Meeting Minutes - September 24, 2016

A regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Longwood University Alumni Board was called to order at 9:30 a.m. by President Kendall Lee on Saturday, September 24th, 2016 in the Martinelli Board Room at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Directors Present: Kendall Lee, President; Tammy Jones, Vice President; Ryan Catherwood, Secretary/Treasurer; Dale Baake, Byron Bracey, Cydney Cavender, Hunter Edwards, Brandon Fry, Amanda Lloyd, Melody Margrave, Mandi Mulholland, Linda Norris, Rob Postel, Dante Ricci, Rohsaan Settle, Becca Shelton, Caitlin Zoetis

Directors Absent: Matthew Crawford, Chris Davis, Jeris Johnson

Representatives Present: Eileen Anderson, BOV, and Ednamae Trevey, Foundation Board

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the June 18, 2016 meeting were distributed and reviewed. Dr. Lee requested a motion to approve the minutes.

Action No. 1: A motion was made by Ms. Lloyd and seconded by Mr. Settle approving the minutes of June 18, 2016.

Greetings from the Provost, Dr. Joan Neff

• CPD, Secret Service always asking for new things, many at Longwood are putting in lots of hours

• Faculty, staff, students are enthusiastic though some are feeling inconvenienced about VP Debate particularly with parking
• Longwood hopes to capitalize nationally and internationally on hosting the debate – over 50 million viewers
• Core curriculum changes coming up – want to help students achieve learning objectives helping students become citizen leaders—lots of draft changes, revisions, final draft went from faculty senate to departments and then back to faculty senate to approve
• After vote by faculty senate, work to phase in core curriculum and phase out old – make sure students graduate on time despite the changes
• State funding challenges – do more but with less, comply but no new help
• VA General assembly impressed by Longwood
• Demographics of population going to college is shifting – smaller number of eligible students – working hard to recruit students – competing with VA Tech, JMU, William and Mary – we need to be the best in promoting what we have to offer
• Emphasize that best recruiters are ‘you’ alumni board – alumni in general
• Be willing to call students or accepted students – help students by developing internships – high impact
• Faculty work to prepare students to have valuable internships
• Solid partnerships with New College Institute (NCI) – want to work with them more

Welcome/BOV Report- Eileen Anderson

• BOV meeting two weeks ago, also attended Convocation
• Jim Lehrer was convocation speaker spoke to seniors and freshman
• Toured newest dorms – Sharp and Register
• Witnessed transformation of fitness center, also learned more about 30 new classes related to debate and democracy
• Introduced to new Dean of Cook-Cole, Roger Byrne – and also the new Dean of Library, Brent Roberts
• Update from Advancement – 20% increase in total donors – formed a new society – Citizen Leader Society - $1,500 annually or more
• 1839 society is bequest program
• Graduation rate increasing over the last four years
• New graduate school advisory council created
• Update on fire that struck the Landings – building being repaired quickly
  
  

Welcome/Foundation Board Report- Ednamae Trevey

• Patty Ramsey is new Alumni representative – but she has family emergency
• Hazel Duncan has resigned but she’s still helping through calendar year
• Carol Thomson has resigned and is leaving, moving to Texas for new job.
• Rewriting job descriptions and placing job postings – remain positive and be open to change
• Next Foundation meeting is end of October
• Last meeting was in June and they met at Moton museum
• Recommends movie called “Starving the Beast” – about lack of funding in education

President’s Report – Dr. Kendall Lee

• Reminded everyone about VIP watch party in Blackwell on Oct. 4^th - thanked Amy Harris for inclusion – Asked members to please RSVP
• Remind everyone about debate day events (debate.longwood.edu)
• Air B&B might have accommodations available at local homes
• Longwood Athletics Banquet – 15^th of October – be sure to go
• CBE Golf Tournament also on the 15^th – still spots available
• Longwood Day of Giving planning starting earlier – last year’s gift was really impactful motivating donors to get over 500
• Feb 21^st is the next day of giving – planning committee is working how to make more successful
• All Board members should give on February 21^st
• Want to set-up different challenges possibly between BOV, Foundation Board and Alumni Board
• Last year we gave gift of $10K from Royalties account – Institutional Advancement believes our gift really stimulated giving
• New Longwood website (www.longwood.edu) – enhanced, updated Alumni Association pages – make sure to visit site and share
• Post bi-laws and constitution on new website after we make updates

