We, the majority of the current Alumni Board, including all officers and Alumni Trustees, thank the entire Reed Alumni Association community for taking an interest and voting. We appreciate your participation and will respect the referendum’s outcome. We ask you to approve these updates to our governing documents. Your vote matters!
Hopefully, you’ve read the full redline changes approved by the Board. Mischaracterizations have circulated in our community. Constitutional change can sound precipitous. When feeling uncertain, it’s a natural inclination, even among Reedies, to keep the status quo.
The approved referendum was anything but casually considered; the status quo is not serving us well. The changes resulted from more than three years of research, self-assessments, meetings, and discussions involving the entire Alumni Board, Chapter leaders, past Board presidents and alumni trustees, other alumni, and the College. The Constitution and bylaws structure the Board and its ability to serve the Alumni community. Updating them benefits the community.
Proposed changes make the governing documents internally consistent, modernized, and expand opportunities for alumni participation. The changes create a self-governing Chapter Steering Organization – while maintaining dedicated Chapter representation. This latter change is a point of contention. Regrettably, these amendments have been cast by some as a secretive, malicious act to disenfranchise the role of Chapter leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth.
So, it’s fair to ask, why the changes? Some key benefits are:
- Chapters will gain increased college support focusing on localized activities, while being able to define their own membership and self-governing collective, with a fair representative voice on the Board through three dedicated seats.
- Streamlining of the Board’s organization, with national focus and scope, and greater emphasis on strategic planning activities rather than informational reporting.
- Expansion of alumni participation opportunities, including ability to serve in leadership roles in Chapters and committees through reasonable term limits and ad hoc membership.
- Modernized language permits electronic communication (rather than only hard copy print) in official notices and flexibility for electronic voting, clarifies textual ambiguities, and matches historical practices.
As part of the long self-assessment process that identified structural concerns, Board members were encouraged to submit their own proposals. Those few members most vocally opposed to the approved changes offered alternatives that were not endorsed by the majority director membership. While we believe the changes will be successful in promoting a stronger alumni volunteer community and do not take the amendment process lightly, the Board will reassess again should the changes not achieve their positive objectives.
We believe the changes expand both Board’s impact on and participation by the greater alumni community. The large majority (80%) of current Board members wholly supported these changes and the process that brought them forth. . The votes by the alumni community will determine whether they are implemented or not. We urge you to vote “yes.”
Authored by:
Dave Baxter, '87, Chapter Leader
Darlene Pasieczny, '01, Alumni Trustee
Rich Roher, '79, Past President
Andrei Stephens, '08, At-Large Director
Endorsed by: Executive Committee
