Attendees: See below
Via Conference Call: See below
I. Introduction:
· The committee is here to lay the groundwork around and begin conversations to expand alumni understand of current Department initiatives and to promote Alumni “friend” involvement.
· There has been an enthusiastic response from contacted alumni, even volunteers at the Tech Breakfast this morning. There are 32 members on the committee currently.
· The agenda is to walk through the talking points, discuss the organizational structure, and then conference call participants will join.
· Attendees introduce themselves:
o Bruce Anderson ’69, Crew, returning to Henley this year, raced for the 30th reunion at Head of the Charles
o Lisa Bendixen ’79, Gymnastics
o John Benedick, Assistant Director of Athletics, previous Head Coach of Swimming and Waterpolo
o Walt Crosby, ’81, Co-founder of the Football Team
o Showna Chang, ’92, Softball & Basketball, worked in Sports Information Office
o Damian Engen, ’03, Gymnastics & Diving, SAAC member
o Bob Ferrara, ’67, Basketball, works in IT department here at MIT
o Jack Frailey, ’44, Crew, previous Crew coach, has spent most of his career at MIT, FOMITC with Mike Scott
o Suzanne Rommelfanger, Administrative Assistant to Candace Royer
o Candace Royer, Department Head/Director of Athletics, previous Coach of Women’s Tennis
o Paul Rudovski, ’66, Golf, DAPER Visiting Committee member
o Mike Schoen,’87, Soccer & Rugby, worked for Candace at the Tennis Bubble
o Mike Scott, ’73, Crew, FOMITC
o Don Shobrys, ‘75, Cross Country & Track and Field, IM program
o Arlie Sterling, ’77, Fencing
o Rob Wickham, ’93, Squash, DAPER Visiting Committee member, Strategic Planning Committee member
· Conference Call participants:
o Julie Ask
o Allison Barmann
o Emily Brown
o Darcy Prather
o Catherine Rocchio
o Barb Schultze
o Surekha Vajjhala
o Linda Ystueta
· The formation of Friends of DAPER was an outcome of a “brainstorm” session that Don and Candace had in the Spring of 2001. Candace thanked the group assembled for coming together and believes that Friends of DAPER will be very successful.
II. Initial Questions:
Q. Is this an umbrella group for the 41 Friends group?
A. Yes. Ideally it will become an umbrella group. Some teams have very developed alumni groups, others alumni groups are new and developing. We would like to shorten the learning curve. We want to avoid reinventing the wheel and allow others to benefit from each other’s activities and experiences.
Q. Are we now sharing the revenues across the 41 varsity sports? Is there a shift, should we respond, etc?
A. Candace explains that in this administration there has been a shift in the way we talk about funds, not the way we use them. It should be noted however, that money coming to support a specific program, let’s say rowing, is used for the rowing programs. What is different is that in the past there was the perception was that Friends accounts would be used as only to provide for “special needs” for say trips. In fact, Fund accounts have always assisted the Department to “close the gap” at the end of a fiscal year. The funds were used as needed, after the Department applied other available GIB, revenue and discretionary funding. At this point in time, the major discretionary funds have nearly been exhausted, forcing us to rely more heavily on the individual sport fund accounts. Long term we are looking to endow the sports programs. Our situation is no unique; the financial crunch is hitting every department at MIT. FY ‘04 and ’05 will likely see even more challenges.
Q. How does replacement work? Once endowments kick in, what happens to the money coming in?
A. We will need an answer to that question for DAPER and the Institute. MIT endowments allow spending of approximately 4% on the amounts spun off. It would make sense that the Institute would give less money to DAPER if the entire DAPER was endowed. At this point in time we are in discussion. We have calculated that it will take 35 Million dollars to fully endow the Crew program. They have a commitment for 5 million at this time.
Q. For programs that don’t have a vibrant Friends group, what happens for those teams? How would the Friends funds be used?
A. Candace explains that we are in the time of cultural shift. We are creating a new model. We fund 33% of our total budget from fundraising and other department revenue (such as facility rental).
