That is absolutely true.It's not working.... membership is down and legacys are following the footsteps of their unhappy Pennstate parents.
That is absolutely true.It's not working.... membership is down and legacys are following the footsteps of their unhappy Pennstate parents.
The Alumni Council has 99 members so it's obviously not a management or policy body. Anyone joining the Alumni Association thinking it will give you a voice in the University's governance or management is naive. The AA exists to cultivate friends of the University who will become donors. All other references to the function of AA are window dressing.
I think they are playing the long game.It's not working.... membership is down and legacys are following the footsteps of their unhappy Pennstate parents.
LMAO - then why is the PSU AA Immediate Past El Presidente granted a seat on the PSU BOT..........the group that is supposed to be THE governance body for the Pennsylvania State University?The Alumni Council has 99 members so it's obviously not a management or policy body. Anyone joining the Alumni Association thinking it will give you a voice in the University's governance or management is naive. The AA exists to cultivate friends of the University who will become donors. All other references to the function of AA are window dressing.
And you would think anyone at PSU cares about that.......why?It's not working.... membership is down and legacys are following the footsteps of their unhappy Pennstate parents.
We so need an independent association.
PS4RS recently formed a non-profit organization to award scholarships. Will it morph into an independent alumni association? In some ways, PS4RS is just that.
What the hell is an engagement organization?
I guess someone is doing something right for PSU to be where it is but... this looks fubar-ed all the way.
Leads me to ask the obvious question... What are your plans to do something about Kay's statements?
That’s a really good question. PSAAforAll’s plan has only been to educate and disrupt (in a positive sense). We want to educate as many members and friends of Penn State as possible about Kay’s statements because she is the Immediate Past President and is speaking for the organization. If they’re wasting their time thinking PSAA supports scholarships for students then they should know that.
Even though we are very small we have managed to disrupt the Alumni Associations agenda rather well in the past eighteen months. They’ve had to admit they are a wholly owned subsidiary of the university (making Roger William’s testimony in 2014 perjury); we’ve shown how the nomination process for Alumni Council is entirely rigged; and that Paul Clifford, Kevin Steele, and Kay Salvino tried to blackmail Sue Paterno into coming to the negotiation table with the University (remember that letter in May?).
If PSAA CEO Paul Clifford were to take out a full page ad in the Collegian admitting that from now on the AA only wants Alumni Council members who are young and diversity candidates; that only the Philadelphia, New York, and Washington DC alumni chapters get any resources; that they have been lying for years to the IRS about Alumni Council being the governing body; that the Executive Board makes all the decisions and Alumni Council is a lavishly feted advisory panel; and that the Board of Trustees exercises full control over all aspects of governing the Alumni Association, then we could say “Yup, that’s all true” and get on with our lives.
Instead he sits in Hintz Building calling people demanding that they shut us up.
The representatives we endorse are trying hard to work within the system, as Jim Smith and Laurie Stannell mentioned in earlier posts. They want to make the Alumni Association either tell the truth or live up to what it markets itself as (and reports to the IRS). God love them, I wouldn’t last two minutes.
PSAAforALL doesn’t have the resources, or frankly the temperament, to build a new association of alumni. But the Legacy Initiative seems to be making a good start by actually being in the scholarship business, which we feel supporting is the highest calling an alumnus can answer.
Straight up, my family would never qualify as diversity candidates in anyone’s book. But Dad got to Penn State on the GI Bill and ended up President of the International Microchemical Association, among other honors. He was a working kid from Reading. Penn State made my family, it made my husband’s family, and I bet it made your family too. I want more local working class kids of any faith, color, gender, nationality, attention span, whatever – to be able to go to the best university in the world.
So I don’t appreciate the Immediate Past President of an organization whose chapters are funding hundreds of local scholarships announce repeatedly that they are not in the scholarship business. As long as they continue to deceive, we will continue to shine spotlights.
don't forget, the alumni association at Baylor is codified as independent from their University
feel free to compare and contrast THEIR response to a recent scandal . . .
I read your post this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially your satirical observations.I don’t mean to harsh everyone’s Ohio State mellow, but there was an Alumni Association Alumni Council meeting last Friday that we need to report out on.
