Download communication alumni council - Department of Communication

COMMUNICATION ALUMNI COUNCIL
NOTES FROM MEETING
October 9, 2010
Council Members in Attendance: Fran Mancia, Laura McHugh, Laura Roenick, Liz
Rockhold, Vicki Prentice Rubin, Kamyab Sadaghiani, Mary Shirley (telephone
conference), Kibibi Springs Absent: Amy Stoody
Faculty Members: Linda Putnam, Karen Myers, Anna Laura Jansma
Guest: Michael Miller, Development, Division of Social Sciences
I. Introductions. The Council welcomed Vicki Prentice Rubin as a new member. Vicki
is a graduate of the class of 1973 for her BA and 1977 for her MA. She was one of the
first three MAs the department granted. She is President of Vicki Prentice Associates in
New York.
II. Development and Funding Opportunities
A. Targeted Development Initiative. Linda asked the Council to move up
agenda item IV since Michael Miller had to leave the meeting early. She began
by reviewing the Targeted Development Initiative for funding the Honors
Student/Teaching Assistant Lab.
B. After reviewing the need, benefit, and overall goal of the campaign,
participants made several suggestions:
1. We might connect it to the broad UCSB development campaign—a new
one is under development and will be released soon.
2. Making it part of Strategic Communication of the Department—it
would be best to make it part of an integrated need, not just an isolated
initiative. We should connect it with the internship program, job
placement, and the department’s distinctive mission.
3. Companies—look at alumni and where they are placed, target
corporations who hire students as interns, ones who sponsor Career Day,
and maybe target technology companies by highlighting our focus on
social media and integrated marketing. Such companies might include
Ernest & Young, ValueClick, Google, Facebook, and PR firms (KP Public
Affairs).
4. Anna Laura will send Council members the names of companies that
have hired our interns.
5. We could also look at companies affiliated with UCSB parents.
B. Strategic Giving Program. Liz introduced the idea of a Strategic Giving
Program. Even though we might begin with corporate giving to meet the
Department’s most pressing needs, alumni communication and giving is
intertwined with corporate giving. In fact, the two could be combined.
1. The program should be an integrated branding and marketing.
a. Develop top 3 priorities for funding
b. Set forth a vision, mission, and brand statement for the
Department—one that captures emotional appeals and needs
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c. Develop a press kit for the strategic communication. Roll in
department activities—including invitations to key speakers,
publicize these initiatives. We need to earmark the department on
the donation brochure.
d. Think about a global reach, e.g., Google India
e. Look at corporations that give to UCSB writ large and think
about how they might be seen as competing for the contribution.
f. Develop a laundry list of needs—wish list—like name the
building, name a wing of the building, name rooms, fund the
internships program, scholarships, etc.
g. Look for a $100,000 yearly contribution—sustainer fee.
h. Develop a wall of corporate sponsors with on-going
contributions.
i. Vicki suggested contacting the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
about rotating art exhibits in the department.
2. Action steps
a. Linda will put together a wish list of needs and send them to
everyone.
b. Anna Laura will get the list of internship companies to everyone
c. Linda and Karen will talk with Michael Miller and Ann Hagan
about getting names of companies that donate to UCSB
d. Vicki Prentice Rubin will work on vision and mission
statements that integrate departmental activities, including
internships, special lectures, Career Day, mission of program, and
strategic communication.
e. After materials are distributed, council members will have a 30
minute brainstorming call about development. Laura McHugh said
that she might be able to arrange an instant conference which
produces an mp3 audio file.
III. Updates on Communication with Alumni and Students
A. Facebook. Karen discussed the Department of Communication
Alumni and Student Facebook page. It is a community page, not an group
page and she monitors it regularly and keeps it updated. Several Council
members, staff, and faculty hold the administrative rights. The site gets
about 68 hits a week and about 230 (mostly students) have visited the
page. Because of its design, individuals need to subscribe to posts on the
site. Otherwise, they can visit it regularly.
B. The Gaucho Communicator. Karen just posted the Fall edition of the
newsletter. It contains a special section on the Council as well as many
other sections on Career Day, peer advisors, senior honors research,
awards and faculty productivity, and research profiles. Laura Roenick
referred us to an online source to distribute emails for the department. We
applied for and received nonprofit status giving us 10,000 free emails per
month. Kibibi sent out two email blasts to the department’s alumni. Of the
more than 6,000 alumni, we have nearly 3000 good emails. We can add
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new names to this list and delete invalid ones--updating after each mailing.
