As part of Volunteer Weekend activities, over 60 alumni returned to
the Hill for the Spring Alumni Council meeting that took place on April
8 and 9. The Alumni Council was joined by members of the Parents
Advisory Council, former Trustees, Hamilton Today participants, and
Reunion and Gift Planning Chairs. We enjoyed the best weather the Hill
has seen so far this year!
The session kicked off on Friday afternoon with a luncheon that included members of HALT – Hamilton Alumni Leadership Training.
The third Distinguished Service Award was presented to Timothy J. Hicks
for his more than 20 years of dedicated service providing audiovisual
services to the College community. His remarks of what he has learned
on the Hill were witty and insightful.
This was the first
Council meeting of the newly expanded Council and a number of Class
Agents and Regional GOLD Group Chairs participated.
The Latino
Renaissance, organized with help from Danny Custodio '00 and Associate
Professor of Philosophy Todd Franklin, both members of the
Multicultural Alumni Relations Committee (MARC), organized a Talent and
Fashion Show, an Alumni Career panel, a Keynote speaker, and Carnival!
The Talent Show on Friday night was well attended and the Career panel
was productive. According to Torrence Moore '92, Committee Chair, MARC
is also looking at scheduling regional multicultural events and will
work with the Regional Affairs Committee on this initiative.
Speaking of Regional Affairs, the Alumni Council is pleased to welcome new Regional Presidents in a number of areas. New Regional Alumni Association Presidents are Alison Hill '87 in Northern California, Elizabeth Wright '91 in Richmond, Va., Bryan Emerson '83 in Houston, Beth Ivers Munro '87 in Buffalo, N.Y. and Peter Nintcheff '95 in Northern Ohio. The Regional Presidents bring Hamilton to the various geographic regions where our more than 15,000 alumni live and work by scheduling social events and alumni colleges. Mark Rice '73, Chair of the Regional Affairs Committee, asked the Regional Chairs to focus on these three items:
- Reach out to GOLD chairs in their region and include them in your planning groups;
- Assure Hamilton connection to all events, i.e., there should be a reason to be getting together;
- Increase Alumni College events-only 14 events are scheduled for FY 2005 with only 9 regions contributing. Every region is expected to have at least one Alumni College.
A current schedule of regional events is posted on HOLAC.
Jennifer Murphy Hill '87, Chair of the Ad-hoc Committee on the Career Center, provided an update on her Committee's goals. The Committee had two goals to directly benefit students: 1) increase internships offered and 2) create an endowment to fund internships. Through the generosity of Hamilton alumni, over 56 internships have been offered. In addition, six donors have committed to an endowment to fund payment for internships. The Committee also had two goals to benefit alumni: 1) expand HOLAC functionality to include career-related searches and 2) expand regional events to include career-based events - networking, resume building, career-change, etc. The first goal has been met and you can search the web by entering a career. The second goal of regional events fits in with the Regional Affairs Committee and will become one of their objectives.
The Class Leadership Committee, including Class Presidents and Class Agents, met on Friday afternoon and discussed various reunion options (Half-Century, All Kirkland and Bicentennial) as some unique ways to bring alums together. According to Ana Sierra Leonard K'75, Committee Chair, the group also had a presentation by John Murphy '85 regarding the use of HOLAC specifically geared to demonstrate the functionality that would be useful to the Class Leadership Committee.
Overall, it was an incredible weekend with great progress made by the Committees. Thanks to everyone who joined us.
Melissa Joyce-Rosen '86
Chair, Hamilton Alumni Council and
President, Hamilton Alumni Association
