Cabinet members in attendance: Ande Croll, Matthew Knisley, Anthony Nuval, Samuel Berger, Amy Kinney, Jonathan Koch, Kevin McHugh, Soochon Radee, Jeff Truitt

From IMSA: Carolyn Johnson

Absent: Ryan Armour, Ravi Sahota, Scott Swanson

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM CDT.

Items for action:

Appointment of Kevin Colby to Cabinet

Tony motioned to appoint Kevin Colby to the cabinet. Matthew seconded the motion. Motion was opened up for discussion. Ande explained that Kevin did technology-related work for the IAA last year as a cabinet member and has expressed interest in continuing to do so this year. Tony said it would be good to keep him for continuity and history of the technology projects.

Ande asked if there were any questions, concerns, or comments. None were voiced. The motion was put to a vote. Motion passed unanimously with no abstentions.

Items for discussion:

Introductions

As this was the first meeting of the new cabinet following the elections held at the annual meeting, short introductions were made.

Budget

Official discussion of the budget was tabled as the treasurer, Ryan, was absent from the conference. However, Carolyn provided some background information on how the IAA budget works: the IAA is funded through IMSAFund through a "gentleman's agreement." The IAA submits a budget request that is fulfilled via donations received for IMSAFund marked directly for the IAA, then from the "greatest need" pool.

Ande said the budget will be discussed at the next meeting. No date exists for the submission of the budget, but it needs to be submitted very soon.

Carolyn described last year's IAA budget: $17,820, with $9,500 remaining. Reunions are self-supporting (zero-sum) but the IAA covers the Paypal electronic payment fees. Gaps in the budget existed due to regional events that were projected into the budget but never materialized, as well as technology-related expenses.

Soochon asked if the IAA is ever informed of how much of the donations are earmarked for the IAA. Carolyn replied that the figure was $1,705 during the last fiscal year.

Carolyn went on to explain that not much has been documented with respect to budget procedures. The new IMSAFund director is adamant that everything be documented. Ande also stated that there is a big push this year to request only as much as will actually be spent. Ande will forward a copy of last year's budget to the cabinet, and Ryan can send a followup on the final numbers for last year's budget.

Technology Review

Tony provided some information on the history of technology discussions within the IAA in lieu of Kevin (who joined late in the call). He explained the importance of technology to the organization, as it is a "virtual" organization in that it heavily relies on telecommunications to meet its objectives. Tony also described the ongoing discussions with IMSA officials to define its role in supporting the technological needs of the IAA.

Ande mentioned that, following the annual meeting in June, a discussion was held with members of IMSA, the IAA, and the alumni community to bring the new cabinet members up to speed and also seek input from alumni in attendance.

Cabinet Roles

Ande stated her desire to get more people involved with cabinet activities and not restrict cabinet members to just one project or area of interest. She will put together a list of people interested in the various projects planned for the year with the intent of finding volunteers from the alumni community to assist in carrying them out.

Transition Records

Ande explained the need for documentation of the projects handled by cabinet members (Intersession, Alumni Weekend, regional activities) and asked that as cabinet members work through their projects, to try to write down what they do, including approaches that were successful and not successful.

Amy mentioned 37signals.com as being a potential tool to facilitate online collaboration for projects. Soochon asked if we could implement such a system on imsaalumni.org hardware. Kevin Colby said we could certainly try to integrate it into the new site, as Plone is quite flexible. Tony said he will try using it for the first project and report back to the cabinet.

Goals

Ande said she would like to see everyone put together goals in the coming month so that we have an idea for what we want to accomplish in the next year. She reminded the cabinet that events and activities need to be started early (reunion and Intersession planning need to be started in the next month).

On the subject of reunions, Ande mentioned there are proposals to move Alumni Weekend to Homecoming weekend. She stated that there will be alumni at homecoming this year for alumni awards and asked cabinet members to think about whether it is better to do reunions in October around homecoming as opposed to the current date of summer. Kevin said that class reunions may not need to be held on the same date and brought up the example of the five-year reunion, where some may be in school and cannot attend an event held in the fall.

Retreat

Ande described the successful cabinet retreat held last year that Ryan organized. The retreat brought cabinet members together at IMSA for a day and allowed the cabinet to discuss face-to-face the larger projects to be worked on during the year. Meeting at IMSA also allowed IMSA Student Council leadership to meet with cabinet members and discuss common objectives. This year, the retreat should probably be held earlier, as some cabinet members will be in school. Ande asked everyone to examine their schedules and find a date in July or August that could work.

The question of when students return to IMSA was asked--sophomores move in August 14. Tony said that last year's retreat coincided with a Preview Day and wondered if that would be a good idea this year; however, Preview Days happen too late in the year to be considered for retreat dates. Soochon asked if there could be more than one retreat. Ande said that we will start with one retreat and determine if more need to be held.

Alumni Weekend Wrap-up

Ande said that about 100 people registered for the alumni/staff luncheon and probably had that many in attendance. Carolyn also said that the luncheon went well.

For the class reunions, all went well. The 15-year reunion of the class of 1993 was held at Marché and was one of the best-attended 15-year reunions. The 10-year reunion of the class of 1998 was held at Adobo Grill and had a slight budget surplus. The 5-year reunion of the class of 2003 was held at IMSA with 80 attendees and a $200 budget surplus.

Ande stressed the importance of having more than one person on the reunion planning committee as it makes things smoother and reduces the burden on any one person. Ande asked cabinet members with upcoming reunions to try to find people to help plan their reunions.

Other Items

Carolyn said she will send out details to the cabinet regarding homecoming activities and would appreciate feedback. Matthew said that Lance Hall expressed interest in organizing a trip to an event or a musical; he will get more details and forward them to the cabinet. Kevin will put together a mailing list for people interested in helping out with technology projects.

Ande moved to adjourn the meeting. Tony and Matthew seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 8:09 PM CDT.