Vice-President’s Report – Tammy Jones

• Virginia Children's Book Festival – Oct 14, 15, 16 – distributes thousands of books – how can Board help?
• Bring books to donate this week – drop off at Maugans Alumni Center
• Leave new and/or gently used books with Nicole when they come back for Debate – middle and high school age books most desired
• Possibly create a bookmark that promotes the AA next year
• 2016 Giving Tree community service opportunity – cards for kids through Speech, Hearing, Learning Center. Board members who wish to participate by buying gifts for children in need for the holidays. Participants will be given information cards with toy ideas, clothing sizes, ages, and gender.
• Cards are for Kendall’s students – six Board members participated in 2015, eight last year in 2016 – Kendall will be reaching out about this year’s program

Action No. 2: A motion was made by Ms. Lloyd to give $1,000 from the Royalties account to the Virginia Children’s Book Festival fund and the motion was seconded by Mr. Edwards, thus approving the motion.

Treasurer Report – Ryan Catherwood

Ryan Catherwood provided a financial report on the current account balances in FY 15-16 in the Royalties account, and noted that the appropriate funds had been moved from the Royalties account to the Alumni General Foundation account to support Board operations.

Office of Alumni & Career Services Report – Ryan Catherwood

Mr. Catherwood distributed an infographic displaying the engagement data from 2015-2016 and reported that there has been a focus on University Career Services. To date, UCS has seen almost as many appointments after first six weeks of 2016-2017 as the entire year last year.

Balfour Ring Update – Nathan Lavinka

Nathan came to speak about our Longwood class ring program that’s done in partnership with Balfour. Last year we sold 169 rings and we get $75 for each ring added to our Royalties account. Nathan provided examples of other universities and how they’ve grown traditions around their class ring program. We discussed how we might be able to move forward on a few ideas during Alumni & Reunions Weekend as well as during the school year for students.

Committee Reports

Finance Committee

We had a long discussion about the #LoveYourLongwood Day partnership with Institutional Advancement. Dr. Lee mentioned how important our $10K gift was for the success of last year’s giving day event. After much discussion, a motion was made.

Action No. 3: Ms. Lloyd made a motion to move $10K from the Royalties account as gift to be used in coordination with the operations of #LoveYourLongwood Day in February. Mr. Settle seconded the motion, and the motion passed.

Yes: Kendall Lee, President; Tammy Jones, Vice President; Ryan Catherwood, Secretary/Treasurer; Dale Baake, Byron Bracey, Cydney Cavendar, Hunter Edwards, Brandon Fry, Amanda Lloyd, Melody Margrave, Linda Norris, Dante Ricci, Rohsaan Settle, Becca Shelton, Caitlin Zoetis
No: Mandi Mulholland, Rob Postel

Not present: Jeris Johnson, Matt Crawford, Chris Davis

Alumni Events Committee

Ms. Lloyd discussed big events to help promote coming up: Family Day on January 14^th, and Alumni & Reunions Weekend June 2-4. She discussed aspects of the committee meeting with Dr. Lee asked the Alumni Events Committee to organize Friday night, board weekend activities and one community engagement project each year. Ms. Lloyd also discussed possible ways to incorporate the class ring program into the annual slate of events.

Structure/Function Committee

Byron Bracey reported that the committee would work to update the by-laws and get new copies for everyone based on recent voted changes.

Board Relations Committee

Tammy Jones identified the members of the committee and asked the Board to consider nominating new members for a position on the Board and that the committee is also charged with the task of proposing a new Vice-President of the Board. Nominations are due to Tammy by January 6^th. The Board will vote on these positions at the March meeting.

Alumni Awards Committee

Dante Ricci and Caitlin Zoetis reported on the work of the Alumni Awards Committee. The committee provided recommendations for each award category, and it was determined that a final vote on the slate would be made in an upcoming email.

Board members were given a tour of the two sites on campus being used to host the Vice Presidential Debate before the meeting resumed for committee reports. At the conclusion of the reports, the meeting adjourned at 2:30 pm.

Next Meeting

Friday, March 24 – Saturday, March 25, 2017.