February 2021 Dispatch
Greetings from the Alumni Council!
We’ve had a busy start to the year with two lengthy meetings in January to get ourselves organized to carry forward the business of the Association. We’d like to give you an update on that work.
As a council, we adopted interim processes and procedures to guide the way that we will operate until such a time that the Association ratifies bylaws and achieves 501(c)3 status. These interim guidelines are a starting place, and our intention is to mirror as much as possible the democratic structures and ideals of our college. We will have an update later this year on the process of crafting bylaws for community governance, and some ways that MCAA members can offer input.
Our processes and procedures required that we elect three officers: Moderator, Clerk, and Treasurer, three positions that are key to running the council efficiently. We held internal elections and are pleased to announce the results:
Moderator: Melanie Knight Gottlieb, ‘02
Clerk: Ellie Roark, ‘12
Treasurer: Mark Genzler, ‘95
After initially holding council meetings more frequently, we have now moved to meeting every four weeks, on the first Sunday of the month. Looking ahead, we anticipate being able to open a portion of our meetings to Association members in the future.
Now that we have some structure, we can begin seeking more engagement from our community to support association needs and initiatives. The processes and procedures document also outlines the current internal council and member committees, how we work with them, and provide some structure for chartering new committees. As our efforts in each of these areas gain momentum, you will hear more about their work.
Last month, we promised that we would be reaching out to you for volunteers in a number of areas. The first of these is a call for letters of intent to join the MCAA Facebook Ad-Hoc Committee. Since Facebook appears to be the place where most of us are connected digitally, we thought it appropriate to have the community write the guidelines for use and come up with a transparent and democratic means to manage the required moderation. The call for letters of intent will be posted to the website, the Facebook page, and is linked here. It will be open until the end of February, and the Council will notify appointed volunteers in mid-March. Our hope is for a committee that represents a multi-faceted approach to diversity, including but not limited to class year, gender, age, ethnicity, geography and affiliation to the community, and will chart a course for a Facebook page that embodies our community’s values and ideals.
We anticipate charging additional committees in early spring; please stay tuned for more ways to get involved.
We may from time to time pass along news and updates shared with us. For those in the Marlboro area, we were delighted to receive news regarding the ski trails on campus from Randy Knaggs. You can view his message here.
And finally, in case you missed it, Tom Ragle shared his full memoir with our community in digital format via the Archives Committee. Thanks to their hard work and Tom’s generosity, you can download it here.