Question for you LaurieIt's not working.... membership is down and legacys are following the footsteps of their unhappy Pennstate parents.
I read your post this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially your sartirical observations.
Don't let the pinheads get you, or the other good soldiers, down. It's a group of 99, so no "actual work" is ever going to "get done" in an actual meeting. The important "stuff" is negotiated and pre- determined long before most of the 99 "members" even know.
That said, I have a few questions of interest.
- Which, if any, of the following "incurred expenses" does the PSUAA reimburse you and members (bow tie overhead excluded)
- Curb to curb travel expenses from home to meeting location including
- Town car/limo/taxi transport
- Coach vs. Business class air fare
- $/mile reimbursement for those members who elect to drive.
- Lodging. I assume that the PSUAA Brain-Trust pre-arranges pre-paid lodging at a discounted rate, but
- If so, what is your estimate of the lodging expense incurred, per person, per night?
- If not, what is the PSUAA policy for reimbusing members for out of pocket lodging expenses?
- Meals & Entertainment: again, I assume that PSUAA pre-arranges "group dining"
- Based on my assumption, what is your estimate of the per person meal expense fir the semi-annual sessions?
- Are other "meal and entertainment" suitable for inclusion on a PSUAA "reimbursement report?
I'm trying to "do the math" behind the semi-annual meeting expense associated with assembling 99 members, plus pinheaded overhead, for such meetings.
Thank you.I'm not complaining about these expenses, simply answering since you asked. I volunteered for this job and expected to pay these myself. I believe the policy is the same, i.e. no reimbursement, for all Alumni Council but I can't say for sure if that is different for the officers. I believe the staff employees and CEO are reimbursed per university policy as employees if they need to travel.
There is an Alumni Association box suite at Beaver Stadium. I have not nor do I know of any other rank and file members of the Alumni Council that gets to sit in that box. On the occasion that I have been a guest in someone else's box, I have stopped by the Alumni Council suite. On those occasions, I have seen the President, Vice President, and Past President with their families in that box. Alumni Council as a whole does receive two tickets to one football game on the top level in the end zone.
- Which, if any, of the following "incurred expenses" does the PSUAA reimburse you and members (bow tie overhead excluded)
- Curb to curb travel expenses from home to meeting location including
- Town car/limo/taxi transport NO
- Coach vs. Business class air fare NO
- $/mile reimbursement for those members who elect to drive. NO
- Lodging. I assume that the PSUAA Brain-Trust pre-arranges pre-paid lodging at a discounted rate, but (IN PAST YEARS, THEY RESERVED ROOMS AT THE NITTANY LION INN AND PENN STATER BUT STOPPED THAT PRACTICE THIS YEAR. ROOMS WERE CLOSE TO FULL PRICE - $300 OR SO PER NIGHT)
- If so, what is your estimate of the lodging expense incurred, per person, per night? About $300 per night (not reimbursed)
- If not, what is the PSUAA policy for reimbusing members for out of pocket lodging expenses? I have no idea of the written policy itself, we just don't get reimbursed.
- Meals & Entertainment: again, I assume that PSUAA pre-arranges "group dining"
- Based on my assumption, what is your estimate of the per person meal expense fir the semi-annual sessions? THEY DO FEED US WELL FOR ALL 3 MEALS A DAY AND ADD SOME SNACKS AND DRINKS IN AS WELL.
- Are other "meal and entertainment" suitable for inclusion on a PSUAA "reimbursement report? NO, THERE IS NO REIMBURSEMENT REPORT, I HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY REIMBURSEMENTS FROM PSAA
Jim Smith you forgot our lovely blue "book bag" that we got at the meeting. And the nasty chocolate chip cookies that came at Christmas.
Such a relief to hear that Kay doesn't sound like a shallow, "look at me!" type person......I don’t mean to harsh everyone’s Ohio State mellow, but there was an Alumni Association Alumni Council meeting last Friday that we need to report out on.
First up is the completely WTF!? statement by PSU Trustee Kay Salvino. She was on hand all day Thursday and Friday, and if you were special enough to be invited to the Alumni Association skybox at Beaver Stadium (price tag north of $60,000/year) you could see her there, too.
