Minutes of the Hampden-Sydney College Alumni Council Meeting
April 30 – May 1, 2004
Friday, April 30:
Alumni Association President, Mike Pace opened the meeting and welcomed the club representatives. He then introduced Hampden-Sydney College President, Dr. Walter M. Bortz III.
Dr. Bortz welcomed the fellows and thanked them for their attendance and time. He expressed the appreciation from the College for their efforts in their home communities and asked them to continue to spread the work of the College and engage other alumni to assist.
Dr. David Marion, Elliot Professor of Political Science spoke about the Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest and the new Military Leadership and National Security Studies Program:
Dr. Marion asked for continuing alumni support to make the WC even stronger. He feels the center is one facet helping to make the College a top institution in the country. The Center continues to assist students with internships – many on Capitol Hill and others around the country and overseas. The Public Service Certificate Program is essentially a “minor” for the students. Graduates are finding good jobs in public service. They use the internships as entrée for future positions. The internships are helping them build stronger resumes. He appreciates alumni support.
The Military Leadership and National Security Studies Program will be introduced next fall at the 9-11 Symposium (dates: September 7-9, 2004). This certificate program is equal to a minor (the College does not offer minors). The program evolved from fears of losing the ROTC program at the College. It was constructed to appeal to the military and to help keep scholarship dollars at the College. Input and support of the program was solicited from the over 100 alumni currently in or retired from the military. It is anticipated there will be an initial interest from 6+ students to start. The program is another piece available for admissions to use to attract students to the College. The ML&NSS Program will consist of several required courses plus a number of electives to be taken over three years, including: The Military & American Society, Military History, and Leadership & Ethics.
Dr. Marion outlined a new project the WC has on the drawing board. The impetus being: “How can we do a better job of marketing the College?” The new project: “Hampden-Sydney College: America’s Leadership College.” Because the College has many very successful leaders in a variety of areas – business, politics, charity, local, etc. it is felt that we should market ourselves as America’s Leadership College. This new project is to be presented to the WC Board, and ultimately to the College for discussion and, hopefully, approval. The Alumni Council wished to show interest and support for the project and decided a letter to the Dr. Bortz would be drafted by President-Elect Chuck McPhillips to express that sentiment.
Dr. Marion concluded his presentation, by thanking the alumni for support and asking that they continue to consider internships for our students and continue to spread the word about the many fine programs at the College.
Athletic Director, Joe Bush spoke to the group and introduced the coaches. He stated that the College was extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding staff of top coaches, role models and team players.
Head Football Coach, Marty Favret introduced two of his new coaches for the coming season: John Shields – Def. Coordinator, and Greg Seznick – Linebackers and recruiting coordinator Marty anticipates over 110 players will report to camp. They have recruited a good class. The players are getting much stronger and faster. Clearly, Bridgewater is still the team to beat in the ODAC and we have our sights set on them again this year. The program is continuing to upgrade the schedule: added Johns Hopkins and dropped Maryville.
Head Basketball Coach, Bubba Smith introduced Asst. BB Coach, Chad Warner. He acknowledged the pressure as a new coaching staff last year and feels more comfortable for the coming year. Last year’s team had a great senior class (won 100 games in 4 years) with great chemistry. They won the ODAC and didn’t go as far as they would have liked in the NCAA D-3 tournament. Chad has recruited well as the team will bring in some very talented players and good students this fall.
Head Lacrosse Coach, Ray Rostan again had another outstanding season. The team was nationally ranked for most of the season. The loss in the ODAC tournament was tough to take as was missing the NCAA tournament. The seniors on the team had achieved 45 wins in 4 years. He also has had a good recruiting year.
Trustee, Johnny Ellis noted that the College has consistently recruited and retained top athletes who are also good students. Our ODAC All-Academic group from last year was 72-73 student-athletes. These guys maintained a 3.2 GPA or higher. Only W&L had a larger group of student-athletes (without H-SC’s great winning percentage!).
