Campus Resources and Planning Committee

February 4, 2009

Present: Pete Wcykoff, Escillia Allen, Dave Swenson, Bryan Herrmann, Sara Haugen,

Shannon Juhnke, Jennifer Rothchild, Kathy Julik-Heine, Zak Forde, LeAnn Dean,

Jacquie Johnson, Karen Cusey, Maddy Maxeiner, Ray Schultz, Heather Peters,

Sarah Mattson

Guests: Sandy Olson-Loy

Upcoming meetings

The agenda and guests for future meetings will include: sponsored projects and potential revenue for UMM with Tom Mahoney; discuss revised Master Plan with Lowell; discuss international students potential aid and resource challenges with Cheryl Contant and Tom McRoberts.

Update on fundraising and upcoming capital campaign

Maddy reported that as of January 30, 2009, gift commitments to UMM total $1.48 million. This compares favorably to the last fiscal year, when we were just over the $500,000 at mid-point. We finished last year--June 30, 2008—with $1,487,703 in new fiscal gifts and commitments. Our annual giving dollars received are at 73% of last year’s total. Dollars received through the alumni giving program are down 2% from last year at this time. She added that we can only speculate on why the numbers are down. One reason could be that the Foundation office made a huge mistake in a mailing that included a return envelope that was addressed to UMD not UMM. Another reason could be that periodically there are things that happen on campus that alumni do not like that causes consternation, such as blog content. We may never know the impact or extent of damage of either one of these issues.

Pete expressed concern about outsourcing our calls to alumni and questioned whether or not we were saving money. How are we dealing with quality control and do we get feedback from comments our alumni have made? Maddy responded that due to licensing fees, calling stations, and staff, it would simply cost too much to do the calling ourselves. Additionally, the Foundation office enters all of our pledges and reporting. Because we need to stay closely in tune to relationship building, we do get and review all the feedback from callers. We have a UMM student hired to call people who have made gifts or pledged. We could potentially change the way orientation is done for the callers and offer them a script.

Capital Campaign

Maddy reported that we are currently in the silent phase of the all University campaign which includes testing donor interests and lining up lead gifts to determine dollar goals. Initially, the public launch was scheduled for June 2008; however, we are now talking about fall of 2009 or spring of 2010. Right now we are doing the critical parts: trying to get lead gifts and trying to articulate a case for philanthropic support.

Jacquie reported on news from yesterday with her conversation with Robert Jones. Our Compact meeting that is scheduled for next Friday is to primarily talk about the budget. We are also asked to come forward with conceptual statements as we’ve done in the past. We make the pitch for items in which the University invests and then they decide how the money will be distributed. Even though there’s not much money this year, that shouldn’t stop us. Our case statement is really our story and it’s a story that inspires donors. What we are hearing from donors really makes a compelling vision statement.

What we mostly hear now is related to renewable and sustainable energy and that we are on the leading edge. The leading edge is part of the character of this institution and as a public liberal arts college, we provide access for people in the region. We have also been on the leading edge connected to broader social movements in relation to things happening now, not just renewable and sustainable energy. At the Chancellor’s Advisory Council meeting, we heard several suggestions. One member sees us as a model community for the future. How do we take who we are now, what we’ve been in the past and turn that into initiatives and projects people want to give to? We need to create a vision concept. One concept would be to create a model community for the future and a learning laboratory for sustainable living. Another concept is creating a carbon college. We are doing things here no one else is or can do and they don’t have the legacy to do it.

Pete asked members for other ideas. If we need to put a list together, he would like to retain the sustainability coordinator. We’ve put a lot of effort in branding and visibility, maybe we need to up our media presence. Bryan suggested that we focus more on electronic and web presence.

Jacquie added that we’re working on a way to partner with other units of the University including WCROC and the Extension office.

Pete will post a Moodle topic where people can contribute other ideas.