Committee Chair Meeting Minutes

March 10, 2001 @ 7:00 a.m.

(Windsor Restaurant @ Radisson Hotel at I-35 & Northwest Hwy)

Attended: Niki Bisor, Chris Henderson, Ken Robinson and Paul Stafford.

Called to Order: 7:25 a.m. by Ken Robinson

Prayer: led by Paul Stafford

Committee Reports:

q Consolidation Committee - Chris Henderson, Chair. Chris met with Ken Robinson and Sean Miller ('98, Association of Former Students) to discuss what needs to be done in order to make sure our group was in alignment with the goals of the AFS. Here are the highlights:

v A group of this nature has not been formed in A&M history. Therefore, we will need to make sure we stay in constant communication with AFS. This could be the springboard leading to others to do the same thing (Latinos, Asians, etc.)

v Much of our development as an organization will be in the hands of the Constitution Committee, led by Paul Stafford. The AFS will participate in reviewing our drafts to make sure we are in alignment with the University.

v If you are not a member of the Century Club ($100 annual gift), please join with at least this amount. The AFS is considering alternative means of helping with or finances, and it is imperative that we be supporting financial members of the Association. One example of helping with finance is that they would give back 20% of Century Club or higher donations.

v We should keep Sean Miller in the loop as we are creating this organization, so that we can include him in our events and vice versa.

q Communications Committee - Niki Bisor, Chair.

v The BFSN Endowed Scholarship has only earned $1500 up to this point. We need a total of $40,000.

v The reunion is currently running about a $3000 deficit. This is due mainly in part to miscommunication about the Presidential Conference Center.

v The list of addresses that the reunion committee used in the registration mail out is being held by AFS. They would prefer that they mail any correspondence, but we would be in charge of creating the material.

v Need to get a full-time website coordinator. Will put an ad in the newsletter.

v Major updates to the website should be completed by March 23, 2001.

v Chammps was reserved for the social on the evening March 24, 2001. Still need to reserve a meeting room nearby for the meeting during the day on March 24, 2001.

v The Communications committee had a meeting to discuss changes in the communication strategy. Here are the highlights:

v General Communications Improvements

¨ Make the BlackAggies.org the centerpiece of our communication efforts. This means that the email newsletter will begin to be sent less and less while the BlackAggies website holds all the most current information.

¨ Once a quarter (or some other specific time frame) mail out paper newsletters to all Black Former Students. There are still many Former Students who are not online and we need to reach these Former Students as well.

¨ Each Former Student on the email list will be encouraged to reach out and pull in 5 more Former Students who are not on the email list, so that we may begin communicating with them.

v Improvements to the BlackAggie.org website

¨ Enable the directory feature on the web page to allow Former Students to add their information to the website as well as search for other Former Students info. As much as possible, make this section updateable by any Former Student.

¨ Make all pages on the website accessible via at least two different links. (There are a few pages or sections that you can only get to by going through a specific set of links).

¨ All the sections in the email newsletters should be on the website.

¨ Add a calendar of events for the Black Former Students Network. This calendar can hold meeting dates, socials, and other events of interest to the Black Former Students.

¨ Convert any Word document or Excel spreadsheet on the website into HTML. There are a lot of people who still don't have these applications and can't view them.

q Constitution & By-Laws Committee - Paul Stafford, Chair. The Consolidation Committee met to discuss the constitution and by-laws for the BFSN.

v The consolidation committee is using the Texas Tech LLC and Texas Tech documents as guidelines for the Constitution. The By-Laws from the TAMU AFS and will be used as well.

v The first draft of the Constitution will be completed by March 12, 2001.

v There will be a period (March 12 - 20) for public comment on the constitution.

Old Business:

1. TAMU Foundation has created an Endowed Scholarship under the banner of the Black Former Students Network. The amount to be raised is $40,000. We have only raised $1500 to date. The committee will need to come up with a strategy for getting Former Students to contribute to the Endowed Scholarship.

2. The Financial Statement for the 2001 reunion shows that the reunion is in deficit for about $3000. The President's office will handle the Reunion deficit for now; but we (BFSN) will have to reimburse the office once we are off and running. We will more than likely achieve this with dues we collect. However, monetary donations are more than welcomed.

New Business:

To Do List:

Item Assigned	Responsible	Due Date
Committee Status Reports	All Committee	Every Sunday
General Status Reports to the Black Former Student body.	Ken Robinson	Every Monday
Shawn Miller's Contact Info to Niki	Chris Henderson	ASAP
Schedule BFSN Steering Committee Social	Niki Bisor / Ken Robinson	3/16/01
Statement of how much has been raised for the Endowed Scholarship	Niki Bisor	3/10/01
1^st Draft of the Constitution	Constitution & By-Laws Committee	3/12/01
Website Updates	Communications Committee	3/23/01
2^nd Draft of the Constitution	Constitution & By-Laws Committee	3/26/01

Upcoming Meetings Scheduled:

Steering Committee Meeting 3/24/01 - Place and time to be determined

Committee Chair Meeting 4/14/01 - Place and time to be determined

Meeting Adjourned: 8:45 a.m.