Assistant Director of the Annual Fund, Chad Krouse presented the annual Brinkley Challenge award to Wil Shumadine ’94, Class Agent for his class. The Class of ’94 won the award for having raised the largest number of annual fund dollars, having the largest % increase in donors from the class, and having the largest number of donors of all of the challenge classes (the Challenge covers the last 10 graduating classes).
Alumni Association President, Mike Pace discussed the current status of the organization of the association. We continue to move forward with the organization and have now reached the point of being able to help the College. The leadership organization at the top of the association will help to build leadership teams at the local level. This is a critical moment in the life of the College and our alumni need to help. We have to be in a position to recruit the students who may not be picked up by the public institutions.
While alumni’s giving is improving, we still have a long way to go.
Now that we have in place leaders at the top of the association, we need to staff their committees and carry that organization down to the local level.
The initial comments from each National Chairman:
- Chuck McPhillips (representing Tommy Davidson – Development) – work on increasing the number of Founders to the College
- Baxter Vendrick – Admissions – pinpoint key guidance counselors
- Rucker Snead – Communications – connect alumni to the College by finding out what information is needed from the College as well as what information the College needs from alumni. Leverage technology
- Stephen Spraker – Young Alumni – connect recent graduates and get them involved and giving back to the College.
- Tom Crowder – Career Development – encourage students to acquire the things they need to enter the job market and create a network to get into after they move to a new location.
- Bob Whit – Small Clubs – learn what support is needed from the College and how to attract more than just the “same old faces” that show up and are involved.
A breakout session was then held for each committee. Initial committee assignments of the club representatives present follows:
|
Admissions: |
Institutional Advancement: |
|
Baxter Vendrick – Chair |
Tommy Davidson – Chair |
|
Judd McAdams |
Richard Dunn |
|
Jim Bolton |
Johnny Overstreet |
|
Bo Taylor |
Rick Donaldson |
|
Rick Attlee |
Will Shumadine |
|
Stephen Waskey |
John Basilone |
|
Bob Boydoh |
Chuck McPhilips |
|
Career Development: |
Small Clubs: |
|
Tom Crowder – Chair |
Bob Whitt – Chair |
|
Robbie Sandlass |
Joe Wood |
|
Charlie Crist |
Alan Garrison |
|
Larry Mansfield |
Joe Dunn |
|
Tom Walker |
Bill Garrett |
|
Communications: |
Clayton James |
|
Rucker Snead – Chair |
Cal Spencer |
|
Tayloe Negus |
Young Alumni: |
|
Jason Moore |
Stephen Spraker – Chair |
|
Bert English |
Joe Deacon |
| |
Judson Root |
| |
Shawn McMahon |
After the committee meetings, the group reconvened to share ideas discussed in the breakout sessions.
Young Alumni
1) Online Young Alumni Newsletter
a.
Brief communiqué that has pictures
and stories of Young Alumni with pertinent news from the College. The
newsletter would be housed on the Young Alumni webpage in a PDF format. The
link to the site would be sent out to young alumni where they can click on the
link and be transported back to the College’s site with the newsletter. It
could be a monthly or quarterly publication.
b.
Initial publication should not
include any fundraising items.
c.
Launch date: Summer / Fall
2) “Tired of Getting Your Son’s Mail”
Postcard
a.
Postcard size mailer to be sent to
recent graduates in late summer/early fall requesting that the parents either
submit their son’s new address or visit the Alumni Update webpage where it can
be updated electronically.
3) Fall Alumni Association Party for
Seniors on the Point
a.
Gathering on the Friday night of the
Fall Alumni Council with Seniors to network in a stress-free environment to help
Seniors understand the importance of the Association and how to use it to find
the right job.
b.
A BBQ-type event.
c.
Money to put on such event would be
raised from the Alumni Clubs.
4) Gammon Society or Young Alumni Tent
at Home Football Games
a.
Opportunity to gather young alumni or
Gammon Society members only in a party tent with food and refreshments during a
home football game.
5) Creating a special giving society
for young alumni
a.
We kicked around the name for such a
group “1776 Society” but knowing that there is already a planned giving society
bearing the same name.
b.
Bottom line is the society would
increase its gift size each year by 17.76% to the College’s Annual Fund. It was
felt that this percentage increase would be easy for our young alumni to manage
especially on a monthly debit/credit card plan.
