AA/BOA Meeting Minutes 1/7/25

Iota Pi TKE AA/BOA Meeting Minutes

Meeting Date: 1/7/25

Called to Order: 7:10 PM

Present: Drew Hellebrand, Scott Kulkin, Mike Kuper, Dennis Galambos, Carson Munn, Scott Repie, Erik Cunningham, Saul Santiago, Jonathan Galarza

Absent: Jason Johnson, Terry Steigmeier, Anders Ove

Reports:

  • Chapter Report (Jonathan Galarza):
    • Membership: Losing 3 actives for various reasons. E Board changes include Crysopholous, Histor, Hegemon, and Epi, Grammateus, and Pylortes. Changes also being made to MQB, Social Media, Rush, Scholarship and philanthropy. Jonny will email the updates to Saul and update the chapter module.
    • Financials: $1,470 on hand, bank account to be opened soon. Left over rush shirts that they will be selling. Remaining Brown’s game money (approximately $400-$500) will be received soon and deposited for philanthropy. Saul advised that there is a balance due to nationals of approximately $1700 in the first few weeks of the semester. Jonny believes there are still some outstanding dues that will be collected soon. The chapter’s bank account was closed by Huntington due to an error on the bank’s part. The bank was not providing solutions but is the only bank that will provide the chapter with a free account. PNC is the bank on campus, but security is a concern as it is a kiosk and the closest branch is in Stow.
    • Housing: Still do not have someone to fill the empty room in the house. 3 people are currently lined up for next year, still in need of 3 more. Roger has threatened to not lease to the chapter next year. Denny asked if the alumni leadership should be communicating with Roger to resolve the housing issues. Saul stated that Tommy was dealing with Roger as the house manager and said that Terry had offered to help advise him on communications with the landlord, but was told it was under control. The house is not rented by TKE, it is individual leases, so the alumni don’t have the ability to communicate with Roger directly. Jonny is going to follow up with Tommy about getting help from Terry.
    • KRA’s: Currently at approximately 69%, should hit the rest of the KRA’s fairly easy. Saul and Jonny asked the AA to consider donating individually to the TKE Foundation to help the chapter make that KRA. It has to be a minimum donation of $10. We won’t hit the goal for new initiate KRA’s of 16. We had 6 in the fall and at least 2 so far for the fall. Philanthropy and St. Jude’s and service are big areas to raise KRA points. Money needs to be donated to St. Jude’s, money from Brown’s game and fashion show will go towards this.
    • Activities – Fundraising, Socials, Alumni Interaction: Jonny is going to propose a fundraising initiative to the chapter because they did not have good turnout at Brown’s games. They will get money off of their dues for working Brown’s games and other fundraising activities. If they don’t work at least four they will get a $50 fine for each game they miss. If they are unable to work the Brown’s games due to work, but recruit someone else to work it for them, they will not be fined for that game. Most of the Brown’s money from this past semester went to RLC’s and insurance. Saul requested a budget to account for all money incoming and outgoing to determine where the money has gone. Jonny will ask Gavin for a more detailed budget of where the money went. Jonny said they will be hosting a risk management session and will earn an award for doing so because they did one in the fall also. They do not have grades from last semester from everyone yet. They are currently at a 3.2 but are waiting from a couple people. Scott (Repie) said they should be able to get the grades from Michelle Criss. Jonny said he would reach out to her. Drew asked Jonny to please discuss the virtual active/alumni happy hours at their first meeting and let him know what day of the week/time of month they would like to have these set up for.

 

  • Advisor Report: The chapter plans to bring the chapter advisor to a vote when school resumes. Denny has agreed to fill in as interim advisor until a more permanent solution can be obtained.

 