Kay made it a point on at least two occasions to emphatically state that the "The Alumni Association is not a scholarship entity” and “The Alumni Association is not in the business of getting students scholarships”. Which must be news to all the Penn State Alumni Chapters working their butts off to raise money for scholarships so that local kids can go to Penn State.
I’m very curious to hear anyone from the Alumni Association (or from whatever planet Kay is from) explain exactly what she was talking about. Last time I checked, PSAA supports several scholarships and is planning to support more. In fact, many members would point to this as the only redeeming quality the Alumni Association has.
Kay also reported about what it’s like to be on the Board of Trustees. “It’s cool!” She’s thinks it’s neat that she can sit in on committee meetings, and they let her represent the BOT at various places, and then there was something about engineers, and the color orange, and it was really neat that when they said "how many are from engineering?" and half the room stood up, and it was cool! The dinners are great, and there’s receptions, and … then our representative’s heads exploded so they couldn’t take any more notes. So much for the Alumni Association needing a seat on the BOT to promote the interests of the alumni.
This year we again attempted to give unused Alumni Council gratis football tickets to Penn State student-veterans. Deb Beidel collected them until an AA staffer stopped her (“tickets are not transferable!”), but she managed to smuggle a few out anyway.
Some bad news was announced, and since I haven’t seen it reported anywhere else I’ll help them out – membership is down by 7,500 members (see attached chart), almost all in the dues-paying category. Life memberships stayed stagnant, with only 134 sold so far this fiscal year.
In other news, Alumni Council is now at 99 members, which ranks it 136th out of 234 national legislatures, right between Botswana and Latvia (both of whom have all their seats elected). If you’re wondering how anything meaningful happens in a governing body of this size the answer is, it doesn’t. There were no votes taken and no deliberation of any kind, but CEO Paul Clifford did interview a fly fisherman for forty-five minutes. I’m not sure this is exactly what the IRS has in mind when they’re told Alumni Council is the governing body of the AA.
Our eleven alumni council representatives sat through an agenda that was designed to circumvent any meaningful discussion and featured a mind-numbing series of presentations that could have been emailed out before hand. Please join me in thanking them for laying out a lot of money for the privilege of going to this meeting and making an effort. Once again they were muffled, disrespected, and given no opportunity to make any meaningful contribution.
But they tried.
Jim Smith you forgot our lovely blue "book bag" that we got at the meeting. And the nasty chocolate chip cookies that came at Christmas.
Little back story as to why membership is down. Paul decided to do a reorg of the PSAA several months ago. He eliminated the membership team and demoted the person who was working as the interim director of membership (the previous director had left months prior) to associate director of membership and made him report to strategic communications instead of directly to Paul. The director of strategic communications has no idea how to do membership and the associate director of membership refuses to do anything since he was demoted. So now you do not have a membership team and the only person who had been managing the membership work for upwards of a year is throwing a tantrum and not sending anything out. The director of strategic communications has her own stuff to worry about, so she's not concerned about membership in the very least. No solicitations have been sent out and there was not an ask to support the sustaining life member program this year. In the meantime, our ILLUSTRIOUS CEO spends upwards of 10 hours a day on social media, which has less and less appeal to older constituents, and the platforms he's using Millennials are fleeing from, so he's pretty much only talking to about 1k alumni of which the majority are already members.
Unfortunately, I believe the millennials agree with you on the general state of management at PSU. (Please note this is a general comment and not directed at any particular person nor position - so, Paul, please no email - not directed at you.) My daughter was the first person ever in our family to attend a college other than Penn State. When we discussed her choice, she cited the governance issues with the BoT and her belief that they would not be fixed during her 4 year college tenure as her reason for not being willing to consider it.I used to worry that the heads of the BOT were the only one's at PSU who could not manage their way out of a wet paper bag. Glad to see poor management skills are in abundance and flourishing at PSU these days... smh
Unfortunately, I believe the millennials agree with you on the general state of management at PSU. (Please note this is a general comment and not directed at any particular person nor position - so, Paul, please no email - not directed at you.) My daughter was the first person ever in our family to attend a college other than Penn State. When we discussed her choice, she cited the governance issues with the BoT and her belief that they would not be fixed during her 4 year college tenure as her reason for not being willing to consider it.
