Pomona College Alumni Association Board Meeting Minutes
June 24, 2023 – 10 a.m. to 12:41 p.m. Virtual Meeting
Board Members in Attendance: Aldair Arriola Gomez '17, Soren Austenfeld '15, Michael Bright '10, Andrew Brown '77, Miguel Delgado '20, Stuart Friedel '08, Robi Ganguly '00, Marcel Green '90, Carol Kruse '84, Toran Langford '21, Te'auna Patterson '18, Amy Van Buren Rhodes '07, Joshua Rodriguez '13, Alfredo Romero '91, Julie Siebel '84, Tricia Sipowicz ’85 P’22, Jim Sutton '84 P'22, Nina Zhou '19.
Staff Members Present: Tray Hammond '22, Pritina Irvin, Ryan Kolter, Kerry Martin, Maria Watson
Welcome to FY 2024, Trustee Update, & Overview: Alfredo Romero ’91 welcomed all to the meeting. He gave an overview of meeting structure and asked for suggestions/ideas on how to make the meeting more structured.
Maria Watson, VP, Advancement: Maria thanked the board members for their partnership and commitment to the college, our community and network. She shared a bit of the promise we make to the students as they arrive on campus, of “being able to chase your dreams beyond the gates.” And the value of the degree from Pomona College. Maria gave an overview of the engagement programs that took place on campus last year, with the help of the alumni board volunteers. She shared a breakdown of the new student population (Class of 2027) and provided a brief update on the search for a new Director of Alumni & Family Engagement.
Approval of Board Meeting Minutes from 6.24.23: Alfredo Romero ’91 mentioned that these minutes will be shared on the alumni website, once approved by the board. Julie motioned, making an edit on her “shout out”, Nina 2nd. Motion passed unanimously.
FY2024 Board Member Introductions (with Prompts): Alfredo opened the floor for board members to introduce themselves.
Old Business: Action Items / Next Steps:
Board Meeting Structure: Alfredo shared the section of the binder regarding Time Commitments for the alumni board members. Each of the committee Chairs will set committee meeting cadences for that specific committee. Alfredo shared the goal of having a guest speaker from the college at each meeting.
- Board Meeting Structure for FY24
- AB Roles & Responsibilities Document
- LDC: Alfredo shared that Diane Ung has accepted her appointment to Chair the LDC; more updates will be circulated to those that volunteered to serve on the LDC in the coming few days.'
Committee and Representative Updates:
- Development Committee/ Annual Giving update: Nina Zhou ’19 shared some accomplishments of the Development Committee this past fiscal year; they were able to improve our alumni giving participation rate to 19.1%. In line with the college's overarching strategic commitment, this committee’s goal is to continue to increase alumni participation to ~25% by the end of FY2024. In partnership with Annual Giving, DC is working on a more comprehensive campaign to engage alumni who have not given; “Beat CMC” campaign is one example. Last year’s Board of Trustees challenge was successful, and they have plans to reinstate that challenge this year. Upcoming tasks for the Development Committee are:
- Fall solicitation strategy in collaboration with Prof. Ken Wolf, which we'll discuss in our next committee meeting, with an anticipated launch mid to late September.
- Working with the Engagement Committee to continue to build meaningful connection between alumni and current students so that giving back to Pomona feels more concrete and meaningful.
- Solidify plans to launch student philanthropy program, led by Brenna in Annual Giving. Annual Giving has been given funds to hire new positions to help build those connections/relationships with young alumni.
- Engagement Committee: Joshua Rodriguez ’13 reports that Engagement Committee has focused on the following 4 priorities:
- Be a good thought partner during Alumni Weekend 2024.
- Increase engagement with Sagehen Connect.
- Supporting career development with collaboration with the CDO.
- Alumni Engagement & Education: “How do we train Pomona students to be engaged alums.?” more engagement with and /or resources for Seniors /Pomona students/young alumni.
- Regional Chapters Committee: Andrew Brown ’77 reported their meeting cadence has not yet been set. This year’s focus will be on consolidation, working on getting more traction with the existing 7 chapters by being more active in their committee meetings. The goal of the RC Committee is to help the existing chapters navigate through event planning for small events and encourage them to manage larger events with the college.
- Faculty: Victoria Sancho-Lobis (absent)
- Career Development Office: Kerry Martin reported that she is excited about the programs planned for this Fall. CDO is working on benchmarking peer institutions; looking at what type of CDO services they are able to offer. Working on our understanding in working with neurodiverse students with their career dev. Services, the CDO has a new dedicated career services councilor, focusing on career development services for new students.
- Advancement Communications: Kristen McCabe Romero (absent) Alfredo shared that ACE has a number of things they will be updating. AB website is in process of being updated. New AG philanthropy program they are currently supporting.
- Admissions: Tray Hammond ’22 reported the waitlist closed yesterday so they will have a clearer picture of what the current class will look like. Should be receiving an email from Admissions sometime this week. This academic year, his focus will be on programming for Alumni Volunteers to assist with things like College Fair’s that alumni volunteers can attend when Admissions staff are not able to attend.
- ASPC: Timi Adelakun ’24 (absent)
New Business: Ryan Kolter shared action Items & next steps with the board, elaborating on the following items:
- LA-local alumni at Orientation on 8/19: Ryan put out a call for at least 4 volunteers to participate in this event.
- AB October Retreat on 10/6-10/7: Ryan gave a high-level review of arrival suggestions, and events/programs to expect.
- Alumni Awards set to open 9/1 Alfredo Romero ’91 adjourned the meeting at 1 p.m.
Alfredo Romero ’91 adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm.
Next Alumni Board Meeting: Saturday, October 7th, 2023 at 10 a.m. PT at Seaver House, Pomona College