Present: Ittenbach, Taylor, Dunn, Brown, Budreau, Earley, Ferguson, Heeter, Huffine, Imler, Julian, Nystrom, Prickel, Schulz, Walbridge, Richardson, Olinger, Shipley and Waldron. 

Guests: Tammy Estep, Ray Montagno and Janice Replogle.

President Dunn called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m.  Dunn turned the meeting over to incoming president Ittenbach who presented Dunn with a plaque of appreciation.  Ittenbach then introduced vice president Heeter and welcomed new board member Jenny Budreau '84 and Alumni Association liaison Beth Olinger '93.

Minutes

The minutes from the September 23, 2002 meeting were approved by voice vote following Ittenbach's move to approve and Brown's second.

Dean's Report

Facilities. Dean Richardson reported that the walls of the college have been painted.  She invited the board to hold the next meeting in the new Hall of Fame Room, which is now a much bigger space with an attached kitchen. The next project for the college will be a student lounge.

Strategic Plan. The strategic plan is being revised. An outside facilitator will be brought in to assist with the revisions in February or early March.  The facilitator will have an academic background in order to better understand the needs of an educational institution.

Curriculum.  The College of Business will pilot a freshman course next year that will familiarize students with the college (and vice versa) much earlier in their academic career.  Estep reported that the Advanced Professionalism Certificate currently has 156 students enrolled and the program will be assessed this summer. The college has also launched Business Essentials for Professionals - a graduate certificate program in Indianapolis.  The program allows individuals to earn a business certificate in two semesters.  The courses include 4 of the 6 foundation courses for an MBA from Ball State.  More information on the Business Essentials for Professionals program and the Advanced Professionalism Certificate is available at: http://www.bsu.edu/cob/newcert/.

Apparel. Richardson showed the board a variety of "Ball State University College of Business" shirts. The intention is to make the shirts available for sale through the website and the magazine in the near future.

New Business

Advisory Boards. Richardson provided the board with a COB Board Structures handout (note: this document is located at the end of the minutes). In order to strengthen communication between alumni and the college, a member of the alumni society will serve on each COB board.  It was estimated that the boards would meet at least twice a year (fall and spring). Estep will email the alumni society a roster of the COB staff on each board.

Walbridge requested that a short description of each board be emailed to the group and that members apply for the openings.  If more than one candidate applied for each opening, the COB could pick the individual who would be the best fit.

COB Alumni Board 2003 Focus – Outreach, Engage, Recognize. Ittenbach provided the board with a handout of initiatives he would like the board to work on (note: this document is located at the end of the minutes).  One new project he would like to conduct is a biennial survey of human resource professionals. This would allow the college to determine what the current needs of the job market are and assess how the Ball State student meets those expectations.  Ittenbach asked the board to rethink Dialogue Day and Taking Care of Business in order to reach the students more effectively.  Richardson pointed out that the board has a better idea of what has worked in the past and what hasn't.  The college will work with the board on improving these programs.

Awards

Heeter and Richardson have met about revising the current awards program.  Heeter noted that an awards purpose is to recognize and support accomplishments, enhance public relations for the individual and the college, generate a connection between alumni and the college and provide an opportunity for Development.  They suggested that four award levels be established – the Hall of Fame Award, the Award of Achievement (alumni), recognition of non-alumnus contributions to the college and a Young Alumni Award for graduates out of the college less than 10 years. Heeter pointed out that there are plenty of individuals to recognize and that, perhaps, the board should present 8-10 awards per year. Prickel and Huffine agreed.  Ittenbach noted that the list of accomplished graduates keeps growing and narrowing it down has been difficult.  He also suggested that each program give out a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Heeter believes that the winners should have an opportunity to speak and proposed that the board consider holding a formal awards dinner. Nystrom agreed and said that speaking at Commencement is difficult with a large number of winners.  Additionally, the winner's family might not want to attend an event like Commencement.  She recommended a more formal event for the recognition of winners. Richardson said that if the alumni awards remain at Commencement there should be a build up starting with student awards and concluding with Hall of Fame.   Heeter noted that award recipients could be recognized through press releases and the COB magazine. Dunn added that press releases could be sent to the Indianapolis Star and the Indiana Business Journal.  He believes that the promotion of successful alumni will give parents a reason to send their kids to Ball State.

Richardson suggested that the magazine also be used to solicit nominations for awards.  Dunn recommended that nominations be accepted through the website as well.

Old Business

Letter writing. Replogle reported that the letter writing campaign used to target top students with high math SAT scores and that 46-48% of targeted students enrolled.  This year, when the college receives a list of accepted students who indicate an interest in business, those students are mailed a COB view book and brochures on specific programs of interest. This January, 485 view books were mailed.  By January 20, an additional 200 were mailed. Once students are admitted and have a view book, the college would like to send them a letter from an alumnus. Last year the college mailed to 400 students and this year it will be around 1000.  Interested members of the board should contact Replogle if they would like to participate in the campaign.

Ittenbach asked whether writers should offer continued contact via e-mail or telephone if the student has questions.  Replogle said that is up to the writer to decide if they are comfortable with that. Richardson pointed out that the parents read the letters as well so it might be the parents contacting the writer for more information.

Miscellaneous

Richardson handed out gifts to the members of the board who were COB graduates.  The gifts were "Ball State Business" desk clocks.

Upcoming Events and Next Meeting

The awards committee will meet at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, February 7, 2003 at Strategic Marketing and Research, Inc., Indianapolis.  The next board meeting will be at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 17, 2003 in the Whitinger Business Building.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m. for the Indianapolis area reception.

The diagrams mentioned above can be found at: http://www.bsu.edu/alumni/societies/business/diagrams.html