  • Social Committee Report (Social Committee Chairman):
    • Virtual Reunion (Scott Kulkin/Carson Munn): Scribble.io will be the game that we play, it is a free, Pictionary style game. The game will keep track of points to determine a winner. Door prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners of the game. Scott (Kulkin) suggested including in the invite for everyone to BYFB (Bring your favorite beverage), and a list of the questions that will be used for everyone as an ice breaker. Scott (Repie) additionally suggested a prize to the alumni that joins from the farthest distance from Kent. Drew suggested also doing a prize for the youngest alumni to attend. $125 was approved to purchase 5 prizes.
    • Spring Alumni Event (Scott Repie): Scott (Repie) received a quote from Top Golf to host an event at the location in Independence. The link to the quote had expired, but the numbers were roughly 30 people with 4 lanes for 3 hours with unlimited appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks. The lanes were the most expensive costs, and 4 might be excessive. The thought was to use this event as a fundraising event. The price may be reduced by cutting the number of lanes to 2, which would put the cost around $1500. Drew proposed that we consider looking at an event like this where we put the money up to hold the event and sell tickets to recoup that money. If alumni see us using the donations for things that benefit them, they might be more likely to donate. Selling tickets at $50 per person, we would recover most of the cost. To go to Top Golf as an individual on a Saturday night would cost around $75 per person, per hour, with no food or drink included. Using nationals to help publicize the event, along with the central location of Top Golf, would make it easier to get more people to attend. It also gives us the opportunity to host an event strictly for alumni, that is not in Kent or at the house. A 50/50 raffle could also be done at this event, which could help to recover even more of the cost and kickstart future fundraising. An updated quote needs to be received from Top Golf before we can vote so that we know exactly what our cost would be. Once the quote is received, Drew proposed a vote by phone so that a decision can be made quickly to get the word out. Scott (Kulkin) suggested getting RSVP’s prior to booking the event. Drew pointed out that this has been unsuccessful in the past as people don’t typically respond, but 11 alumni attended the event at Rockne’s last spring. With good marketing on our part, and help from nationals with getting the word out, 30 attendees is not unattainable. Scott (Repie) suggested also reaching out to the president of the alumni associations for Cleveland State and Akron to ask them to let their members know about the event. Denny asked about disadvantages. Scott (Repie) stated the only disadvantage would be poor attendance, which would be up to us for marketing. Denny likes the advantages and the location is a huge plus. Denny asked about the possibility of finding a sponsor for the event and suggested checking with the university’s alumni group for some possible financial assistance. Scott (Repie) will get updated quotes from Top Golf for Saturday, April 12 that can be sent out to everyone to review. He will get a couple of quotes showing different amounts of people and lanes so that we have a better idea of what to move forward with. A phone vote will be held once received and sent out.
  • President’s Report (President):
    • Fundraising: Drew demonstrated the benefits of using Zeffy for fundraising to make the process of accepting donations easier. The dashboard and different types of fundraising campaign pages were demonstrated. Drew also pointed out that Zeffy is free, we receive 100% of the donations and donors have the option to leave a “tip” to the company to cover their costs for providing us the service. It would also allow us to replace mailchimp for our email service which would save the AA $14 per month. Because multiple users can be created, it increases transparency to donations, and donations are deposited weekly into the AA account.
    • Targeted Virtual Meetups: Alumni have requested more frequent virtual events. Drew proposed targeted events that rotate throughout the year. Each event will be a virtual hangout for alumni from a specific era. The events will be open to all alumni, but will give the alumni from a specific era the chance to reconnect, share memories, network, etc. Drew proposes scheduling these for every other Sunday evening, which will allow each generation a means to come together every couple of months.

Old Business:

  • Update from University: Scott (Repie) reached out to the university to ensure that they were aware the event being planned by Don Spencer for May is not an AA sponsored event and we will have no financial responsibility. The university advised that they still had Don listed as the president of the AA, and may have represented himself as the president. He entered into a contract with the university for this event with the billing name “Tau Kappa Epsilon Alumni”. The university is going to provide the AA with a copy of the contract and has referred this to their legal team to review. Don did put a deposit down on the event. The letter to nationals will be revised with this new information. Discussion was had about holding Don accountable for planning an event under the AA’s name. Agreement was made by all board member’s present that formal action needs to be taken against Don at this time. Pending the review of the contract provided by the university, Drew will re-write the letter to nationals informing them of this and that the expectation of the AA is that they back our decision on this issue. The AA leadership has been updated with the university.
  • Vote on Code of Conduct: Proposed Code of Conduct was reviewed and a motion to adopt the document as written was made by Scott (Kulkin) and seconded by Kup. Quorum was present and vote was held, code of conduct was adopted unanimously.

New Business:

  • Future Meeting Schedules: In order to keep meetings to a more meaningful length with the BOA merger, Drew proposed meeting more often. To make scheduling easier it was proposed that we meet the first Tuesday of every month from August through April, and as needed over the summer (at least once). Because the first Tuesday of February is the reunion, we will meet Monday February 10 at 7, and the first Tuesday every month at 7 going forward.

Meeting adjourned: 9:35 PM