'05 Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 15th in room 212 of GCC.
Present: Randall Capps, Barbara Burch (guest), Judy Woodring, Christopher Fleming, Stephen Barnett, Amy Jones Winninger and Amy Sparks Fitzpatrick. Absent: Elizabeth McWhorter-Harden, James Chamberland, James Owens, Larry Wilcher, Doug Mory and Mike McDonner. Notes were read from McWhorter-Harden and Wilcher explaining their absences. Both had personal business obligations.
Judy Woodring filled in for President McWhorter-Harden and began the meeting with the reading of the minutes from the last meeting. The minutes were approved as written.
New Business:
Election of Officers: The motion was made by Randall Capps to make Elizabeth McWhorter
Harden CEO of the Alumni Association so she would not be responsible for conduction meetings due to
many obligations she has dealing with her late husband's estate. By moving to a CEO position, Elizabeth
would remain as a Founding Member with full voting and decision making rights. Stephen Barnett seconded
the motion and it was unanimously passed. Our gratitude to Elizabeth for making our Alumni Association a
reality and for her generous support and excellent leadership. We know she will be a great CEO!
Randall Capps made the motion to Alter the By-Laws (Article IV-Officers and Article V--Board of Directors) to reflect this change. This motion was seconded by Amy Jones Winninger and was unanimously passed by the members.
The motion was made by Amy Jones Winninger to elect Larry Wilcher as President of the Alumni Association. The motion was seconded by Randall Capps and passed by unanimous vote. The Board was pleased that someone local would be able to conduct meetings.
The motion was made by Christopher Fleming and Seconded by Amy Jones Winninger that Stephen Barnett be elected as Vice-President. This passed unanimously.
Bill Thompson and Amy Fitzpatrick were elected to the Board as members at-large.
Five people were nominated for induction into the Alumni Hall of Fame--Judy Woodring, Randall Capps, Elizabeth McWhorter Harden, Russell Miller and Barbara Burch. Judy Woodring asked that her name be stricken from the list and made the motion that the remaining four be the first inductees into the WKU Forensic Hall of Fame. The motion was seconded by Stephen Barnett and passed unanimously.
Discussion was held concerning the need for more space for a forensic museum/alumni center as well as the hope that funds could be raised to expand and improve GCC. In light of the anticipated move of Journalism from the first floor (2007), the hope was that someone would contribute to a renaming of GCC and making it a more expansive space for the forensic program and alumni of the program.
Randall Capps made the motion that the Forensic Alumni Association become "owners" of an award for a "Kentucky Speaker of the Year" to be given each year. It would be modeled much like U. of L's "Journalist of the Year Award" and would generate a great deal of local, state and national interest. The motion was seconded by Christopher Fleming and was unanimously approved. Christopher Fleming, Amy Jones Winninger and Stephen Barnett were appointed as a committee of three to come up with guidelines for this award. Guidelines will be submitted by December 1st and subject to approval by the Board.
The Board discussed several possible ways to raise revenue and decided to mail two newsletters (one each semester) to all members. Amy Fitzpatrick was appointed to be in charge of generating stories and features for the newsletter. The Board also decided that a phone-a-thon would take place second semester. WKU Forensic students would make calls to all WKU Alumni, telling them about our program and asking for donations.
Judy Woodring discussed the need to identify sources of external revenue. Members agreed that it was too much work for the Director of Forensics to be expected take on this responsibility. It was noted that no significant efforts were being made by the WKU Foundation to focus on forensics. It was also suggested that attempts to raise external revenue were more than likely hampered by a lack of interest and understanding of what we do. The Board expressed a need for someone with forensic experience/understanding to be in charge of identifying external revenue for our nationally prominent forensic program.
The Board discussed the need to make plans for establish a Forensics Alumni Legacy Scholarship program which would provide tuition assistance to students pursuing their WKU degrees. The scholarships would be intended specifically for the families of Forensic Alumni association members.
A discussion was held concerning meeting in the summer (June or July) instead of during football homecoming. A poll of the membership will be taken in order to determine whether we should have a summer gathering as well as the Homecoming gathering or if we should do away with the Homecoming event and focus entirely on a summer meeting. No official action was taken at the time.
The meeting adjourned at 11:30.
Judy Woodring
Secretary
