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Message: [QUOTE="UConn98, post: 1352385, member: 3951"] I worked at the UCAA for nine months. It was, by far and away, the worst job of my life. There were some good people there (all who left not long after me), peons like myself, but the managers/directors were some of the worst qualified people I have ever seen to run a company. The Peter Principle was alive and well here. Expectations were impossible to reach, people (like me) were given job duties for which we were not hired, and the ratio of male/female employees was so far out of whack (I was one of two males in a company of 19 total) that we felt like we were the minority and meant to be kept there. My question is, are the employees who transitioned over to the Foundation now state employees with state benefits? That was one of the interesting points. The only state employee was the executive director at the time, Lisa Lewis (who I still wish was standing on deck of this Titanic, because she is to blame as much as anyone for this to be circling the drain). Prior to 2007, I had heard that the UCAA was pretty low key, but once Lisa came in it was whipped into a company of which Initech would be proud. Actually, yes: If you ever wondered what it was like to work there, think "Office Space." There was one day where seven of my nine hours was spent in meetings. How does this accomplish anything? Sorry. I admit I am jaded because the nine months there nearly wiped out every good memory I had of that university as an undergrad, but I am all for change because the model they followed did not work. On top of this, the alumni to which they claim they served reached a small portion of the total number. I tried to find the article but a Courant columnist (Dan Haar? Colin McEnroe? I forget) once wrote a piece about an around-the-world trip for UConn alumni that cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $60K. How many alumni possibly can afford that? Take a look at the list of membership services: [URL]http://uconnalumni.com/membership/membership-benefits/member-benefits[/URL] In my opinion, most of these items do not apply to anyone under the age of 30. And how many of these apply if you live out of state? Is someone from Oregon going to feel happy because they now get a discount to Willington Pizza? You can get discounts at three hotels ... all within 20 minutes of each other. Or five restaurants ... three in Storrs/Willington, two in Hartford. You can get discounts at five retail services ... Jos. A. Bank (but first you have to sign up for their corporate credit card), Brooks Brothers (but it doesn't work for online purchases ... and last I checked, Brooks Brothers is not as visible as, say, Dunkin' Donuts), 1-800-Flowers (but they give you the promo code in the description to use at checkout, so I guess that does not matter that you are a member), Kaplan testing (how many people would use that more than once?) and Midas (where not all services are available at all locations). There is/was a big push to get young alumni (five years or less) involved, and I get that. But I wonder how many 20-somethings have the monies to spend it on a membership that does not give them anything of merit and does not "benefit" them. As for the argument about the Alumni Center ... I find it hard to believe that we alumni would lose that home just because of a reorganization. What would Susan do, move the center for alumni gatherings to the top floor of MSB? Come on. I feel sorry for the people who ponied up $800 for a Life Membership, only to see that now everyone is a Life Member for $800 less than what they paid. [/QUOTE]

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