UC Santa Cruz Alumni Association
Los Angeles Chapter

Minutes of UCSC Alumni Association, LA Chapter, 01/07/01
January Meeting

Check out a copy of these minutes at our web pages at: http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~franz

Members in attendance:

Claude Zachary, Fran Zandonella, Michele Ploessel, Roz Helfand,

Meeting called to order at 4:15 PM.

Minutes from the December Business Meeting (12/3/00) approved.

Finance Report

We still need to make the $250.00 contribution to the Alumni Fund in honor of Jeremy Strick and David Graves on behalf of their involvement with the May 2000 Wine Tasting. Jennifer said if we can write a letter regarding this and forward the letter to her, she will write the check and mail the contribution to the Alumni Fund.

Upcoming Events

March Faculty Visit

We have arranged for Professor Craig Haney to come to Los Angeles to give a lecture on his area of study. Professor Haney is available in both February and March. We are trying to schedule for Sunday, March 4, 2001, to coincide with our current March 2001 business meeting.

Claude has contacted the Beverly Hills library as a possible venue for this event. The rates for hiring the auditorium are $180 for the first hour, $58 for each additional hour. The benefit that the library has is free parking.

Allison has said they will pay Professor Haney's transport costs, so our cost are just for hiring a venue and any food we choose to serve. It has been suggested to serve wine and cheese after the lecture. We have still about 1 case of wine from last year's wine tasting we can use for this event.

We should try to do a targeted mailing of postcard invitations to this event. We should target people who have attended meetings within the last few years, monthly business meetings, annual meetings, wine tastings, or other events. Roz will design the postcards for us. We need to include a line about saving the date for the May wine tasting.

People attending can RSVP to Michele Ploessel either by email at myshel@ix.netcom.com or by phone at 323-654-2680.

May Wine Tasting

At the moment we still do not have a location for the wine tasting. We are also still trying to locate a vintner. Claude is confirming with Allison the possibility of having the event at Paramount as was suggested last year. However, at the moment, it seems incredibly unlikely that we can use Paramount as our location.

Summer Trips

We need to send out possible choices for the summer trip and have people provide feedback by a certain date. We need to figure out costs of each trip prior to this so people are able to examine the choices realistically. Fran is finding out the costs of having our summer trip to either the Cal Lodge or to Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Jennifer is finding out the feasibility of a trip out to the Rigley Marine Center on Catalina along with associated costs.

Hollywood Bowl

Report on Making a Difference at UCSC Meeting, 12/10/00

1. Start investigating and comparing the role of alumni/Alumni Associations of other universities. What do they do? What kind of influence do they have? We need to look at older, larger universities to see what roles they play. We need to find out what worked for them and what did not work. We can start by looking at web pages of other Alumni Associations.
2. Find more ways to connect directly with current UCSC students besides the CAN (Career Action Network).
3. Promote the CAN. We need to become more involved in this network. It will benefit all of us.
4. Encourage alumni to get more involved in lobbying events (whether it be lobbying Regents, state government, federal government, or whatnot.)
5. Monitor UC Regent decisions more closely. We need to know who the Regents are.
6. Keep track of the total amount of revenue UCSC takes in from Alumni donations... and exactly where the revenue is going. This can be done by obtaining a copy of the annual report.
7. Contact the Student Union Assembly. Establish a line of communication between alumni and students by having an alumni rep go to an SUA meeting/s and/or by means of a SUA representative to the Alumni Association, LA Chapter. Through this connection, we could also establish communication with College Councils.
8. Take a more positive role in UCSC affairs. Show how alumni can promote the university by (for example) becoming a stronger donating/fundraising force, or helping to establish a new school of study (like a business school). We want to play a strong role. We could pick a theme that is important to us locally and have all local chapter members donate money specifically for that cause. The University tends to listen to money, so this might be a way of obtaining a stronger role.
9. Start a discussion amongst alumni about preserving the individual college communities at UCSC. Issues of concern are development, overcrowding, and preservation of individual college character (for example dancing naked in the first rain of the year at Porter.)
10. Find out how many former UCSC Student Councils officers are living in the LA area. The Alumni Directory is a possible source of this information or possibly Allison.
11. Suggested earlier: Create a forum for this type of discussion and alumni addressing the future of UCSC on the internet. Create a possible mailing list. At the moment the Alumni Association has not done this, though it has been requested. We are looking at the possibility of hosting one ourselves. Claude has mentioned the possibility of him hosting the list.
12. The Alumni Association needs a tech person in their office to assist the various chapters.

Web Update:

New Business:

Next Meeting:

Berri's Pizza Cafe
8412 W. Third Street
LA, CA 90048
323-852-0642
East of La Cienaga, South of Beverly Blvd.

Meeting adjourned at 6:45 PM.

Respectfully submitted, and emendations welcomed, by Michele Ploessel, Secretary

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