Pomona College Alumni Association Board Meeting Minutes
April 30, 2023 – 10 a.m. to 12:13 p.m.
Alumni Board Members in Attendance: Alfredo Romero ’91, Alisa Fishbach, Veronica Roman ’95, Linda Luisi '81, Amy Rhodes '07, Andrea Venezia ’91, Carol Kruse ’84, Aldair Arriola Gomez ’17, Michael Bright ’10, Andrew Brown ’77, Paula Gonzalez ’95, Julie Siebel ’84, Jeff Levere ’12, Lew Phelps ’65, Soren Austenfeld ’15, Dominic Yoong ’88, Nina Zhou ’19, Joshua Rodriguez ’13
Staff Present: Pritna Irvin, Jenny Kong, Ryan Kolter, Janncarlo Flores, Kalyn Rose Miller, Kristen Romero, Kerry Martin, Maria Watson
Approval of March 18, 2023, Alumni Board Meeting Minutes: Alfredo motioned to approve the minutes, with edited minutes for public viewing. Motion approved unanimously by the board.
Electing New Slate of Candidates: Alfredo thanked members of the LDC for their work in interviewing and selecting alumni nominees. Alfredo motioned to approve the new slate of returning board minutes. Mo*on approved unanimously.
Alfredo opened the floor for discussion among board members on their thoughts and/or ideas regarding the slate.
Alfredo motioned to approve President-Elect nominee Andrea Venezia ’91. Alfredo opened the floor for discussion among board members on their thoughts and/or ideas regarding the new President-Elect Andrea Venezia ’91. Mo*on approved unanimously.
Reflections of Alumni Weekend: Alfredo opened the floor for the AB to share their achievements over this past year and feedback on Alumni Weekend 2023 and thanked the members for their hard work over the weekend.
- Development Committee: 100% board par*cipa*on, leadership gains, future projects: Beat CMC Campaign.
- Regional Chapters Committee: 6 chapters, updated the handbook is a great go-to guide. 4/7 events in regional cities, alumni weekend participation from RC volunteers.
- Engagement Committee: New framework for engaging with students; relationship with future alumni. Highest attendance/participation from younger alumni, CDO collaboration, new mode of engagement for Alumni Weekend ’23.
Feedback from AB on Alumni Weekend ’23:
- Noticeable improvements of flow/accessibility of events/programs.
- Enjoyed meeting the alumni frequently/throughout the weekend. This allowed more opportunities to engage and talk about what the AB is doing.
- Enjoyed meeting alumni at registrations.
- Liked inviting student leaders to events; helps in connecting those students with AB.
- Loved the stickers! Helped with identifying who was celebrating their 40th, or 15th reunion, etc.
- Liked Big Bridges for being the central point for registration and pictures. It was a central location that was close to many events and the Quad.
- Liked the CDO Chirp & Chat; created a lot of opportunities to connect students with alumni.
- Would like to create more intentional opportunities for alumni to mentor/advise other alumni. There seems to be appetite for alumni careers and alumni mentoring.
- Class of 1968 Dinner: would have liked a formal opportunity to speak to the group; formalize the AB rep. welcoming the group.
- More attention given to volunteer management of retirement-age alumni who are interested and have the *me to participate in alumni activities.
- Having a contact sheet for alumni to encourage diversity of career information.
- More proactive in delivering information regarding ADA/accessibility to visiting alumni.
- Interested in focusing/bringing back the traditional Pomona College songs.
- Would like to focus more on implicit bias.; there is work to do on the language/conversation about why some of those changes have been made by the college.
- Enjoyed the app this year; push notification was very helpful and having AB on a group chat was wonderful.
- Crowdfunding Campaign: we need 25 more people to donate to unlock $10k to the music department.
- This was the first year that we did livestreaming for AW; looking to build on this – especially for those folks who are not able to come back to campus.
- I didn’t see Sagehen Connect showing up in any prominent aspect during alumni weekend. Is there a way to use Sagehen Connect during the event rather than Cvent?
- Several women asked to please figure out a way to include maiden names on badges.
- Latinx Alumni Mixer: not confrontable having to request this event be included on the program. Increasing communication on early planning on the affinity groups: who to contact within the AFE. Streamline/formalize the process.
Alfredo will give the AB access to a Google Doc to allow more feedback from the AB members.
Board Notes for Class of 2023 Graduates: Alfredo offered 20-30 notecards for each AB member to complete for the Seniors/Graduating class.
Meeting Adjourned at 12:13 p.m.
Next meeting: Saturday, June 24 at 10:00 am PT