Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee – Alumni Council

Tom Daniels '82 (Chair)  •  Rick Allen '75  •  Janine Avner '80 (Council President)  Danielle Dyer '81  •  Martha Hartfiel '83  •  Thad King '73  •  Susan Luria '89 Jonathan Murchinson '91 •  Thomas Peisch '70 (Council President-elect) Dennis Ryan '81  •  Tracey Salmon-Smith '87 The mission of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee is to independently identify the most qualified alumni to serve in leadership roles on the Alumni Council and the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees. When an alumni-nominated seat opens on the board, the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee presents no more than two candidates for each such vacancy to the Alumni Council for approval, after which an announcement is made to the overall alumni body. The committee welcomes alumni trustee candidate recommendations from alumni at any time.  Dedicating many volunteer hours, committee members review hundreds of recommendations each year. They research potential candidates, compile biographies, thoroughly discuss each candidate's qualifications, and speak with candidates' references. The committee also works with alumni constituencies to fill vacancies on the Alumni Council in accordance with the council's constitution. The following is the letter the Nominating Committee sent in August to alumni, informing them of the nominating process for the two seats that will open next spring on the Dartmouth Board of Trustees.   August 2009 Dear Fellow Alumni: The work of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee is officially underway.  The purpose of this note is to advise you of where we are in the process and encourage you to help us continue to generate good ideas for candidates to consider for the upcoming election.  Our role in the coming months is to attract and recruit the best talent to run for the two open trustee seats that alumni will vote on next spring.  We are conducting a rigorous process that hopefully will identify and attract the most qualified alumni willing to serve and run.  Our goal is to create excitement among all alumni about the nominees, avoid the rancor of recent elections, continue the positive momentum established with the recent constitutional amendment that received over 80% support of those voting and maintain the goodwill generated from the recent presidential selection process.  We want to incorporate a wide spectrum of views.  We want alumni to feel good about the nominating and search process that we intend to make fair, inclusive and transparent, yet also appropriately professional and discrete to those under consideration, as all search processes need to be. The Nominating Committee operates independently of the college.  It consists of 11 members who have been appointed or elected by their peers on the Alumni Council.  The collective profile our committee is representative of not only the 116-person Alumni Council but 69,000 alumni across a number of dimensions: By class ('70, '73, '75, '80, '81, '82, '87, '89, '91); By geography (Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco); By profession (consultants, professionals and executives involved in the healthcare, media, technology, financial services, search and legal professions, as well as previously in government and the non-profit sectors); By undergraduate major  (Government, English, Engineering, History, Archeology, Urban Studies, Asian Studies); By undergraduate activity (eight fraternities and sororities, three senior societies and activities that include rugby, ski patrol, rowing, riding, student government, debate, Tucker Foundation, Rockefeller Center, DOC, and LSA/FSP); By Dartmouth activity since graduation (with the majority serving in some capacity at some point as interviewers, alumni fund volunteers, district enrollment directors and/or club or class presidents or other officers); By demographics (including four women, two people of color, a Native American and an Asian American); By Dartmouth legacy (including a Tuck graduate and four who are part of multi-generational Dartmouth families, either as legacies or parents); By leadership in the alumni community (including the current President of the Alumni Council, the President-Elect, and two other former Nominating Committee chairs).  Each member of the Nominating Committee shares a passion for Dartmouth and will invest enormous time in this process.  We have already reviewed, over the course of ten meetings over the past two years since the last election, nearly 400 alumni profiles, including over 70 submitted since the announcement of the forthcoming election.  We have started refining that list down to approximately four dozen highly qualified potential candidates, but continue to seek input.  Although we met recently for a full day in New York City, we will have at least 3-4 more full-day sessions in New York, Boston and/or Hanover and numerous phone calls between now and early December to review every name submitted as well as others whom we believe merit consideration.  We welcome and encourage continued input from all alumni and hope that our desire for nominations is reaching everyone through at least one of the many communications thus far.  These have included an all-alumni postcard mailing, a full page ad in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, stories in Speaking of Dartmouth and Dartmouth Life, an electronic ad in the online version of The Dartmouth, and postcard hand-outs at most major alumni events this summer and fall.  We hope that communications such as these will also be distributed by Alumni Council members, class and club presidents and class newsletter editors to their constituencies.  Please feel free to contact tdaniels@spencerstuart.com or any committee member directly with your thoughts and recommendations.   THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT ALUMNI TRUSTEE CANDIDATE NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2010 ELECTION IS NOVEMBER 3, 2009.  We look forward to hearing from you and aim to communicate with you periodically as the process evolves.  The Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee