Brown University's Inman Page Black Alumni Council - Metro NY Chapter

Below are the meeting minutes from IPC Philly's First Organizational Meeting on Friday April 27! From the looks of things, they're on a mission. Please note that since that meeting, the Philly listserv has grown from 45 to 75 people!


Date/Time:
April 27, 2007, 6:30-8:30 P.M.

Location:
1818 Market Street, 27th Floor (Office of Carolyn Jones/Booz Allen Hamilton)

Attendees:
Rhonda Boyd, ’92; Thierry Fortune, ’84; Charissa Jackson, ’79; Carolyn Jones, ’77; Joanna Lee, ’97; Stephen Robertson, ’82; Bernadette Wheeler, ’82; Lawrence Wells, ’84; Troy Wilson, ‘83

I. Introductions

II. Review of Emails from Jay Broadnax (Philly IPC), Roland Laird (NY IPC), and Troy Wilson (Philly IPC), and recommendations from Preston Tisdale, National IPC President

· No push for a specific agenda besides galvanizing folks and getting people involved; should aim for broad alumni representation
· Include social events
· Avoid putting a lot of work on a small number of people; tap into people’s interests so they can work on something they enjoy
· Consider relationship between Philly chapter and National IPC; opportunities/conduit for involvement
· Current IPC chapters exist in NYC, Atlanta and possibly San Francisco
· Using other IPC chapters as a model
o Ex. NY IPC created a resource guide for Brown alums in NYC; created 501c3 and focuses on scholarships for Brown students
· Should focus on assisting Brown alums make the transition to Philly area
· Think about networking: help current Brown students with internships; assist graduating students with employment

III. General Topics

Goals/Objectives of Philly IPC
· Should Philly IPC be more event-oriented/social, or educational (or both)?
o Being event-oriented will require advanced planning for events
o Social events may be a way to reach out to folks in the Philly area
o Being education-oriented may help fill in gaps that Brown has in getting black students interested, increasing black applicants from the area, and supporting students while they’re at Brown (educational/career planning)

· Long-term verses short-term goals?
o Philly IPC will need to decipher long term vs. short term goals
o Create short-term plans to support long-term vision

Recruitment Of Future Brown Students
· Need to increase representation of Black/African American students from the greater Philly area at Brown

· What is Brown currently doing towards this goal?
o BASC Interviews: Brown alums can volunteer to interview current applicants; interviewers can specify who they would like to interview (e.g. black students)
o Talent Quest program (2-3 years ago): intended to increase student interest at Philly area high schools

· What challenges exist in this area?
o Not enough applications coming from Philly area;
o Important to know the quality of applications that Brown is receiving to know if recruitment efforts will pay off
o Unsure of how invested Brown is in Talent Quest program
o Philadelphia schools tend to push student towards familiar, local places like Temple and Penn State; insular nature of Philadelphia

· What can the Philly IPC do to assist with recruitment?
o Use BASC interviews as a vehicle by specifying an interest in interviewing black applicants
o Request information from Brown Admissions office about demographics of students who are applying from this area, including how many applications they receive and how many students get accepted
o Focus on younger students; SAT prep may begin as early as 7th grade and having alums involved might help younger students think about future possibilities more seriously; planting the seed early may lead to more success
o Help recruit students at under-represented high schools in the Philly area
§ Attend college fairs; make contact with college/career counselors at high schools
o Develop our own model for the BASC process for black students
§ Ex. interview all black applicants as a group, make it social and positive, match applicants with people who work in their area of interest
§ Should align interviews with application deadlines; IPC group interview would have to be in Jan/Feb

Support Of Current Black Students And Recent Grads From/In Philly Area
· How can Philly IPC help graduating students and recent alums be successful?
· How can we make the Brown experience more rewarding so people want to stay involved after graduating?
o Develop relationships with students at Brown who are from Philly region
· Need to know who these students/graduates are
o Contact Brown Admissions office for information (Kim Arnold)
o Alumni website: can search by city, state, zip code; *can also search by ethnicity
§ Challenge: how to find people who are not listed in directory
· Use social events as a way to reach out to students

Organize A 'Welcome To Brown' Event For Class Of 2011+
· Event will include students (and families) of Black students in the area who will start at Brown this fall, current Brown students from the area, and alums living in the area
· Event will help students connect with alums, 'rites of passage'; will also expose younger folks to college students (inter-generational impact)
o Do we need a committee to help organize the event (plan budget, menu, invitation list, numbers, possible send-off gift, etc.)?
o Funding for event
§ Need to map out goals of event to present to potential donors
§ Asking Brown for $$ may violate protocol given existence of National IPC; may be best to inquire with Nat’l IPC first (Stephen Robertson will speak with Roland Laird)
§ Brown Club of Philadelphia as another possible option
§ Local sponsors; organizations who might donate gifts for student send-off
§ Appeal to ‘other’ (non-IPC) local alums
o Invitation list
§ Will need to contact Admissions office/Mary-Kim Arnold for list of incoming and current black students from the area
§ Current IPC list-serve (~45 folks to date)
§ Thierry/Carolyn volunteered to assist with looking into directory of local alums (may also help with identifying possible donors)
o Food
§ Should not burden one person/family with full responsibility for food
§ Possibly ask IPC members to bring a dish
§ Look for low-cost options (e.g. Costco); hopefully find funding source
o Itinerary/Program
§ Should communicate with audience about who/what IPC is

Financial Matters
· Should IPC members be asked to pay dues?
o Unknown if NYC IPC currently has member dues (did not ask for dues in first year); may just have fundraisers; should speak with Roland Laired about how they handle this
o Brown Club of Philadelphia has dues
o Need to send out an email to IPC list serve to assess interest in paying dues
· How committed is Brown to providing funding to Philly IPC?
o Asking for funding may be stepping on toes of Nat’l IPC; should start with asking Nat’l chapter first
o Should consider inquiring to Brown Development office about potential donors in the area
· Philly IPC might consider Philanthropy as a goal; a way to give back to black Brown students
o Fundraisers might be a path (ex. NYC IPC is having a concert given by Brown alums to raise $$ on June 22, 2007)

Ruth Simmons ‘Boldly Brown’ Event: Wednesday, May 9, 2007
· RSVP for event by Monday April 30, 2007; can RSVP to campaign_events@brown.edu, or call 401-863-3400
· Opportunity to network and publicize Philly IPC
o Consider sending an email about the event to IPC list serve
o Create an informational flier to place on name tag table (Thierry has ‘volunteered’ to do this); should include info about IPC, who to contact, etc.
o Collect contact info from folks who attend event?

Getting Younger Alumni Involved In Philly IPC
· Social events (like Dave & Busters event) can be a good vehicle for getting younger alums involved
o Do not always need formal functions that need funding; can also do informal events (e.g. meeting up for happy hour, etc.)
· Using word-of-mouth, Alumni Directory, outreach to people in the area
· Have to recognize different schedules/interests of Philly IPC members at large; some may be more interested in social events verses quarterly meetings

Organizational Issues
· Individual schedules/locations make it challenging to determine what meeting times would be best
· General agreement that quarterly meetings will work
o Social events and conference calls can take place in-between
o Time/Day/Location: Will start with Friday evenings (subject to change); Carolyn Jones was generous in offering her office space at 1818 Market street as a meeting place
· Discussed possibility of forming committees, but no formal committees were established
· Size of committee: should consider a regional outreach to folks who are closer to Philly than NYC, including Philly suburbs, Southern and Central NJ, and Delaware