We are facing declining balances in the accounts and we have a goal to increase individual, annual giving. The percentage we use of fund account support varies from sport to sport. There is no formula on how to tap Friends accounts. We have the long-term goal of endowing programs, but short term, we must increase annual giving to the department (Friends of DAPER) and to the individual sports programs.
Q. What is the purpose of FoDAPER?
A. We have concepts and practices that should be shared. We have to be a resource for anyone looking to develop a Friends group. We can offer the template, suggestions, code, and procedures. We won’t build Friends groups, but individual programs can come to us as a resource and get up and running. We can create a template for overall Friends groups. Part time coaches are at a loss of time to create these groups. FoDAPER can help with these efforts. We will become the overarching and advisory board. There is a spectrum across the board right now and we need to get everyone up to a minimum standard.
III. Designing an Organizational Structure:
Membership Discussion
· There should be open membership for FoDAPER. The message can go out broadly. Everyone should be able to be a member. One could specify their fundraising/communication preferences when they volunteer for FoDAPER.
· On the fundraising side, it is recommended that a representative from the Alumni Association, for broad based appeals, and the Development Office, for solicitation of alumni that can make larger gifts, be on the FoDAPER Steering Committee.
· Perhaps the Alumni Association and Resource and Development members could be ex officio and not part of the Steering Committee.
· Perhaps there should be one or the other represented, but not both. We could draw on the Alumni Association as a primer, plugging for DAPER in mailings. Laura De Paoli is already doing this.
· On the publicity side, it is recommended that a representative from the MIT Press or Communications Department be on the FoDAPER Steering Committee. For example, Carla Lane volunteered her services to DAPER for the Tech Breakfast event.
· We should enhance the interaction between current students and alumni and include student participation on the committee. The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has taken the place of the Varsity Club and involved more people.
· It was easier to find varsity representatives in these early stages, but we should strive for Intramural, Club Sport, and Physical Education Representatives.
· On the fundraising side, it will help to have other representatives. The money will support all 3 pieces of DAPER. For marketing and communication it would fall mostly on varsity athletics. We had previously systematically left out our PE and Recreational sports. We do not want them to feel slighted. It should be about organized sports, not focusing on informal recreation.
· We need to get one contact alumni from each sport, a partner for the current coach. Coaches could identify one leader from their alumni group.
· This group could include the coaches, however there is too much movement in and out of the positions. Include them and rely on them for some things, but the heartbeat has to be individual membership.
· We need volunteers for data analysis.
· Candace notes that we do need staff to the committee. We need someone to take on the business of running FoDAPER. The Dean for Student Life could back this part time position.
FoDAPER Logistics:
· How big should the Board (larger group) be? 12 + people on the working Board, self-selection process from those around the table.
· How big should the steering committee (smaller group) be?
· Term for steering committee? Staggered 2-3 year terms.
· Fix a term for the Board, but let them find their own replacement.
· There are subtopics that need to be addressed by the Steering Committee: communication strategy, IT web stuff (Bob Ferarra), and the By Laws.
· There will be sub committees to formalize the charter, work with data from Alumni Association, and on communication mechanisms.
· FoDAPER is not formally chartered. FOMITC will help formalize the charter.
IV. Definitions of Success for this Group or Metrics to Accomplish:
o have a certain number of Friends of DAPER subscribers
o have more Friends of individual sports in existence
o have a calendar of events with sport activities
o data points
o results by money, percentage of endowment in 5, 10 years
o stop the decline and not risk losing the extras.
o get more of a level playing field for each of the teams
o develop a public persona for DAPER. We want DAPER to be seen as active, get press and have personality and a public profile.
o Candace believes it is still necessary to improve and expand the perception of the Department, both at MIT and beyond. We are not only a very large Division III varsity athletics program, but a successful one as well. This fact is too little known.
