Members present:  Michael Earley, David Heeter, Beth Jacoby, Leisa Julian, Jeff Klee, Tiffany Westfall (via conference call)

Guests: Rod Davis, Tammy Estep, Deb Heeter, Janice Replogle

The meeting was called to order at 3:45 p.m. by Heeter.  Lacking a quorum, there was no approval of minutes.  The Alumni Council Report will be given at the next meeting.

Associate Dean Rod Davis gave the Dean's Report and touched on 12 different points. He noted that 360 MCOB students made the Dean's List last semester, which is right in line with the 15% average of their student body. He also spoke about the initiative that the MCOB and the College of Architecture and Planning took on in Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. Within the Entrepreneurship program is a class on consulting services: over 2006 spring break Davis and 20 students will be returning to Mississippi to consult with the Chamber of Commerce.

The H.H. Gregg Center for Professional Selling is in the process of hiring an outreach coordinator. This position will take over many of the day-to-day duties that Scott and Ramon have been doing. Davis reported that over 400 students and more than 70 recruiters attended the job fair that was hosted by the Center on campus in January.

Steve Avila has received a $50,000 grant to host a Summer Insurance Education Institute this year to enable high school teachers to become more effective in teaching about insurance. Ball State will be one of five schools in the nation hosting such a program.

Davis reported that the Teachers College, MCOB and the CAP are working together to develop a Center for Education Innovation within the charter school movement. It will address leadership needs as well as several other issues for charter schools in the planning stages. The MCOB will teach how to develop entrepreneurial skills, CAP will address the facility side of the issue and Teachers College will focus on facilitating curriculum development.

The Organizational Assurance and Information Security Center (OAsIS) is up and running within the MCOB. This is a joint venture between the ISOM and CS departments.  Basically this program teaches students how to prevent hacking in the software development phase. 

Davis said that MCOB has hired four new PhDs in the College; two in marketing, one in accounting and one in finance. Joe Brown will be retiring in the spring.

Davis and Replogle both spoke in regard to the Student Organization Fair that was held in the MCOB on January 25, 2006. The organizations used to set up their booths at the Welcome Week fair in August but this year they wanted to try something different. Every business organization was represented and all freshman and sophomores were invited to attend. The goal was to reach younger students who are about to become full-time MCOB students.

The Beta Gamma Sigma chapter will hold an induction ceremony April 7, 2006.

Davis reported that the Curriculum Integration Project using the Big Sky Brewing Company is becoming a huge success. Over the past twelve months the presidents and two other executives   from the company have been here to teach faculty about their case and also to speak to students in the classroom. Davis said it is a win-win for both organizations.  The MCOB would like to create an instructional DVD that other business schools can use when teaching integration of all aspects of a business. 

Lastly, Davis reported that Dean Richardson is in India looking at four schools with the hope to initiate an exchange program between BSU and one or more of them.

Replogle talked about Spring Dialogue Days.  Since our last meeting, it was determined that Dialogue Days will be moved from the fall to the spring, and that only one event would be conducted, not two each academic year.  MCOB felt that they were hitting up alumni too many times or too close together. They would like us to have a touch in the fall focusing on the Awards Dinner and then again in the spring for Dialogue Days. 

Due to poor meeting attendance, we did not discuss the 2006 Alumni Awards Dinner except to say that there will be a meeting on March 23, 2006 to get sponsorship talks under way.

Heeter then talked about the lack of enthusiasm of this Board lately. He believes that it is having trouble getting motivated because there have been no new initiatives recently. He also believes that because the events sponsored are coordinated mainly by the MCOB staff, that Board volunteers feel less involved.

Heeter then went on to briefly discuss the results of the "Pride" exercise. He found four main themes throughout the 35 answers.  With 10 responses out of 35 the first theme was recognition and marketing. The second was engaging alumni, the third was having successful graduates and the fourth was curriculum. He thinks that as a group we need to expand on the third and fourth themes to get a better handle on what we mean.  He will cover this more in depth at our next meeting.

Heeter attempted to set the next meeting date but none was decided upon.  Westfall invited the Board to come to Chicago on June 16, 2006 for a meeting at her office and then a Cubs game, but Taylor had sent word of conflicts from June 12-17. Heeter said that he would check with Richardson's calendar to seek some possible dates.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m., with a young alumni and seniors dinner to follow in the MCOB.