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�鶹Ӱ�� Alumni Association Board Meeting Minutes

October 7, 2023 – 10 a.m. to 1:20 p.m. Hybrid Meeting

Board Members in Attendance: Aldair Arriola Gomez ‘17, Michael Bright ‘10, Andrew Brown ‘77, Miguel Delgado ‘20, Stuart Friedel ‘08, Robi Ganguly ‘00, Marcel Green ‘90 (via Zoom), Carol Kruse ‘84, Toran Langford ‘21, Jeff Levere ‘12, Linda Luisi ‘81, Te’auna Patterson ‘18, Lew Phelps ‘65 (via Zoom), Amy Rhodes ‘07, Joshua Rodriguez ‘13, Alfredo Romero ‘91, Julie Siebel ‘84, Tricia Sipowicz ’85 P’22, Jim Sutton ’84 P’22, Andrea Venezia ‘91, Nina Zhou ‘19

Staff Members Present: Rodger Devine, Derrick Fang, Janncarlo Flores, Pritina Irvin, Ryan Kolter, Kerry Martin, Shalonda Martin, Kristen Romero, Ken Wolf

Welcome to the October Retreat, Trustee Update, & Overview: Alfredo Romero ’91 provided an update on the conversations had during trustee meetings, including the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and how it affects Pomona, the campaign and the Center for Global Education, and the impact of computer science as a major on student interest and faculty hiring. Alfredo also shared that the Benton Museum of Art recently held a ceremony to return items that were taken from the indigenous Hela people. Additionally, he shared that a committee with faculty members is also discussing how to increase representation of middle-income students and different ways Pomona could achieve that.

Approval of Board Meeting Minutes from 8.12.23: Alfredo Romero ’91 requested a motion to approve the minutes from the August 12, 2023 board meeting. Andrea Venezia ‘91 motioned and Nina Zhou ‘19 seconded. Approved unanimously with no discussion.

