During five days of on-the-road fundraising across the country, representatives of the alumni association and college development offices have brought the College Revival Fund up to a current total of “between 14 and 15 million dollar,” says treasurer of the alumni association, Rick Daily.
The money raised over the past week, according to Daily, consists of pledges that will become available by the end of the academic year. “There’s a lot of cash coming in, part of which is from people making good on their pledges,” he explains, “which makes a it a bit difficult to count right now.” Although money coming in from various fundraising teams and initiatives makes it difficult to announce an exact number, he is positive the total amount is “around 15 million.”
Daily himself is part of the team of fundraisers that hit the road last Friday, which includes head of development for the College, Risa Grimes, as well as alumni Ina Frank and Matthew Derr. The group is working in different combinations throughout the country, depending on who is available in the various target areas that day. “On Monday I was on the road with Ina [Frank], today I’m with Dave Goodwin, class of ’55.” Grimes said in a phone interview while on the road in Oregon. “Dave’s from Oregon and he did a lot of fundraising for Glen Helen.”
Grimes so far has visited five major donors and is energized by the outcome: “We’ve just sat in a man’s office for 20 minutes telling us how Antioch changed his life; things are going very, very well.”
The team has another week to raise an additional $5 million to round the total up to $20 million. This is the amount the Alumni Board wants to bring to the negotiating table at the decisive meeting with the University Board of Trustees, on October 24-28, that will determine whether the suspension of operations, scheduled for June 2008, will be lifted and recruiting for new students can begin.
Tag: development
YS Town Council Hears Plan on Development Alliance
The Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce, together with the Community Resources board and the soon to be dissolved Community Information Project, plan to establish an umbrella organization to become “the new economic authority in the area” by January 1st, 2008. This is the bottom line of a proposal that Community Ressources member, Dan Young, presented on behalf of the three boards at a Village Council meeting on Tuesday.
In addition to seeking approval to establishment the Alliance by 2008, Young and co-signers to the Alliance proposal, CoC vice president Ellen Hoover and CIP representative Ron Schmidt, ask the council to allocate recently raised economic development funds to the amount of $250.000.
“It’s multi-year spending. And its primary purpose is finding someone who can spend half time, maybe full time, promoting economic development in the village.” commented, Glenn Watts, member of CR on Wednesday…
Continue reading YS Town Council Hears Plan on Development Alliance
Alumni Relations and Public Relations Offices Come to Agreement on Authorship of Alumni Newsletter
“Good Newsletter” or “Damn Good Newsletter”? Two different bulletins have been brought out to the alumni for the past couple of weeks; one drafted by Special Assistant to the COO for Institutional Advancement and Public Relations Lynda Sirk, the other by Director of Alumni relations Aimee Maruyama. “I put together the first newsletter as part of the communications plan (…) and then there was a conflict which arose and needed to be negotiated,” explained Maruyama.
On Wednesday September 26th, Alumni Board Association Treasurer Rick Daily, Head of Governance Committee Ellen Borgersen, Head of Communications Committee Christian Feuerstein, and College COO Andrzej Bloch met with Sirk and Maruyama in Main Building conference room. “The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the authorship and origin of the newsletters that are going out to alumns and also the process for getting these email bulletins approved,” said Borgersen.
The issue debated was whether the alumni relations office on behalf of the alumni board would be able to publish its own content and whether the alumni board could review the content that was initiated by the Public Relations Office.
The question remained unresolved at the end of the meeting. It was followed, on the following Friday, by a conference call; “What came out of that phone call was that both the office of public relations office–Lynda Sirk’s office– and the alumni relations office will be putting out a newsletter” recounted Borgersen. “Both of us will review each other’s newsletter, both of us have 24 hours to review each other’s newsletters and we can both write suggestions; these suggestions do not have to be followed,” explained Christian Feuerstein, “If I have huge concerns about Lynda’s newsletter, I can get upstairs to Rick and if Lynda has huge concerns about our newsletter she can get upstairs to Art Zucker (…) and we can get on from there.”
“We will be putting out the newsletter from our own domain, antiochians.org,” explained Feuerstein, who will be coordinating the Alumni Association newsletter from now on. She said that the bulletin would be put out once to twice a week depending on the level of commitment from volunteers and staff.
When asked whether she was concerned that the double-message might undermine the image of a common front shared by the the University and the Alumni Board, she responded in the negative. “We, the Alumni Board, feel it’s very important that we be able to speak to alumns in our own voice and to send out a newsletter that is oriented to our campaign for the revival and survival of the college; and on the other hand, the university feels the need to communicate directly with its constituencies, which includes college alumns and others, and they have news items that they want to put out that we don’t think are appropriate in the context of our campaign”
A letter from Michael Brower ’55
To: Shelby P. Chestnut `05, Community Manager 2005-2006 and to Daniel E. Solis Operations Manager 2005-2006, and to those current students who may agree with your angry letter:
From: Michael Brower `55, Alumni Board Member
I saw your highly critical letter to Steve Lawry posted on SaveAntioch. org. I did not see the version you published in The Record a few weeks ago, nor the other letters in The Record supporting Jimmy Williams. So I can’t respond to other letters, but I do want to write to protest three things about your letter: Continue reading A letter from Michael Brower ’55
Steak & Sustainability: Adventures with Steve Lawry in Berea’s Eco Village
By Paige Clifton Steele
After 187 miles and four separate conversational uses of the word “keen”, Steve and I arrived at the hotel. He parked his 2006 Toyota Prius (tan, with a tastefully colored console that told us how much energy we had consumed on the drive) and we stepped out into the crisp December air. Together, we were there at Berea College of Berea, Kentucky, to investigate the limitless possibilities of sustainable energy. Continue reading Steak & Sustainability: Adventures with Steve Lawry in Berea’s Eco Village