UCSC Alumni Assoc. - LA Chapter

UCSC Alumni Assoc - LA Chapter

Minutes of UCSC Alumni Association, LA Chapter, 4/26/03

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

Present:

Roz Helfand, President
Rachel Barish, Vice President
Fran Zandonella, Treasurer
Robin Hart, Board Member
Judy Silk,
Dency Nelson,
Glenn Oppenheim,
David Wright,
Michelle Ma,
Marianne Kim,
Chanda Rankin,
Regina A. McConahay

Meeting called to order at 11:30 AM.

The minutes from the previous meeting 2/9/03 were not approved since
Charlie had not sent them yet.  Fran agreed to take minutes since
Charlie was absent.

Introductions were made by all.

New Business:

May Wine Tasting: May 17, 2003

Our "Posh" Annual Wine Tasting has a Star Trek taste this year. Our special guest alumnus is Brannon Braga, the executive producer of Star Trek: Enterprise. We will have a screening of an episode of Enterprise and Brannon will speak a bit. His film professor Eli Hollander will also be speaking at this event, as well as Chancellor Greenwood.

Roz told us all about the event. Email advertising the event will be sent soon, and Roz will let people know about opportunities to volunteer at the event.

June Meeting Letter Writing: June 8, 2003

At our June meeting, we will be writing letters of congratulations to the graduating high school seniors who will be attending UCSC. We will be planning the new student/alumni "Send Off Party" event in August. Also, we will be planning the last minute details of our Summer Trip.

Summer Trip: Lake Arrowhead: July 11-13, 2003

Our Summer Trip is at a cabin at Lake Arrowhead. We are trying to get UCSC Professor Frank Drake to come down and speak about Extra- Terrestial life in the Universe. If we can't get Professor Drake, then we will try to get the chair of the department, Stanford Woosley (because we like his picture on the web page - "as seen in Italian Vogue").

The cabin holds 24 people, and we are reserving 1 room for the Professor. Robin or Fran will get the details of the sleeping arrangements so we can add them to the website and have them for the May event.

The cost of this event is $65 per person (bed) for the entire weekend, and that includes food from Friday night to Sunday morning.

Someone asked if we can bring kids. The answer is "Yes." However, the cost is by the bed (sleeping space), so if they take up a bed, they will need to paid for.

Send Off for New UCSC Students: August 24th, 2003

We are looking for help with this event. We need people to help and a place to hold the event. Both Judy and Regina offered their houses (Thanks!) as a place to hold the event. However, either of them would need a different date. We decided to hold it at Judy's house.

Roz will coordinate with Judy on the date.

October Mixer, 2003

We need a theme and a date for this event. Rachel suggested "Monster Mash Bowling Bash." We would like to hold it at the Sports Centre Bowl in Studio City (next to Jerry's Deli) or at Korea Town Bowling. It was suggested that maybe we could invite some high school seniors to the event and talk to them before the event gets started.

UCSC Flyer:

Rachel put together a flyer describing what the LA Chapter of the UCSC Alumni Association is, and what we do. She brought several copies to the meeting to get our comments. Roz & Fran said they would get their comments back to her before the May meeting. Judy suggested putting quotes on the front of the flyer.

Regional Leader's Meeting:

Roz and Fran went to the Annual Regional Leader's Meeting on April 12, 2003, where they shared information with leaders of other alumni chapters. The LA Chapter is a very active chapter. We got some good ideas from the other chapters. Both Boston and NYC have had alumni send off parties. We discussed ways of alums connecting with new and current students at UCSC, and ways of encouraging people to join the Alumni Association when they graduate.

Finance Report:

Fran reported that we have $1594.00 in the bank. She explained where the money comes from for our events. We receive $2 for each Alumni Association Member in the LA area (from Santa Barbara to Orange County). This money is spent by the chapter on events for the chapter (which are open to all alumni regardless of whether they are a member of the Alumni Association). Some events this year have been: the Dim Sum Brunch in January, the March Mixer, the bagels for the April Meeting.

Our budget year goes from June to June, and we usually receive our monies in the Fall (Sept or Oct timeframe).

Upcoming events that we will pay for include: Sending out letters to the graduating high school seniors who are going to UCSC, the reception for them in August, October's Mixer, and the Annual Fall Business Meeting.

Website:

Several people have suggested that we start a BBS, or have some easy way for LA Slugs to communicate with each other in the LA area. Right now, all UCSC Alumni can get a UCSC email account and get onto the UCSC Community web page and communicate that way. However, LA Chapter would like to provide something more local and relevant to our chapter members.

Also, many Slugs would like to tell other alumni about their upcoming events, performances, or companies. Fran will put together a page where users can post their events. She will post the criteria for posting your events, and put them on a page for all to see.

People would also like a place to post about jobs - seeking or offering employment.

Eventually, the LA Chapter would like to have a true posting/chat site. Fran will be investigating how we can make this a reality. (Right now, we can't use UCSC resources due to the California budget crunch.) Note that this site will be moderated.

Several people have also mentioned that Slugs moving to LA especially would like to connect to other UCSC alumni. To that end, we are starting a "Mentor Slugs" group where new members can be put in touch with LA alumni. These mentors would help new people get oriented to LA.

Many of the people at the meeting volunteered to be mentors: Michelle Ma, Regina A. McConahay Robin Hart, Chanda Rankin, Dency Nelson, Judy Silk, and Marianne Kim.

Fran will create a mailing list (or listserv) that people can join so they can share information and help newcomers to the LA area.

Another area where we want to expand the web is in our alumni outreach to high school students. Fran will contact UCSC about creating volunteer opportunities for alumni to go to high schools to tell students about UCSC.

When the brochure for the chapter is done, we will put it into PDF form on our website.

The UCSC Alumni - LA Chapter website is at: http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~franz

Next Event:

The next event is our Posh Annual Wine Tasting with a Star Trek twist, and it will be held on Saturday, May 17th at the The ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood.

Next Meeting:

The next meeting will be held on Sunday, June 8th at Wendy Chang's house. Meeting adjourned at 12:15 PM. Respectfully submitted, and emendations welcomed, by Fran Zandonella, filling in for Charlie Tripp.

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