Maintaining this database is a massive job and the Council thanked Karen
for her service.
1. Council members suggested an interview with an alumni
member on how they got started in their career and how the major
helped them in their career. This interview with picture would
appear in the newsletter.
C. Linked-In—Anna Laura reported that this site is used widely by
employers and students as well as alumni. It is an invited page and
contains numerous internship and job postings.
D. Recruitment of Council Members—Linda announced that we
continue to recruit members for the Council. Please pass along any
communication alumni to contact and Linda will follow up.
E. Building Relational Networks—Kibibi reported on the Relationship
Masters Academy sponsored by Ferrazzi. The program focuses on
building networking activities into work schedules, community building in
for different generations, roads to networking. She will be discussing it
and a discount for UCSB students.
IV. Internship Workshop
A. Format and Schedule. Kibibi reported on the plans for the Internship
Workshop from 2:00-4:30 on the lawn of the SS & MS Building. Anna
Laura will present a welcome, Kibibi and Laura McHugh will discuss
internships in general, and then students will break into inner and outer
circles for speed networking between alumni volunteers and students. A
reception will follow on the 4th floor balcony with closing remarks by
Anna Laura and Linda.
B. Purpose. The workshop is designed for students to get beyond the
mundane to talk about who they are and what they want to do in their
careers, especially in developing skills in presenting an elevator speech.
C. Publicity. Karen reported that the workshop filled early and she has a
wait list. Laura Roenick developed flyers that were posted on the web and
distributed widely; faculty made announcements in classes. We stopped
student visits to classes almost immediately because the workshop filled
so early.
D. Volunteers. Anna Laura noted that 13 alumni and community
volunteers were coming to be involved in the workshop.
V. Future Agenda Items
A. Buddy System. A suggestion was made to develop a buddy system in
which lower division students would partner with seniors or recent
graduates to connect. This could be an on-line mentoring, with on-line
registration for mentors, and searching through Linked-In site for contacts.
B. Branding the Council. This topic was included in the discussion of
developing the Strategic Giving Program. Fran noted that we need to keep
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the campus leadership as a target for these strategic communication
endeavors.
C. Career Day—April 30, 2011
1. Sponsor. We should look for a sponsor for Communication
Career Day.
2. Name. Vicki suggested we call it Professional Development, but
some Council members felt students would not know what it was.
3. Positions. We should continue to concentrate on different types
of positions and companies—corporate communication, public
relations, advertising, communication and technology, etc.
4. Format. Council members suggested that we have one big
session for 20-30 minutes in which the schedule and panels are
introduced. Each participant would say name, company, and
elevator speech. Break into smaller panels of 3 people, 5 minute
talks, and more questions and answers from students. Panelists
might research and note other organizations that hire in specialized
careers—nonprofits, sustainable industries, INK 500, Fortune 100,
etc. Continue the double session and the rotation of panels.
6. Alumni Volunteer and Council Lunch. Invite all alumni
volunteers to the Council member lunch. Open it up and get more
alumni networking.
7. Preparation. The week or day before Career Day events, have
Communication Association workshop on “Professional
Branding.” Have students come with a press kit on themselves—a
personal card, resume, summary of self, vision, goals, and
branding. Have them discuss what they are passionate about.
D. Conference Calls and Council Communication.
1. The Council decided to have 30-45 minute conference calls once
a month at 7:00 a.m. They should be frequent, short, and not held
on Mondays or Fridays.
2. Next Conference Call—Tuesday, Nov. 2 at 7:00 a.m.
3. Ways to do the conference call
a. Instantconference.com—download mp3 file
b. Freeconferencecall.com
V. Summary of Action Steps and Point Person—faculty and staff will be
involved in these initiatives, but this list summarizes the Council member roles
A. Wish List of Department Needs—Linda and Karen
B. List of corporations—internship and donors—Anna Laura
C. Vision and mission statements—integrated strategic
communication—Vicki Prentice Rubin
D. Survey and Recommendations for Internship Workshop—Laura
Roenick
D. Career Day—need volunteer to work with Anna Laura; sponsorship
for Career Day—need volunteer?
E. Arranging Conference Calls—need volunteer
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