Meeting Minutes
9/9/2002 Alumni Council Meeting
Recorded by David Golden
Present: Stephanie Segal Hartman, Madeline Goldfischer, Eric Weiss, David Golden, Jackie Keveson, Bob Solomon, Jeffrey Paul Bobrick, Lew Frisch, Juliet Ross, Noah Landow
Where We’ve Been
Executive Summary: We’re past the one-year mark and doing well. We’ve got members, enthusiasm, 501(c)(3) status.
Lessons from Year 1:
Each event needs an event chair. An event chair should be visible and checking in with people involved with the event. People should know whom the event chair is and where to check in with that person.
If someone feels overwhelmed or for whatever reason can’t take on as large a role as they currently have, it’s important to speak up. We have many people available.
Reply quickly when someone asks for info.
If you need volunteers, let Juliet know.
Where We Are
Lou Simon has agreed to join the Board. He’s excited about Friends of Buck’s Rock and we’re excited to have him!
The position of Events Outreach Director is open. We thank Lisa Wanderman, our previous Events Outreach Director, who did a wonderful job but must now respond to the calls of her professional and personal life. She got a lot done for the organization, particularly to get it on its feet, as we were starting from scratch just over a year ago!
Lew Frisch has been asked by the Executive Committee to act as the Interim Director at this meeting. (Note: Our by-laws state that when a position becomes vacant, the Alumni Council votes on who will fill it. However, if a position is vacated before the term is over, the Executive Committee can vote on an interim person to serve until the Alumni Council votes someone in. There were enough Executive Committee members present at this Alumni Council meeting to vote Lew in as the Interim Director.)
TREASURER’S REPORT
Balance currently at approx $3,100. After a bunch of bills and checks we have get taken care of, we’ll be at about $2,600.
We qualify for a special non-profit postage rate (16.5 cents per article). Bob’s applied with the post office and expects that to be finalized soon.
Alex secured us a good deal on video duplication, so we took advantage of the saving, knowing that we can sell the videos over a long period of time.
NEWSLETTER
Newsletter looked great and got good feedback. We’ll be looking for articles soon, as we would like to have another newsletter prepared in time for traditional camper reunion that Buck’s Rock Camp coordinates every December.
WEB SITE
Web site: (1) deal with what’s up and functional (e.g. people being able to edit their contact info) & (2) think about what we’d like the website to do and then build it based on that idea. Jeffrey has a wish list for the web site, which includes giving a sense of who we are, where we come from, who Ernst was, and the special relationship there.
MEMBERSHIP
We are still in need of finding other alumni. The Reunion this summer helped us identify many bad addresses and find some new good addresses, but some many people are still unknown to us and us to them. Madeline mentions that she has been involved in alumni work for Sarah Lawrence College and that they uses a service to help us find contact info for alumni. They’re reasonably priced, so Madeline will look further into that and report back to the group.
Membership expansion is key to our success. A conference call is planned for interested parties to brainstorm regarding membership. Lew volunteers to coordinate the meeting. The possible dates are September 23rd, 30th or October 7th before or after the Executive Committee Meeting.
FUNDRAISING
Still have merchandise from 60th Reunion
Looking to corporations and foundations for large donations. Also looking for people to help with grant writing and assembling materials for those applications.
October fundraising letter will be more upbeat than the last one, which followed 9/11.
SCHOLARSHIP
We want to make a commitment to a camper to send them at least 2 years. We would like to work camper-to-camper rather than year-to-year.
We have spoken with people at several non-profits in the New York area (East Harlem Tutorial Project, Partnership for After-School Education, The After-School Corporation) to identify potential partners as well as seek advice.
Where We’re Going
Get Scholarship Fund in place: either send kid(s) this summer (2003) or build endowment or both
Finish assembling the Board
Begin to define and codify our relationship with Buck’s Rock
Create institutional memory: some form of documentation of what we do, with whom we do it, how we do it, possibly saving emails or creating forms, etc.
Move sentimental attachment to Buck’s Rock & Ernst towards an attachment to FOBR. This is particularly important when we’re dealing with older Buck’s Rockers.
Future Meetings
All member of Friends of Buck’s Rock are welcome to attend Alumni Council Meetings
Executive Committee will meet on Monday 10/7 at 7pm.
Alumni Council will meet on Sunday 11/17 at 11am.
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