Cabinet members in attendance: Ande Croll, Matthew Knisley, Ryan Armour, Anthony Nuval, Mindy Brown, Kevin Colby, Mark Czynski

From IMSA: Carolyn Johnson

Excused: Neal Groothuis, Timothy Meyer, Scott Swanson

Absent: Tarun Nagpal

The meeting was called to order at 8:04 PM CST.

No items for action on the agenda.

Regional Events Update

Matthew provided an update on the regional events being held on the West Coast. An eVite reminder was sent out for the San Francisco event but only about 25 people have signed up so far. Four staff members will be in attendance. There may be more people showing up at the door; the organizers are working on getting more people to come.

Carolyn talked about the Seattle event to be held March 8. Paper invitations were sent to alumni in Washington and Oregon, which were followed up with email invitations. Carolyn said she is not sure what the response rate has been. They hope to have a skiing trip following the gathering, weather and interest permitting.

Carolyn also provided details on IMSA staff and administrators that will be attending the events: Max, Suzyn, Jennifer Spuehler, and Cathy Veal will be at the San Francisco event; Max, Suzyn, Carolyn, and Micah Fogel will be at the Seattle event.

For the New York event, Carolyn said that Matt Unterman and Tarun are working on it; they are looking for alumni with connections to secure a venue.

Technology Update

For the upcoming technology discussion with IMSA administrators, Kevin will provide an agenda. Questions include: what does administration see in the future for alumni services, what service guarantees exist, and if there are any actions they would like the IAA to take. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 26.

In other technology news, Kevin said the new servers are running fine. Tony is cleaning up the reunion pages and will clean up the regional club pages next.

Constitutional Revisions Update

Ande tabled this item until next month; she hoped that Scott can send the text of the proposed changes to the cabinet for review before the next cabinet meeting.

College and Career Day

Ande discussed the possibility of having an alumni-run college and career day for IMSA students. The idea would be to invite alumni from a variety of fields back to IMSA and get representation for occupations that don't normally get represented at other college/career days in order to answer the question "If I want to do this job, what should I be focusing on?" Alumni would also provide career guidance and a different perspective than what is normally presented. To appeal to seniors, the event would be held in the fall, as seniors already have plans by the spring. Matthew and Ande will discuss things further with the CAC office and find out what is the best way to reach students. Ande said the event will likely not happen this year but next year and asked that anyone interested in participating should get in touch with her.

Alumni Weekend

Ande provided an update on Alumni Weekend planning. Planning is moving forward; the idea of doing an IAA-sponsored Friday event open to all classes is being kicked around. Ande asked what else we might want to do during the weekend. Matthew said he would love another event but he doesn't know what that event would be. Tony said it would be nice to guarantee some faculty/staff to be in attendance, as some of the "favorite" faculty/staff could be draws for participation. While the summer date is problematic for faculty and staff attendance, Carolyn said that a "save the date" card could be sent out ahead of time to gauge interest and contact faculty/staff ahead of time to secure attendance.

Ande also brought up the possibility of moving Alumni Weekend to the fall, when school is in session, but suggested that this be discussed during the next meeting and see what could be done for 2009.

Elections

Ande asked that everyone find out if anyone they know is interested in helping out with the position of election chair and let her know.

Goals Discussion

Ande continued the discussion on short-term goals for the cabinet. Kevin said that it would be good to define the services provided through technology, as technology presents much of the public face of the IAA. Tony suggested focusing on strengthening the alumni community. Carolyn asked the question "what does it mean to be an IMSA alum?" Ande talked about working on improving alumni giving; Carolyn mentioned donation-matching by the Pritzker family for continuing donors.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM CST.