Creating Alumni Organizations for the 21st Century

A task force of alumni is on a mission to bring the 151-year-old Association of Alumni and the 92-year-old Alumni Council into the modern era to serve both Dartmouth and its 65,000-member alumni body more effectively.

"Our objective is to create a better organization, one that's more democratic and transparent and more easily understood by alumni," says Joe Stevenson '57, chairman of the nine-member Task Force on Alumni Governance. The task force, formed last spring by the two organizations it hopes to reform, was charged to draft a joint alumni constitution that would pass muster with three-quarters of Dartmouth alumni after an earlier proposal narrowly failed to win approval.

While the issues seem arcane, rooted as they are in constitutional language, they get to the heart of the partnership between alumni and their College. "This process is important because the organization of alumni in support of the College is a high priority," says Stevenson. "If it is that important to us, we have to make it better. We have to make it right."

The task force unveiled its working recommendations at last December's Alumni Council meeting. The proposals envision an Association in regular communication with the trustees, empowered by the whole alumni body, and governed by a representative assembly of alumni of all classes, affiliations, interests, and viewpoints.

"The most important principle in the proposed structure is that the Alumni Association becomes the overarching organization, with a modified Council–now called the Assembly–being a component of the Association," says Stevenson. In addition, the plan would create an Alumni Liaison Board that would serve as a busy thoroughfare of communication for alumni, trustees, and the administration, possibly supported by the use of research tools to help shed light on alumni sentiment and opinion.

"It would give groups with differing points of view a way to voice their opinions and really be heard," says Stevenson.

Incorporating features of the previous proposed constitution, the proposal also would improve the alumni trustee nomination and voting process, expand leadership opportunities to more alumni through at-large membership on the Assembly, expand the representation of classes and affiliated groups, and open up voting by mail or Internet to all alumni in conjunction with the trustee balloting.

One achievement of the task force has been a rapprochement among some alumni who have been passionate and vocal on opposite sides of votes in Association annual meetings.

"The process is extremely important for Dartmouth," says John Walters '62, Association president, "as it, hopefully, will serve to minimize, if not eliminate, confusion and distrust. My hope and expectation are that the efforts of the alumni governance task force will be recognized by the alumni as the best route toward improving alumni governance, as well as alumni communications, and will be endorsed by both the Council and the Association."

Both Walters and Council President Karen McKeel Calby '81 are upbeat about the task force's working recommendations. Calby has been visiting Dartmouth clubs around the country with Dartmouth President James Wright, talking about the task force's work and getting feedback. The trustees also have taken an interest in the task force's work, and several have met with the committee members individually and in groups.

"With the concerns of different alumni groups having been addressed in the new proposal, I am optimistic that we will achieve the 75 percent supermajority hurdle necessary to make the new document effective," Walters says.

The committee is soliciting alumni comments through an ad in the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine and other means. "We have to give as many people as possible an opportunity to give us their attention," says Stevenson.

Once a final constitutional draft is ready, it will go to a vote in the Alumni Council and subsequently to a meeting of the Alumni Association. Final alumni ratification by mail or Internet balloting is anticipated in early 2006.

Direct comments to the task force via email, or send mail to Alumni Governance Task Force, 308 Blunt Alumni Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755.

By KELLEY FEAD '78

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