Pomona College Alumni Association Board Meeting Minutes
June 24, 2023 – 10 a.m. to 12:41 p.m.
Board Members in Attendance: Aldair Arriola- Gomez ’17, Soren Austenfeld ’15, Michael Bright ’10, Andrew Brown ’77, Robi Ganguly ’00, Marcel Green ’90, Paula Gonzalez ’95, Megan Long ’08, Lew Phelps ’65, Josh Rodriguez ’13, Veronica Roman ’95, Amy Rhodes '07, Alfredo Romero ’91, Julie Siebel ’84, Tricia Sipowicz ’85 P’22, Jim Sutton ’84, Andrea Venezia ’91, Dominic Yoong ’88, Nina Zhou ’19,
Staff Present: Lisa Beckett, Pritina Irvin, Kerry Martin Absent: Paola Franco ’17, Ryan Kolter, Carol Kruse ’84, Jeff Levere ’12, Linda Luisi ’81, Dena Negrete, Kristen Romero, Lucy Takahashi
Call to Order: Alfredo Romero ’91
Approval of April 30, 2023, Alumni Board Meeting Minutes: Alfredo motioned to approve the minutes. Motion was approved unanimously by the board.
Welcome 2023-24 Board members: Board members gave brief introductions and welcomed new members to the alumni board.
Thanks to out-going board members: Alfredo Romero ’91 lead moments of gratitude and thanks to those board members whose board term is ending (Megan, Dominic, Paula, Veronica, Vicki). In Vicki’s absence, Alfredo shared that she was another great and passionate member of the board, stating that, “Vicki was passionate about making sure the traditions and all that has made Pomona what it is, came from the generations before us, and I really appreciate her effort and energy on the board. We will miss her.”. Veronica Roman, commended Vicki for sharing her medical expertise with us [the board].
President’s Report: Alfredo Romero ’91 shared with the board, the last trustee meeting discussions that pertain to PCAAB business. He updated that Sam Glick will continue to serve as president and a Chair
elect that will serve alongside him for the year. Discussions regarding the College structure, and the capital campaign, and the future of the college. Also, conversations regarding the Oldenburg remodel; the trustees are working together - making sure that space is a global center, with more details from President Starr forthcoming.
Committee Updates:
- Development: Dominic Yoong ’88 gave an update on board goals: achieve 100% board participation, surpassing the Trustees, and a goal to continue stewardship. The alumni board helped write thank you notes, and various outreach. Current participation is trending up, with a goal to be over 19%. 310 Donors (renewed) are needed to hit the 19% goal. Dominic put out a call for the board to ask their alumni friends to give before June 30. He also mentioned the newly formed FAQ that was an internal document and informed of interest to make the FAQ a public document. Lastly, Dominic shared that the Dev. The committee is currently working on the “Beat CMC Campaign”.
- Engagement: Andrea Venezia ’91 shared that Engagement Committee worked hard in setting goals for the committee, and created new frameworks on engaging with alumni, supporting the CDO, Sagehen Connect, and Alumni Weekend. She also shared a new project to the board: writing handwritten notes over the summer to welcome students in the Fall.
Regional Chapters: Julie Siebel ’84 shared a moment of gratitude for the Regional Chapters Committee for hitting goals this year. New chapter in DC is hitting the ground running! Big shot out to AFE team members and the College for making a way for the Regional Chapter leaders to join us for AW ’23. The RC Committee would like to continue the tradition for next year. Julie mentioned that she has put out an ask for the chapters to put together a framework for the year, so the board has an idea of what the year/chapter events will look like for the coming year.
BREAK (10 mins) @ 11:30 PT
Department Updates from Staff/Faculty Reps:
- Admissions – Paola Franco ’17 (absent)
- CDO – Kerry Martin: shared a few things from the CDO- they have been working hard connecting to current students first year on to graduation. The CDO is wrapping up the end of their 3 years strategic plan and working on the new strategic plan for the next 3 years. Updates forthcoming as the strategic plan is finalized. Several of CDO staff members are attending conferences in their field over the summer. Kerry’s personal goal this year is to benchmark and research alumni career colleges at peer schools, to better understand their programs and career resources. She also shared about the collaboration with RC and AFE with upcoming NY Alumni Student Mixer, with more details on that event going out in the next few weeks.
- Annual Giving – Dominic Yoong ’88 shared that we’ve had 272 lapsed donors give. He stressed the call to reach out to fellow alumni to give by June 30.
- ACE – Kristen Romero (absent)
- Faculty Rep – Professor Lisa Beckett did not have any updates for the board. Professor Becket inquired about a system to present information from the board to the Faculty. She would like to meet (small groups) with Faculty to give/receive Alumni Board updates or for help with student initiatives.
Committee Structure for 2023-2024:
Alfredo announced the FY2024 PCAAB Committee Chairs:
- Development – Nina Zhou ’19
- Engagement Committee – Josh Rodriguez ’13
- Regional Chapters – Andrew Brown ’77
- Submit committee chairs for approval: Alfredo proposed to the board to keep the committee structure the same. Megan Moved. Andrew seconded, and the board approved the motion unanimously.
- Committee assignments for upcoming year: Pritina will send out the Formstack for existing members to select their choice of committee assignments.
LDC Update: Alfredo Romero ’91 asked the committee to select a date for a “download” meeting to discuss the LDC as a committee, for a 1 hour meeting. He also updated the board on Don Swan stepping down as Chair of Past President Committee (PPC).
Review ’23-’24 Schedule / Key Dates: Alfredo Romero ’91 shared and reviewed the upcoming events for the 23’24 FY with the board. He put out a call for volunteers to help staff the New Student Orientation, Family Weekend, and other local events. Alfredo then opened the floor for suggestions/feedback on the past year’s events:
- Megan Long raised the question of moving the AW ’24 board meeting to an earlier time, as it’s a challenge to get fights back to the East coast on Sunday.
- Megan Long suggested to send regular PCAAB meeting updates via email, so that more of the meeting can be used to discuss moving things forward.
- Aldair Arriola-Gomez suggested to do more activities for the board members to get to know each other better.
- Veronica Roman suggested that we make one AB meeting into a retreat.
- Paula Gonzalez suggested giving an extra 20 mins for AB members to share more about themselves.
- Andrew Brown suggested increasing the cross-silo interactions between the committees.
New Business: Alfredo Romero ’91 shared email from ’57 alumni who is interested in creating a banner of names of those alumni we’ve lost, to place at Seaver House, and asked the board for feedback on facilitating/welcome the idea. More information is requested for what the board can and cannot do. Veronica suggested an FAQ to help alumni navigate the college. Marcell Green suggested a new committee: Alumni Liaison Committee that would be responsible for tracking these types of requests.
Meeting Adjourned at 12:41 p.m. PT
Next Alumni board meeting: Saturday, July 22, 2023
New Member Onboarding at 10 a.m. PT
Next Full Board Meeting: Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 10 a.m. PT