(Also please note that PSUCRUX11 and I are different people despite having a similar name and, at times, similar opinions, so again, Paul, please no email related to comments from PSUCRUX11. I may or may not agree with him depending upon the topic, but we are different people.)
(Also please note that PSUCRUX11 and I are different people despite having a similar name and, at times, similar opinions, so again, Paul, please no email related to comments from PSUCRUX11. I may or may not agree with him depending upon the topic, but we are different people.)
Jim, Not your fault that we both share a common name. I do blame the folks that confuse us AFTER I explain to them and they forget a month later. Hence, the disclaimer to Paul (and yes this note is directed at Paul).Jim, my apologies for the confusion and for the obvious inconvenience you've had to deal with. I thought it was interesting that we share the same name, but never would have even considered you would receive push back for my comments.
I'm not sure about this. I seem to recall getting a Supporting Life request some time in the past couple of months. Needless to say, it went into my recycling bin. But I recall getting it.Little back story as to why membership is down. Paul decided to do a reorg of the PSAA several months ago. He eliminated the membership team and demoted the person who was working as the interim director of membership (the previous director had left months prior) to associate director of membership and made him report to strategic communications instead of directly to Paul. The director of strategic communications has no idea how to do membership and the associate director of membership refuses to do anything since he was demoted. So now you do not have a membership team and the only person who had been managing the membership work for upwards of a year is throwing a tantrum and not sending anything out. The director of strategic communications has her own stuff to worry about, so she's not concerned about membership in the very least. No solicitations have been sent out and there was not an ask to support the sustaining life member program this year. In the meantime, our ILLUSTRIOUS CEO spends upwards of 10 hours a day on social media, which has less and less appeal to older constituents, and the platforms he's using Millennials are fleeing from, so he's pretty much only talking to about 1k alumni of which the majority are already members.
Jim, my apologies for the confusion and for the obvious inconvenience you've had to deal with. I thought it was interesting that we share the same name, but never would have even considered you would receive push back for my comments.
The link to this thread was sent to Paul Clifford and he said the post is full of inaccurate informationI don’t mean to harsh everyone’s Ohio State mellow, but there was an Alumni Association Alumni Council meeting last Friday that we need to report out on.
First up is the completely WTF!? statement by PSU Trustee Kay Salvino. She was on hand all day Thursday and Friday, and if you were special enough to be invited to the Alumni Association skybox at Beaver Stadium (price tag north of $60,000/year) you could see her there, too.
Kay made it a point on at least two occasions to emphatically state that the "The Alumni Association is not a scholarship entity” and “The Alumni Association is not in the business of getting students scholarships”. Which must be news to all the Penn State Alumni Chapters working their butts off to raise money for scholarships so that local kids can go to Penn State.
I’m very curious to hear anyone from the Alumni Association (or from whatever planet Kay is from) explain exactly what she was talking about. Last time I checked, PSAA supports several scholarships and is planning to support more. In fact, many members would point to this as the only redeeming quality the Alumni Association has.
Kay also reported about what it’s like to be on the Board of Trustees. “It’s cool!” She’s thinks it’s neat that she can sit in on committee meetings, and they let her represent the BOT at various places, and then there was something about engineers, and the color orange, and it was really neat that when they said "how many are from engineering?" and half the room stood up, and it was cool! The dinners are great, and there’s receptions, and … then our representative’s heads exploded so they couldn’t take any more notes. So much for the Alumni Association needing a seat on the BOT to promote the interests of the alumni.
This year we again attempted to give unused Alumni Council gratis football tickets to Penn State student-veterans. Deb Beidel collected them until an AA staffer stopped her (“tickets are not transferable!”), but she managed to smuggle a few out anyway.
Some bad news was announced, and since I haven’t seen it reported anywhere else I’ll help them out – membership is down by 7,500 members (see attached chart), almost all in the dues-paying category. Life memberships stayed stagnant, with only 134 sold so far this fiscal year.
