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October 15, 2009: Conference Call

Present: John Mathias, John Engelman, Doug Keare, David Spalding, Ron Schram, Cheryl Bascomb, Kaitlin Jaxheimer, Veree Brown, Lynne Gaudet

Absent: Otho Kerr, Marian Baldauf, Ron Harris

Agenda:

John Mathias opened the meeting. John Engelman moved that the minutes of the Executive Committee conference call held on May 11, 2009 be approved. Ron Schram seconded the motion and the Executive Committee unanimously approved the minutes.

John Mathias explained that the purpose of this conference call was to provide the opportunity for the Election Reform Study Committee (ERSC) to submit their report to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee had charged the ERSC with the duty of reaching out to alumni for feedback on Dartmouth alumni election campaigning and then produce a report pertaining to this issue for the Executive Committee's consideration. The Executive Committee is now being asked to review the report and then meet again next week (after it has been posted on the AOA website and the AOA blog for alumni to comment on) to decide whether or not to approve the report and then revise the election guidelines accordingly. The report needs to be completed at this time because the Alumni Council's Nominating Committee will begin interviewing trustee candidates in November and they will need to inform those candidates about the election guidelines. John Mathias then opened the call for discussion and questions.

John Engelman asked about the recommendation to reduce the election voting period from six to four weeks. John Mathias said that everybody appears to be supportive of this recommendation. It reduces the length of time to campaign and seems to be a more reasonable period of time for a trustee and/or AOA election. The production period will also be reduced by two weeks so the approximate total "election period" will be reduced from 5 months to 4 months.

Alumni feedback received was discussed. John Mathias said that the group of alumni who were interviewed included a broad cross-section of people who had been involved in past elections, current alumni leaders, etc.. In addition, the open forum was held in Hanover in September and the committee received over 400 emails in reply to the email that the Alumni Council sent about this matter.

It was agreed that the report would be posted on the AOA website and the AOA blog for alumni feedback. The Executive Committee will meet again next Thursday, October 22, 2009, to vote on the proposed report and recommendations.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,


David Spalding
Secretary-Treasurer
Association of Alumni