Small Clubs:
Small clubs should concentrate on admissions related goals for their areas. Typically, people know each other and more members of the local community and can keep close contact with school administrators and guidance counselors to help meet the admissions goals for their areas. It is important to maintain good information flow from admissions to the small clubs.
Communications:
Initial questions
What information do the alumni want?
What information do the alumni need?
Who at the College provides what information?
How is that information provided?
How can the College best leverage technology in order to best get information to alumni?
Results from Communications Sub-Committee Meeting
In order to most effectively support the Alumni Council mission of “Men and Money”, alumni need accurate and timely information. We need the truth, not a white-washed, public spin version. For example, if Admissions is having problem making the mission, alumni helping with Admissions need to know the true problems, so they can help. We can’t help, if we don’t know.
The Alumni Office needs to add a web page for each of the Alumni Clubs so that the Clubs can provide information for its members. There needs to be a standard template of information that includes at a minimum: the leadership team; recent events; upcoming events; admissions goals and events; development goals and events; and networking information. The Club Presidents should be able to simply update the info through a single point of contact on campus.
There was a request from the Faculty that the Alumni Council establish a Speakers Bureau of alumni who would be willing to come back to campus to work with faculty and students on particular topics.
The College needs to provide all information to alumni in an electronic format for easy dissemination to all alumni. Preferably this information will be posted on the Alumni Office website. If need be the information, can be password protected. Providing hard-copies at Alumni Council meetings makes it difficult to pass on information to those members who didn’t attend.
The College needs to provide information templates and SOPs in electronic format to Alumni to assist with Alumni efforts. For example What is involved with hosting an Admissions Reception?, How to put on a Shorty Program, How to host a phonathon, or some sample Admissions notes. We need to make it easier for Alumni to help. Need to post the templates and SOPs on the website. This also could become a lessons learned site where alums can exchange information on what works and doesn’t work.
The College needs to identify the core tasks that it would like Alumni to do. Then it should provide information on how to do it.
The College needs to look at maintaining an accurate calendar on when professors may be visiting Target Cities so perhaps Alums can invite them to Club events.
Career Development:
It has been noted that the number of corporations who come to campus to interview has fallen off in past years. HR people need to be educated about H-SC and what our graduates may offer their companies. They should be encouraged to come to campus because of potentially good matches with our students.
Alumni should be encouraged to sign up for the web-based mentoring list.
The Fall Career Expo should be expanded by adding more alumni.
Alumni should be encouraged to assist with internships in their companies.
Admissions:
Club efforts should be an extension of our Admissions Office. The personal touch the College uses should also be transmitted through our clubs.
Each club should establish a point of contact for each local high school; an “ambassador” who works with local guidance counselors.
Communication is a key element between the clubs and the admissions office.
Success stories should be shared with all clubs.
Young alumni are a great benefit in working with prospective students.
Institutional Advancement:
AF Numbers as of April 30, 2004:
- 10% or $133,000 ahead of last year's pace on our goal
- 2.077 million raised for the Annual Fund during the 2003 fiscal year
- 2.192 million is the goal for fiscal year 2004
- The number of alumni donors is up 2221 vs. 2109 at the same point last year
- 544 Founders in our alumni clubs in 2003 fiscal year
- 502 people in our clubs have given, or pledged, founders level gifts at this point this fiscal year
- 116 seniors gave over $6,000 to their senior gift in memory of Conrad Frazier and in honor of Walter Simms- largest gift in recent memory
What we are doing to meet our goal during the last two months:
- Sending out letters from Tommy Davidson '63, our Annual Fund Chairman, and Johnny Ellis '70, our Founders Chairman, to alumni who have yet to make a gift
- Following up the letters with emails (we have many new emails from the new Alumni Directory)
- Continuing to work with our volunteers in Tidewater, Richmond, Charlotte, Southside, Lynchburg, and Roanoke as they continue to solicit gifts from alumni
- Following up with members of the Alumni Council who took call sheets at the meeting
Improvements we plan to make during the 2005 fiscal year:
- Implement a class agent program for the classes of 1980-1990
- Have a theme that gets worked into all phonathons, publications, letters, emails etc. of 3,500 alumni donors in 2005
- Continue to improve the Brinkley Challenge and start the program in the fall
- Continue to improve our alumni phonathons and segment the call sheets even more
- Continue to send out segmented letters from our top volunteers
- Continue to improve communication with all of our Annual Fund volunteers
Suggestions made at the Development Committee meeting on 4/30/04:
- Continue to segment all appeals by club, sports team, fraternity, class etc.
