Reforming the UCONN Alumni Association

[FfldCntyFan]

From a post earlier in thread... "230,000 UConn alumni. Of that number, only 5 percent, or about 13,000, are members of the Alumni Association"

Taking the numbers into context, basically one of every one hundred alumni cast a vote on this.

 

[J187Money]

Thanks all. Think we got the right result.

 

[Nostical]

No question this was the right and best result. Now let's get that endowment over the $1B mark.

 

[CL82]

From a newspaper report:
"Some speculate that the lopsided result of the ballots may have been due, in part, to the opposition's decision to limit their campaign to posting on an internet fan site rather than a direct appeal to their membership."

Link

 

[J187Money]

From a newspaper report: "Some speculate that the lopsided result of the ballots may have been due, in part, to the opposition's decision to limit their campaign to posting on an internet fan site rather than a direct appeal to their membership." Link

That's rough.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Amazing that the alumni association had supposedly 12,000 members and that 2400 or so people voted. Now that this is over, I am going to NON-Key tweets - the Flug is on fire!!

 

[J187Money]

http://www.courant.com/education/hc-uconn-alumni-dissolution-0703-20150702-story.html

Some rough quotes at the end. Like it is the end of the world. Up to all of us to prove them wrong.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Result good, turnout bad, though I did vote. Hopefully the Foundation will be able to amp up the alumni network.

 

[J187Money]

Result good, turnout bad, though I did vote. Hopefully the Foundation will be able to amp up the alumni network.

The engagement from Storrs to the NYC chapter is up 5 fold in the last few months. I'm actually excited to get things moving.

 

[UConn9604]

Result good, turnout bad, though I did vote. Hopefully the Foundation will be able to amp up the alumni network.

That turnout was actually pretty high for a typical alumni association election. A tiny sliver of the membership participated in elections for an organization that included a tiny sliver of alumni. The organization utterly overstated its importance, and the model was an abject failure.

 

[J187Money]

That turnout was actually pretty high for a typical alumni association election. A tiny sliver of the membership participated in elections for an organization that included a tiny sliver of alumni. The organization utterly overstated its importance, and the model was an abject failure.

Wasn't the turnout nearly 3X what the typical Board election turnout was?

 

[UConn9604]

Wasn't the turnout nearly 3X what the typical Board election turnout was?

I think so. The fact that three quarters of the people who are members of the organization preferred to kill it is definitely telling.

Those who think that this transition is proof that the sky is falling should check back in five years and see how it turns out. The results cannot be any worse and will likely be much better.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

That turnout was actually pretty high for a typical alumni association election. A tiny sliver of the membership participated in elections for an organization that included a tiny sliver of alumni. The organization utterly overstated its importance, and the model was an abject failure.

Thanks. I don't recall seeing the total vote for the prior board elections. I trusted the words published by a handful of key alumni over the name calling and doom predicting pasted all over the place (even on LinkedIn) by certain current Alumni board member.

 

[Carl S. Ey]

This past week, I was more than disappointed with the outcome of the vote to dissolve the UCONN Alumni Association. We had a little over 2500 alums vote and the dissolve decision needed 66% of those who voted to vote in favor of the dissolution; not only did they get 66% but they had 77% vote to dissolve. I sincerely believe it is a mistake. However, I think it is important to honor the wishes of the alumni and how they voted. I encourage all of you on this site to continue to support UCONN and our university's endeavors going forward. Change is never easy but supporting Husky Nation is always a good thing in my opinion. Happy Fourth of July.

 

[J187Money]

This past week, I was more than disappointed with the outcome of the vote to dissolve the UCONN Alumni Association. We had a little over 2500 alums vote and the dissolve decision needed 66% of those who voted to vote in favor of the dissolution; not only did they get 66% but they had 77% vote to dissolve. I sincerely believe it is a mistake. However, I think it is important to honor the wishes of the alumni and how they voted. I encourage all of you on this site to continue to support UCONN and our university's endeavors going forward. Change is never easy but supporting Husky Nation is always a good thing in my opinion. Happy Fourth of July.

Thanks for the note. Wish it hadn't had to come to this, but I'm happy with the outcome. The fact that only 2500 people even cared to vote is symptomatic of the problem. Our alumni is not engaged. There is a lot of work to do.

 

[CTMike]

Our allegiance isn't to a legal entity, it's to UConn. Now we move forward together to improve UConn every day.

