AAA Board Meeting – August 22, 2017
In attendance:
Jordan Karabinov, George Malchev, Simona Parvanova, Petar Svarc, Martin Ouzounov, Avgustina Pasheeva, Daniel Secareanu, Deyan Vassilev, Boriana Zaneva
Agenda Items:
- Agenda Items, Minutes and Follow-up Actions
- Update from meeting with Sullivan
- Update on Alumni Pledge Initiative
- Alumni Nominations to Board of Trustees
- Workgroup chairs
- AUBG Alumni Networking event in Sofia
- Live stream event – Alumni community update
- Meeting with Faculty
- AAA Website and communication strategy
- Proposal for Alumni Association Budget
- Next AAA Board meetings
Agenda Items, Minutes and Follow-up Actions
Agenda was reviewed, minutes were approved and last meeting’s follow up actions were detailed.
Update from meeting with Sullivan
The meeting took place on August 21 with presence of Jordan, Simona and Martin, lasted about 90 minutes – both sides spoke their respective actions and positions. Sullivan’s priorities are calmness on campus and student recruitment. Not all questions received an answer from Sullivan (for example: more alumni on the Board, action on VP Finance’s behaviour, hiring of new president) and no clear future actions were mentioned.
Next steps:
- Simona to write a short-announcement about the meeting (to be reviewed by Jordan and Martin) and shared with the alumni community.
- Jordan will also formally request that Sullivan shares the Alumni database (Name, email, class).
Update on Alumni Pledge Initiative
To this date, 25 alumni have become initiators of the Pledge. By August 31 AAA plans to get 50 initiators by engaging fellow active alumni in one-on-one discussions. On September 1, AAA will announce the Pledge officially. Daniel has prepared a draft Pledge signature page.
Next steps:
- Deyan to draft a pre-final text of the Pledge to be shared and approved by the workgroup and the whole AAA Board.
- Deyan to send follow-up email with Doodle for Pledge workgroup meeting for tentatively August 29 – 4-6 p.m.
Alumni Nominations to Board of Trustees
The interest of the 5 alumni who applied to the Board of Trustees needs to be reaffirmed, since Jordan is now an ex-officio Board member. AAA needs to identify at least 5 other alumni to submit their letters of interest, so that at least 10 candidates are available for the October 20-22 meeting.
Next steps:
- Jordan will be leading this process (coordinating with Rumyana Trencheva and alumni candidates)
Workgroup chairs
- Liaison faculty, students – Petar
- Liaison 3rd party organizations – Jordan
- Liaison Board of Trustees – Jordan, Martin
- Communications/PR/ Technology – Georgi
- Local Chapters / Events – Avi (Bulgaria + Europe + Asia), Boriana (USA)
- Strategy Group – Jordan
- Alumni Pledge / Giving – Deyan
- AAA Organizational Structure / Membership – Simona
- Alumni Board of Trustees candidates – Jordan
AUBG Alumni Networking event in Sofia
September 28, Thursday was decided as the date for organizing a networking event with focus – Presentation of the AAA Priorities, emphasis on getting more alumni to join the Pledge.
Next Steps:
- Simona and Deyan take responsibility – venue and present the options and the concept. Other volunteers welcome.
Live stream event – Alumni community update
Date set for September 14. Jordan, Nikolay Nikolov, Elvin Guri and Vladimir Borachev to participate – informing alumni about prior efforts + AAA priorities. Format to be discussed. Coordinator: Avi.
Meeting with Faculty
August 23 – Svarc, Jordan and Anton. Update to follow after the meeting.
AAA Website and communication strategy
Georgi takes the initiative to update the website and make it a focal point of communication. A lot of work needed to collect DB, etc
Proposal for Alumni Association Budget
Jordan to prepare and share with Georgi, Simona, Daniel and Deyan in advance of next AAA Board.
Next AAA Board meetings
It was agreed that they be held every other Tuesday, 4 – 6 p.m. Dates of next regular meetings are Sept 5, Sept 19, and October 3 4-6 p.m.