In other news, Alumni Council is now at 99 members, which ranks it 136th out of 234 national legislatures, right between Botswana and Latvia (both of whom have all their seats elected). If you’re wondering how anything meaningful happens in a governing body of this size the answer is, it doesn’t. There were no votes taken and no deliberation of any kind, but CEO Paul Clifford did interview a fly fisherman for forty-five minutes. I’m not sure this is exactly what the IRS has in mind when they’re told Alumni Council is the governing body of the AA.
Our eleven alumni council representatives sat through an agenda that was designed to circumvent any meaningful discussion and featured a mind-numbing series of presentations that could have been emailed out before hand. Please join me in thanking them for laying out a lot of money for the privilege of going to this meeting and making an effort. Once again they were muffled, disrespected, and given no opportunity to make any meaningful contribution.
But they tried.
Paul,The link to this thread was sent to Paul Clifford and he said the post is full of inaccurate information![]()
Oh....shockingThe link to this thread was sent to Paul Clifford and he said the post is full of inaccurate information![]()
So, I've been traveling the last two days and only now can catch up and contribute to this discussion. I was at the Council meeting last week and let me say that Mary's report is accurate. My frustration is that I go to these meetings and spend so much time listening and only minimal time actually working or contributing - you all remember my pie chart from last year. I took some grief for that chart but it was all true. I really wanted to work for all of you but the opportunities are so limited.
I fly from Florida and I easily spent over $1000 in airfare, rental car and hotel room for each of these meetings. I knew that I would have to pay these costs when I requested to be on the ballot. It is not the cost. It is the passive nature of the meetings that is frustrating. We don't WORK, we just sit (well, I answer email because some times the listening drives me nuts). Most of the work is done by the Executive Committee (at other times) and seems purposely to occur in venues that limit discussion. Let me give you an example. Up until now there was always a room block at the Nittany Lion Inn and the Penn Stater, where we could reassured of getting rooms. Now suddenly the block has disappeared and we, as individuals, have to scramble for rooms. I don't blame the Alumni Association for there not being a block. However, when it happened, several people asked if we could discuss it at the next meeting so that we might think about alternative times for the meeting. Non-football weekends or perhaps a football weekend that was not Ohio State. I assumed we would discuss this. INSTEAD, we are told that we should respond to an online survey about it. Well, an online survey does not allow discussion amongst the members. I simply allows us to put in our ideas. But why would we not discuss this as a group - allowing us to discuss it as a group and perhaps learn why other people feel the way that they do. WHEN DID A UNIVERSITY BECOME A PLACE THAT MUFFLES DISCUSSION? (sorry for the shouting but I am frustrated). There are so many actions by the leadership that are designed to negate or minimize the input of Council members.
Last year, I was appointed to the Nominations committee. As those of you who know me might guess, I was upset that the Past President (who is a BOT member) was still on the committee - yes, this was Kay. I raised my concern as I believe that it is a conflict of interest. No response by anyone. AFTER nominations were submitted, the nominations committee was told that we had to develop criteria by which to judge people. When I suggested in an email that I looked forward to a vigorous discussion, I immediately got a call from Kevin Steele who told me that "I better not go into the meeting ready to fight." See - no discussion is allowed. When I did suggest in the meeting that devising the criteria AFTER the applications were closed was not fair to those who applied - no one would respond. How could we judge whether people who submitted an application met "criteria" that we had not yet established? But that's what happened. People were judged based on "secret"criteria. Now, there is a new Nominations committee (of course I was not invited back) and the criteria are supposed to be on the website now so people will know. So perhaps fairer this year - but still think about this - It is now HARDER to get on the ballot for Alumni Council (where council members are allowed to do nothing) than it is for the Board of Trustees? How backwards is this and to what end?
The bottom line is that these meetings are only for show. We all eat well, we typically sing the Alma Mater, there is a banquet to give awards to individuals and chapters,and there is the opportunity to go to a football game or the Blue White game. But as for the opportunity to contribute to the leadership of the AA, unless you are willing to spout the party line, the best that will happen is that you will leave with a lovely parting gift - and in my case, resentment that I wasted time NOT representing all of you.