October 22–24, 2015

The Alumni Liaison Committee met twice during the 211th Alumni Council meeting. The committee held their first meeting on Thursday, October 22. Chair Lou Spelios led a debrief of the September 30 conference call with the Board of Trustees’ Advancement Committee. There has been a rapid increase in the amount of communications sent to the Alumni Liaison Committee. The committee has focused on a strengthened effort to reach alumni in a variety of ways, including prompts in the post-meeting template, through the Moosilauke Forum survey, and on social media platforms.

Next on the agenda was the recent social media survey conducted by the Moosilauke Forum. Key takeaways about alumni engagement with Dartmouth on social media include: content must be relevant to alumni; content must make them feel good about Dartmouth through nostalgia or College or alumni accomplishments; posts must be concise and short; and photos should be a focus. There was discussion about making a brief video of the Alumni Council spring meeting. ALC members Lou Spelios, Jack Steinberg, and Jennifer Avellino will work with the Alumni Council’s Young Alumni Committee to identify possible additional outreach via social media platforms. 

Jennifer Avellino provided an overview of the 211th Alumni Council meeting and schedule. Sue Finegan provided a report from the Association of Alumni (AoA). 

Lou Spelios reported that the ALC has received 239 emails to date this year.  At this same time in 2014, the ALC had received 194 emails, and in 2013 the ALC had received 183 emails.  There has been a steady increase in email feedback over the last several years from alumni.

Lynne Gaudet discussed the 2015-2016 ALC report. Committee members agreed that the current format of the annual report seems to work well. 

The Alumni Liaison Committee held a breakfast meeting on Saturday, October 25th with trustees Ben Wilson, Emily Bakemeier, Bill Burgess, and chair of the Board of Trustees Bill Helman.

Jennifer Avellino provided an overview of the 211th Alumni Council meeting, noting that the theme focused on the financial model of higher education and the philanthropy that supports it. In particular, the Alumni Councilors enjoyed participating in breakout sessions on Friday afternoon in which they provided feedback to three questions that focused on the new house communities.  Jennifer also mentioned that the Alumni Council’s Alumni Service Committee has selected May 7, 2016 to be the date for the second annual Alumni Day of Service.

Lou Spelios extended his appreciation for the participation of the Board of Trustees’ Advancement Committee during the conference call that took place between them and the ALC on September 30th to discuss the ALC 2014-2015 annual report. During that call, Advancement Committee chair David Hodgson shared a very helpful update on the Board of Trustees.

Lou reported on the Moosilauke Forum social media survey that was recently completed. The ALC collaborated with the College’s Communications department and Jean Romeo on this effort. The results indicate that Instagram is a great opportunity to explore; Facebook is heavily used, but near the saturation level; and each social media platform has its own “personality”. Jennifer mentioned that throughout the Alumni Council meeting, various class representatives said that they were posting Alumni Council related items on their class Facebook pages. Also, Communications chair Jack Steinberg noted that he was working with two of the young alumni councilors, Alexandra Roberts and Hoi Ning Ngai, to live tweet during the sessions. Jack, Jennifer and Lou met with the Alumni Council’s Young Alumni Committee on Friday afternoon to gather feedback from them about possible social platforms to explore. The information gathered was substantive and the Young Alumni Committee will hold a conference call with the entire ALC to continue the discussion following this weekend. During the spring meeting, we also hope to produce a short video (similar to the one that was just produced about the DEN program in San Francisco) with some of the 212th Alumni Council meeting highlights.