V. FOMITC Background and Model: provided by Mike Scott
· FOMIT Crew formed 15 years ago. FOMITC changed when the board went from 3 to 12 people. There are now 12 on the Board. There are Bylaws. They communicate regularly via newsletter in print and electronic form. There is a fundraising plan for endowments and annual gift giving. They have learned as they’ve gone along. FOMITC developed their own alumni database.
· FOMITC is coming up on an election year. They consider who has given money and past captains as several indicators of interest to crew. They thought there might be resistance and to get people on the Board. They were surprised how easy it is to find people to volunteer to do it. Many people wanted to do it! It will not be hard to find them if you look.
· Other sports can take guidance from the successes of FOMITC.
VI. Communications to Enhance DAPER Visibility:
· If you don’t market, you can’t get the sales. There are 93K alums, 1/4 of the alums played sports at MIT.
· 15 % of alumni have never every given a penny to MIT.
· It is better to find product by focusing on the varsity, even though it is not weighted as being more important.
· Bob Ferarra notes the alumni office has built up an encompassing database. We should try to use their lists. The technology is better. Alumni can update information online and should be encouraged to do so.
· Are we the market or sales group? We are both in an advisory capacity.
· We need to go beyond sales and marketing. We need to be resources to the teams to build allegiances.
· Increase base of potential donors; get the message out about the need.
· People need to know what our program is and what we need to fund it.
· We need to get the information out so that alumni think that athletics is a big part of their life.
· There should be something about DAPER on every team website which helps with recruitment and admissions.
· There are multi sport athletes. Someone should be able to give to DAPER not only one sport.
· What is doable, catalogue of best practices and make that available to the Friends, help run Friends group to those that are behind, but insure that they are self sustaining. We can help get a program started but not provide direct ongoing service.
· We can identify more global efficiencies.
VII. Working with DAPER Coaches:
· How much is going to affect the coaches and athletes? Coaches will be affected more concerning the website, ideas, mailing lists, etc.
· How do we develop a working relationship with the coaches? Responsibilities of the coaches are changing with the cultural shift. We need to get coaches on board right away to get used to working with this group, get their ideas on what they think would be successful, and help get the databases up to speed.
· Passion and motivation are key ingredients for Friends Groups. It doesn’t take a lot. A few can get things going. The other ingredient is effective organizational structure. Then the passion can reasonable sustain the organization. The passion will be on an individual sports basis.
· Would the group feel like being ambassadors back to the sports that the represent and pitch the message back to their teams? Until we figure out clear objectives for FoDAPER vs. Friends of Individuals, being ambassadors to individual sports may not be a good idea.
· What are the expectations from the coaches of what we are and what we will be? We have yet to have that dialogue yet. It is too early to tell the coaches what we will do for them, but start by asking what they would like from us.
· We could have a mini trade show to talk to the coaches and find out what they’ve done up to now. The coaches could find out what each other are doing. We need cross communication across the coaches. Package the tools to leverage from sport to sport. This could be done on a website. An ambassador could then use this tool set.
· What would be the role of the ambassador? Initiate dialogue with the coach on what a program is doing, where the coach might need assistance, it needs to be a win-win situation.
· FoDAPER has been emailing the coaches as we’ve gone along. There are nominations trickling in. This has been experimental to date via email. We have not had face time directly with the coaches yet.
· The coaches have not had a clear financial picture until the last 12 months. The coaches need to realize what we need to do to stay strong in the future. We are moving in that direction. The picture had to be drawn for them on how sports are funded.
· Fund-raising has not been a requirement in the past as part of the job description. It is slowly being understood that in order for the programs to continue to be healthy, some fund-raising responsibility rests on the shoulders of each coach. It is Candace’s goal to keep the burden as light as possible yet include the coaches in the process, events, etc.
VIII. Next Meeting:
· There will be a meeting during the Alumni Leadership Conference on September 19 & 20, 2003.
· FoDAPER should meet 1-2 times before September to get the ball rolling and reach out to stakeholders. Mid July would be ideal for a meeting.
· Coaches should be informed over the summer if possible.