 

[MASSconn]

I got the chance to speak with the VP of the Alumni Relations. With the merger of the Foundation and AA we're on our way to modeling ourselves similar to Michigan's alumni association. Endowment is already about to peak half a billion and our structure is still disorganized. So much room for improvement as an organization and as a community.

Look for city by city, streamlined groups. I am hoping to get deeply involved in the Boston group. The future is bright- cowboy up Delaney

 

[SAMCRO]

I got the chance to speak with the VP of the Alumni Relations. With the merger of the Foundation and AA we're on our way to modeling ourselves similar to Michigan's alumni association. Endowment is already about to peak half a billion and our structure is still disorganized. So much room for improvement as an organization and as a community.

Look for city by city, streamlined groups. I am hoping to get deeply involved in the Boston group. The future is bright- cowboy up Delaney

But, but, but.... what is going to happen to the alumni house???

Kidding aside, that is great to hear, and I too believe this is a B1G step in the right direction!

 

[DALTX]

... The fact that only 2500 people even cared to vote is symptomatic of the problem. Our alumni is not engaged. There is a lot of work to do.

It's neither here not there, but while it may be a fact that 2500 or so voted; it's speculation that only 2500 cared to vote. Some alumni did not receive ballots, or I speculate may not have had enough time to turn around a mail-in vote in the short summer-month-vacation-time window.

Also for what it's worth, the quote from http://www.courant.com/education/hc-uconn-alumni-dissolution-0703-20150702-story.html
"We had 77 percent of the people who were members saying the [association] model didn't work for them," is either poor journalism, or simply misleading. 1852 out of 13,000 members is closer to 14% than 77%.

Nonetheless I hope the right decision was made. Always a Husky.

 

[J187Money]

It's neither here not there, but while it may be a fact that 2500 or so voted; it's speculation that only 2500 cared to vote. Some alumni did not receive ballots, or I speculate may not have had enough time to turn around a mail-in vote in the short summer-month-vacation-time window. Also for what it's worth, the quote from http://www.courant.com/education/hc-uconn-alumni-dissolution-0703-20150702-story.html "We had 77 percent of the people who were members saying the [association] model didn't work for them," is either poor journalism, or simply misleading. 1852 out of 13,000 members is closer to 14% than 77%. Nonetheless I hope the right decision was made. Always a Husky.

The fact that 3x the number of people voted on dissolution of the org than normally vote on the actual Board members would lead you to believe that this is the most engaged the alumni base has ever been. Which says something.

 

[hardcorehusky]

The fact that 3x the number of people voted on dissolution of the org than normally vote on the actual Board members would lead you to believe that this is the most engaged the alumni base has ever been. Which says something.

The organization was so backward - we still had to do paper ballots!!

In 2015!!

 

[husky8273]

I got the chance to speak with the VP of the Alumni Relations. With the merger of the Foundation and AA we're on our way to modeling ourselves similar to Michigan's alumni association. Endowment is already about to peak half a billion and our structure is still disorganized. So much room for improvement as an organization and as a community.

Look for city by city, streamlined groups. I am hoping to get deeply involved in the Boston group. The future is bright- cowboy up Delaney

The Univ. of Michigan AA is a separate 501(c)(3) formed in 1897 with an elected board with a dues paying model. Their most recent tax return shows over $4.6MM in membership dues and over $100MM endowment.

see http://alumni.umich.edu/about/board-roles-and-expectations. How are we now modeled similar to them?

 

[UConn9604]

The Univ. of Michigan AA is a separate 501(c)(3) formed in 1897 with an elected board with a dues paying model. Their most recent tax return shows over $4.6MM in membership dues and over $100MM endowment.

see http://alumni.umich.edu/about/board-roles-and-expectations. How are we now modeled similar to them?

That's about nine times as much in membership dues that UConn's alumni association received in its last full year, and about 16 times the size of an alumni association endowment as UConn's alumni association has. By comparison, Michigan has about 2 1/2 times the number of alumni that UConn has.

How much money does Michigan provide its alumni association each year? Suffice it to say that if UConn had an alumni association with $4.6 million in membership dues and a $100 million endowment, we wouldn't be having this conversation today.

 

[Drew]

Does anyone know if there is a chapter/plans for a chapter in Charlotte, NC? Also how do we become a member now, just donate to the foundation?

 

[husky8273]

Does anyone know if there is a chapter/plans for a chapter in Charlotte, NC? Also how do we become a member now, just donate to the foundation?

no need to donate. All alumni are members.