Committee 

Committee Vice Chair Peter Elias ’69 opened the meeting. Following introductions, Jean Romeo, Dartmouth’s director of market research, led a pre-test of the new alumni update (formerly known as the alumni questionnaire). Committee members provided feedback on its design and functionality.

Jonathan Goldstein, executive director of communications for development, and James Payne, managing director for new media/advancement, gave a presentation on updates to the alumni help desk, iModules email marketing, alumni directory, and iModules websites. The Harris tool has been purchased by iModules, and communications will be migrated to this new tool by the end of 2013. Forty-three of our classes, clubs, and affinity groups have been provided with iModules websites; 12 are being actively used and maintained. Advantages given for using iModules: It is easy to use without being a coder, it allows the College to push College-related content into sites, it is standardized, and the College can provide support through its expanded and improved alumni help desk.

Elias then broached the issue of “reinventing” CommComm as a more active committee addressing communication issues year-round. This reinvention will focus on tools and processes that can minimize the impact of information silos, lower the barriers to communication, and improve transparency and institutional memory. A subset of the committee will begin working on suggestions, and its work will be presented at the May 2014 meeting. An open discussion pertaining to College communications followed.

James Napoli, assistant director for class activities, shared the recent councilor communications metrics. Following the 206th Alumni Council meeting in the spring, 66 councilors sent out a post-meeting summary; 60 used the summary provided by Steve Geanacopoulos ’74. In addition, an email was sent out to 20 classes whose councilors did not send a post-meeting communication, from council president Mark Davis utilizing the summary. Sixty-three councilors sent out a pre-meeting summary before the fall 2013 meeting; almost all councilors used the pre-meeting template. It was noted that not all councilors are reporting their summary communications, so they may not be counted in the official tallies presented in the above metrics.