- Send "home work", or call sheets, home from the phonathons
- Ask a trustee to provide a gift incentive if the young alumni giving % reaches a certain level
- Continue to travel into more clubs and smaller pockets of large clubs to meet and energize potential donors
Dr. Saranna Thornton, Associate Professor of Economics and faculty representative to the Alumni Association presented academic highlights.
The faculty approved a “Concentration in Rhetoric” program (similar to a minor) as well as the Military Leadership Program. (A group of econ. Students) will have the opportunity to manage a small portion of the College’s endowment as a learning experience.
Alumni can help connect with our students and connect them to the world of work by coming back to be speakers.
The Summer College this year will be: The Civil War: Then and Now
We need alumni involvement with both admissions and development. The College needs alumni help to bring good, qualified students to the College. We are challenging academically and we need to ease the budget constraints.
Johnny Ellis asked if we might learn where faculty would be going for conferences and whether they would consider speaking at alumni gatherings while away from the College.
A question was raised about keeping faculty for the long haul. It was noted that more faculty are in dual career households now which is problematic for this area. There is a possible way Alumni might assist through Career Networking.
Beeler Brush, Vice President for Institutional Advancement provided a campaign update.
The name and logo for the campaign have been decided: “Through These Gates”
The working goal for the campaign will be $91 million dollars.
To date, we are $2.2 million dollars ahead of our target. We must currently average just over $1 million dollars a month. This amount will continue to grow as we move further into the campaign. We currently have about $7.7 million dollars in “asks” out.
We anticipate moving into the public phase of the campaign in March or April of 2006.
The key “talking points” are continuing to be developed.
The most important project is the Library and endowment will be the major component of the campaign.
Anita Garland, Dean of Admissions provided an update on our admissions activities.
We are having a successful year, and are ahead on both number of applications and number of deposits. There is a possibility our student body may be 1100 for the fall, with 330 freshmen.
SAT scores and GPA averages are up.
Alumni help has been very valuable and is very much appreciated – calling, entertaining, and bringing students in for interviews. Club events and events in alumni homes have been very successful and have helped to set the College apart from other schools.
Competition is tough. Virginia has a very strong array of schools from which students may choose. This year our biggest cross over is with, Virginia Tech, JMU, U of Mary Washington, and W&L (top 4).
Alumni can continue to help by identifying more young men in their areas and encouraging them to take a look at us. At Wabash, the largest source of students for their freshman class is alumni referrals. We can and should make this one of our goals.
Saturday, May 1
David Klein, Dean of Students
John Axsom – President of the Student Body
McKennon Shea – Chairman of the Student Court
Jeff Monroe – Senior
Dean Klein thanked the alumni for their strong support during the Dean of Students search. He is excited about his new position and looks forward to continuing to improve student services on the College campus.
David introduced the student leaders present and turned the meeting over to them.
President Axsom discussed student apathy on campus and ways it could be ended. He hopes to convince students there is more to college than just classroom and social activities. There are many other activities and opportunities for involvement that students should discover. He would like to encourage programming that will grab the students’ attention. He encouraged alumni to find out about programs on campus and attend if they were able so that they could connect with students and stay connected with the College.
John described his role as chief Honor Court investigator and representative of the student body. He would like to continue to improve and sustain our traditions and strengths, and cited student/faculty relations as one of the most important strengths of the College. While in comparison with other schools, we likely come off pretty good, we can continue to internally improve our adherence to our Honor System and other traditions.
McKennon Shea discussed our Honor System. He feels that it is understood and respected by our students as indicated by the low number of trials and by the frequent questions about the system from students. He feels that our students do understand right from wrong. The freshman education process about the Honor System helps to instill an understanding of how the system works from the beginning of the students’ lives here on campus.