Committee and brief board representative “updates” and Q&A

• Development Committee and Annual Giving: Nina Zhou ’19 shared several goals that the Development Committee hopes to work towards in collaboration with the Office of Annual Giving. Annual Giving hopes to reach an alumni giving participation rate of 20.8%, or roughly 440 more alumni donors than last fiscal year (see recording for clarification). Alfredo suggested partnering with Reunion Giving, but Nina clarified that they are working on multi-year giving commitments from alumni instead. For the development committee, there are 3 specific action items discussed:
  • The first goal is to collaborate with the Regional Chapters Committee on Winter Break Parties and other Regional Chapter events—thinking of those events to stay in contact with Pomona alumni and continue the conversation/ education regarding Pomona’s endowment.
  • The second goal is to get 100% giving participation from the alumni board. Nina put a call to all AB members to give to Pomona in an area of significance to them via by December 31^st, 2023.
  • The final goal was getting seniors/young alumni in the habit of giving by matching their donations, and potentially including a class reward if they hit the giving goal. One such goal could be inviting the senior class to Taste of Pomona during Alumni Weekend if they hit a certain percentage of giving.
    • Robi Ganguly ‘00 shared more details in that the idea is to get students in the mindset to give monthly, possibly like a monthly subscription model, so that students are in the habit of giving as they leave Pomona.
• Engagement Committee: Joshua Rodriguez ’13 shared more about the goal of the Engagement Committee to foster the relationship between students and alumni. They plan to push Sagehen Connect, review the Alumni Attitudinal Survey to understand what students want to see, and potentially partner with the CDO to implement early- or mid-career support. The committee is focused on 4 main areas:
  • Alumni Weekend: partner with Ryan on planning sooner rather than later; how to capitalize on the programing for AW24 (e.g., tabling)
  • Career Programing: Sagehen Connect; Chirp and Chat, job search support, alumni outcomes support, and Alumni Paths (CDO) webinars.
  • Alumni Programing: how to leverage virtual programming, but also being present for on-campus programing/events (e.g., New Student Orientation)
  • Alumni Engagement & Education: how do we build the culture of an engaged alum? Also, leveraging resources provided by the CDO.
• Regional Chapters Committee: Andrew Brown ’77 shared that they are trying to integrate themselves into each regional chapter as a resource for best practices. The next area of focus is to discuss/plan the Winter Break Parties in January 2024. The other objective is to work with other committees to provide Pomona content for regional chapter events (e.g., have faculty who travel at events). Linda Luisi ’81 also discussed a career development program that the committee will be piloting in the DC area in collaboration with Kerry Martin and the CDO. Linda shared three steps to work towards the full pilot program: starting with career development support for DC young alumni; hosting in-person networking sessions; then finally piloting the mentoring program. Kerry shared that the CDO currently offers alumni assistance in career search, but that alumni programming is not fully built out. She also mentioned that she can assist with finding speakers and panelists for various alumni events. She is committed to spreading the message to let alumni know the CDO is available as a job search resource (salary negotiations, job seeking, career resources, etc.). Linda then shared next steps, including a survey to DC-area alumni about what they would be interested in seeing in terms of career-related programming. Andrew finished by talking about how implementing new chapters are not a current focus, and that their goal this year is to enrich the current infrastructure.
• Faculty: Victoria Sancho-Lobis (absent)
• Career Development Office: Kerry Martin shared that the CDO has new objectives and team goals as part of their strategic plan. First, they are working to get first-year students in the mindset that career planning is not just about when you need to write a resume or apply to work. To that end, the CDO uses many peer advisors to assist students with basic skills. They also have a new, full-time career counselor in-house to help with this. The CDO is also focused on programing for students and alumni related to various careers of interests. A side conversation emerged about resources on Handshake, but a challenge here is that alumni tend to lose access to their Pomona email after graduation if they don’t log in within 6 months. Alfredo proposed that the board figure out a way to ensure alumni can get on Handshake and/or access to their emails to view these resources. Kerry then continued with some challenges the CDO is currently facing. First is huge changes in recruitment: most consulting firms are switching to doing things virtually, so the CDO is trying to pivot in an effort to accommodate the lack of in-person programming. Another challenge is trying to use ChatGPT correctly and appropriately for resumes and cover letters. Finally, the CDO is working to implement DEIA efforts into their framework. Kerry concluded by mentioning that alumni are very helpful with our SmartStart program. The current cohort of 20 students started this program 2 weeks ago, which will culminate in San Francisco with a networking event.
• Advancement Communications: Kristen McCabe Romero will share an update over email, in the interest of time. However, she did share that a new story was recently released about former Pomona registrar Masago Armstrong and her $1 million gift to Pomona. The story is available on the Pomona web and has also been picked-up by the LA Times.
• Admissions: Tray Hammond ’22 (absent)
• ASPC: Timi Adelakun ’24 (absent)

Special Presentation: Alumni Outcomes

Rodger Devine (AVP Adv. Operations), Shalonda Martin (Sr. Dir. Adv. Services), Derrick Fang (Dir. Research, Relationship Management, and Analytics), and Ken Wolf (Faculty Chair and Prof. of History) led a presentation on the new Alumni Outcomes Pilot project. Rodger, Shalonda, and Derrick talked about the specifics of how the program works, where the data comes from, and what the program can ultimately do. Ken talked about how faculty can use this tool in their work advising students.

New Business: Action Items/Next Steps

• AFE Directors Report: Ryan Kolter explained the upcoming event with President Starr at the LA Arboretum and how it ties into the overall pre-campaign strategy. He requested that the local Board members attend as they play a big part in this event series as key volunteers. Ryan also talked about how President Starr will give a state of the college address geared towards students, parents, and alumni. After November’s event at the Arboretum, San Francisco will have a similar event in February.
• Addressing Alumni Concerns about Pomona Culture: Alfredo Romero ’91 shared a conversation raised within the Engagement Committee regarding football and the issues/discussions around concussions. Alfredo extended this conversation to other concerns alumni may have about Pomona (e.g., the College song), and asked the Board what they could do to bring awareness to these issues while still keeping alumni engaged. Lew Phelps ‘65 suggested that we send out a regular survey to get a better sense of how other alumni feel about on-campus issues, and then share those results with the Board of Trustees. Julie Siebel ‘84 proposed that a group of Alumni Board members meet to have a more nuanced discussion on the topic.