredith Beers, Jered Bocage, St. Paul Bourgeois, Sharon Bourgeois, Apryl Brown, Chris Buckley, William Burdette, Nicole Bush, Lauren Caplan, Bradley Charlesworth, Michael Cohn, Erin Condon, John Dimos, Jim Ezell, Mike Feduccia, Jared Finegold, Hillary Green, Rob Haak, Evan Herman, Mary Lynn Hyde, Terrence Jones, Betsy Lavoie, Tom Lee, King Logan, Ted Mahrlig, Augusto Martinez, Jill McIntyre, Ambika Melville, Jamie Milhous, Dori Lynn Neuwirth, Laurie Orgeron, Ron Palais, Jinyoung Park, Ashley Perkins, Aimee Richardson, Michelle Rinehart, Kathryn Roman, Aaron Ronksley, Michael Rubenstein, David Rubin, ArmanSadeghpour, Andy Sanderson, Theresa Schieber, Carol Showley, Sonita Singh, Tobias Smith, James Stofan, Ken Tedesco, Bob Vorhoff, James Wallin, Jennifer Wellborn, Elliott Wiener, John Williams, Peter Young

Absent: Kevin Bourgeois, Matt Coleman, Lauren Haas-Cohen, Michael Lockhart, George Pankey, Lawrence Tena, Anthony Vanky

April 19

  1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. by Rusty Pickering, President Elect of the Alumni Association Board of Directors (President Sharon Bourgeois was at another meeting at the beginning).

Rusty Pickering welcomed everyone and went over the agenda, and everyone introduced themselves.

  1. Rusty Pickering reminded everyone that voting members and non-voting members have different colored stars on their name tags and told everyone that Sharon gave a presentation to the Board of Tulane and that he will wait till Sharon arrives to the meeting for her to share the presentation.
  1. Rusty Pickering and Theresa Schieber gave a brief summary of the Strategic Planning process and encouraged all those present to actively participate in the process, before Gina Airey gave a presentation with the goals and objectives of the Strategic Plan.
  1. Mike Hogg, Vice President of Student Affairs, presented to the board Emerging Student Programs designed to improve recruitment and retention. He gave a sketch of current student population, including breakdowns by gender, on-campus residence, ethnic background, geography, and SAT scores. He also shared ways in which alumni can add value to the student experience: become career volunteers for current students; participate in service activities; and become involved with TIDES (Tulane InterDisciplinary Experience Seminars) courses for first-year students. He answered questions about the crime rate, sharing the safety measures that TUPD is taking, about the tuition cost, and about efforts to diversify the student body.
  1. Ken Tedesco, Director of Life Cycle Programs, and Laurie Orgeron, Senior Program Coordinator for Student Outreach, gave a presentation on Life Cycle Programs. They shared the programs that are open to all alumni, such as AlumNight and TALL (Tulane Alumni Lifelong Learning), that target certain audience, such as the Emeritus Program and events for young alumni, and that are primarily for students, such as Welcome Wednesday and Dinner with 12 Tulanians. The formerly named Student Alumni Ambassadors group is now called the Tulanians, and there are also programs for incoming students (Legacy Luncheon and Student Leadership Gatherings) and graduating students (Grad Fest, crawfish boil, and Life After Tulane book with advice from alumni).
  1. Committee Meetings
  1. Club Awards Presentation and Networking Reception at the Alumni House with Student Leaders

April 20

  1. Faye FeltermanTydlaska, Director of Undergraduate Admission, and Earl Retif, Vice President of Enrollment Management, gave a presentation on the admission process. They discussed application statistics (number of applications and acceptance rate, where students are applying from, and where students are coming from), outreach (counselor visits and on-campus activities) and other marketing efforts, and the application process for students. They talked about the Alumni Admission Committee (AAC) that represent Tulane at college fairs and assist with hometown receptions. Then all attendees had a chance to participate in a mock admission exercise with six applicants.
  1. Alumni Association Business Meeting
  1. Minutes of February 15-16, 2013 Meeting: Motion by Rusty Pickering to approve the minutes. Second by Michelle Rinehart. Minutes approved unanimously.
  2. Nominations: Motion by Nominating Committee to approve the slate presented by Nominating Committee in globo. No Secondnecessary because it was a recommendation from a committee. Slate approved unanimously.

Each new board member will have a mentor assigned to him/her and there will be a formal orientation for new members at the July meeting.

TAA Board does not currently have a secretary, but is required to have one. Executive Committee will appoint someone to serve as the Secretary (Motion by Michael Rubenstein, second by Theresa Schieber, approved unanimously).

  1. Clubs: Club Leadership Conference was planned from the outreach done by Clubs Committee in the fall. Every session on the agenda had at least five votes. Committee is working on vacancies and how to get new leadership and will continue efforts of recruitment.
  2. Awards: Committee asked everyone to attend the Awards ceremony on Sunday and reminded everyone that nominations for the Bobby Boudreaux award are due in the summer.
  3. Communications/Marketing: We will be transitioning to a new Online Community software iModules. We are increasing TAA and OAR representation at athletic events. A directory of alumni in local areas will be helpful for reaching out to people—recipients of the directory will need to sign confidentiality agreements. OAR is printing a new alumni directory and copies will be sent to all clubs.
  4. Finance: Board members are expected to give to the University regardless of the amount. If someone sponsors an event, that can be counted as a gift.
  5. Student Outreach: Committee would like to have board members and others in New Orleans to serve on the committee. We would like to have activities that fit the start, middle, and end phases of students throughout their Tulane career. Dinner with 12 Tulanians has been very successful. There was an idea to have a table on the quad on the Friday morning before board meetings so that board members can meet students.
  6. Programming: Chair Anthony Vanky was absent—he opted to stay in Boston following the Boston Marathon bombing tragedy
  7. Athletics: The goal is to promote all athletics: pre-game tailgates, golf classic, etc. Tulane is now in AAC (American Athletic Conference). We had a great football recruitment season—great Louisiana players through Coach CJ. There was a comment that we should look at sports other than football as well.
  8. Community Outreach: The committee is goal is to reflect the University’s philosophy of public service. Committee will provide opportunities for clubs to do service. Chair suggested an optional community service activity during Homecoming; committee can work with Center for Public Service to set it up.
  1. Club Leadership Conference

Minutes Recorded by:

Jinyoung Park

Minutes April 19 and 20, 20131