Jeff Monroe spoke about maintaining the student/faculty relationships on campus. He feels the College should market the strengths of the community, the faculty, and that students may come here and play an important role in the community.
All three men cited the opportunities for involvement; to be a part of a bigger picture; to develop leadership potential as major strengths they saw in the College. All three men spoke of the strong student/faculty relationships as something very important to cultivate and maintain. They hoped alumni would get involved and become a part of that relationship.
Mike Pace: Our alumni are passionate about Hampden-Sydney. The College has never been a school of input, but a school of throughput and output. Men leave here better and make a difference in their communities.
The Alumni Association is on the verge of being able to do something for this College. We must be about our mission of making our Leadership Teams work – and focusing on the tasks of bringing more Men and Money into this institution. We must raise the level of activity in each of our club areas to support the excellence that is here on this campus.
Discussion concluded with setting the fall meeting date for the Alumni Council: September 10-11. A decision will be made on the format of the meeting over the summer.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Attendees:
|
ATL |
Mr.
Frank |
C. |
Bedinger |
III |
'76 |
|
AURK |
Mr. |
Alan |
F. |
Garrison |
|
'84 |
|
BALT |
Mr. |
Robert |
F. |
Sandlass |
Jr. |
'99 |
|
CHAR |
Mr. |
E. |
Judson |
McAdams |
Sr. |
'77 |
|
CHWV |
Mr. |
Joseph |
H |
Deacon |
III |
'03 |
|
DAN |
Mr. |
James |
W. |
Bolton |
Jr. |
'76 |
|
DAN |
Mr. |
Robert |
H. |
Whitt |
Jr. |
'78 |
|
DC |
Mr. |
Robert |
D. |
English |
|
'99 |
|
DC |
Lt.
Col. |
L. |
Rucker |
Snead |
III |
'81 |
|
ECAR |
Mr. |
Gervas
|
Storrs
|
Taylor |
III |
'72 |
|
FRED |
Mr. |
Charles |
W. |
Crist |
|
'66 |
|
FRED |
Mr. |
Richard |
K. |
Dunn |
|
'90 |
|
HASB |
Mr. |
Joseph |
Elam |
Dunn |
|
'93 |
|
LYN |
Mr. |
John |
Gurganey |
Overstreet |
|
'69 |
|
MTVL |
Mr. |
William |
C. |
Garrett |
Jr. |
'74 |
|
PEN |
Mr. |
Richard |
Yorke |
Atlee |
Jr. |
'93 |
|
PEN |
Mr. |
Richard |
B. |
Donaldson |
Jr. |
'73 |
|
PIED |
Mr. |
Robert |
E. |
Boydoh |
Jr. |
'88 |
|
RAPP |
Mr. |
Clayton |
W. |
James |
|
'91 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
Thomas |
M.
|
Crowder |
|
'78 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
J. |
Lawrence |
Mansfield |
|
'86 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
Tayloe |
N. |
Negus |
|
'88 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
Judson |
V |
Root |
|
'03 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
William |
Francis |
Shumadine |
III |
'94 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
Stephen |
Talbot |
Spraker |
|
'97 |
|
RICH |
Mr. |
Thomas |
|
Walker |
|
'77 |
|
ROKE |
Mr. |
Shawn |
Leonard |
McMahon |
|
'97 |
|
ROKE |
Mr. |
G. |
Michael |
Pace |
Jr. |
'79 |
|
ROKE |
Mr. |
Stephen |
Kirk |
Waskey |
|
'90 |
|
SS |
Mr. |
Calvin |
Stanley |
Spencer |
Jr. |
'94 |
|
TIDE |
Mr. |
John |
E. |
Basilone |
|
'85 |
|
TIDE |
Mr. |
John |
C. |
Ellis |
Jr. |
'70 |
|
TIDE |
Mr. |
Charles |
V. |
McPhillips |
|
'82 |
|
TIDE |
Mr. |
M. |
Baxter |
Vendrick |
Jr. |
'98 |
|
