Peter Elias ’69, committee chair, welcomed everyone and introduced Tommy Bruce, senior vice president for public affairs. Tommy shared the goals of his office and reviewed the Dartmouth College homepage, the Dartmouth Now website, and Vox Weekly emails, noting their various features and successes. Tommy asked for feedback about areas to focus on when communicating about Dartmouth, and members discussed showing the student perspective and highlighting the unique shared Dartmouth experience.
Siobhan Kearney, committee secretary, shared Alumni Council communications metrics.
Jonathan Goldstein, executive director of advancement communications shared some background information about the migration of technology from Harris Connect to iModules. He noted that the College has moved the Alumni Directory, Career Network, class/club and group emails and websites to iModules. His goals are to improve the alumni profile so it’s easier to update, make everything mobile-friendly, and offer better support to the alumni volunteers using iModules with the help of Ed Mazer ’63.
Jack Steinberg ’88 noted that the committee needs to be more utilized. He reviewed the inventory he had composed with the assistance of the College which lists people who work in various Dartmouth communications departments and what communications are sent by the College. The ALC is also focusing on communications and they would like to create a social media sub-committee composed of ALC and Communications Committee members. Ben Day ’66, Dana Rowan ’76, and Cheryl Abbott ’96 volunteered for this subcommittee.
Peter Elias then asked about brainstorming the role of the committee. He said that the committee’s mission was well defined and doesn’t need changing. He mentioned several older short-term and long-term goals. Ultimately, the committee agreed on the following goals:
- The committee acting as a SWAT Team, serving as a sounding board for Tommy Bruce and his team between Alumni Council sessions.
- Being ready to deal with any Moving Dartmouth Forward communications that take place between now and the next meeting. Jonathan Goldstein will make sure that the committee is on the Moving Dartmouth Forward team’s radar.
- Having a best practices panel at the next Alumni Council session for communicators to share what has worked with them when communicating with their constituents.
- Collaborating with the ALC, specifically on the social media sub-committee.
- Adding an update from Class Officers Weekend at the fall meetings and an update from Club and Group Officers Weekend at the spring meetings
- Exploring the idea of adding a student to the committee. Peter will survey the committee on this.