Lehigh Club of Philadelphia - Meeting Minutes of October 25, 2009
Location: The Paddock (Devon, PA)
Attendees: Jill Anderson; Justin Bayer; Daniel Gwiazdowski; Andrew Hartmann; Thomas Ramsey

University Business:
The club newsletter is scheduled to go out in January. Information on past and upcoming events will be due shortly to the Clubs office.

Past Events:
Halloween Hayride & Pumpkin Picking Event, Sat, October 10 This event was cancelled due to inclement weather

Upcoming Events:
Lehigh/Lafayette Telecast, Sat, November 21
Justin will be coordinating the Lafayette Hill Telecast at the General Lafayette Inn. Andrew will be coordinating the Philadelphia Telecast at Cavanaugh's Rittenhouse. The Lafayette contact is Carrie Chaitt.

In the Works:
Board Wine and Cheese, January 2010
Hillar Puskar offered to host this event every other year. Andrew will contact Hillar to sees if he plans to host this event again. Tom Ramsey offered his home as a back up.

Philabundance, January/February 2010
Andrew will look into scheduling this annual event for after the holidays.

Lehigh/Penn Wrestling Reception, Sun, February 21
The club has tentatively agreed to help coordinate an event with the Wrestling Club. Melissa is working with the Wrestling Club Officers to have a pre or post event.

Philadelphia Town Hall, March 2010
The Alumni Association is looking into hosting an event at the National Constitution Center featuring a panel of Lehigh professors. Topics being considered are a review of the current administration after their first year in office and other current events. Wednesday, March 24 is the tentative date for this event.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Event, Spring or Summer 2010
Two exhibits are scheduled at the museum: Picasso (Feb 24-April 25) and Late Renoir (June 17-Sept 6). The possibility of hosting an event was discussed. Several ideas were mentioned including having a Lehigh Professor attend as a tour guide or having a private morning tour by museum staff.

Other Business:
Dan volunteered to update the club webpage with events and club meeting minutes, etc. The option of solely using MyLehigh was discussed however it was agreed to keep lehighphilly.org and cross reference events. MyLehigh is a private site for Lehigh Alumni requiring a username and password and Google searches won't turn up hits from that webpage.

NEXT TELECONFERENCE CALL:
November - TBD

Attendants: Joann, Michael, Justin, Andrew, Monica, Anne, Gina

Monica: University Items:

• Halloween Hayride email went out tonight.
• It is scheduled for 10/11/08 at Linvilla Orchards; if it rains, the event will be cancelled.
• Rosenbach Museum & library tour email will go out next week.
• It is scheduled for 10/19/08 from 1-4 and will cost $30 per person. It will consist of wine & cheese and a tour.

Villanova Event: Lehigh vs. Villanova Tailgate

• Bar is still willing to hold the event if we want to
• If we get more than 25 people at the event, there will only food for 25
• We are going to keep the event planned and if more than 25 show up, we will only charge them $10 since there might not be enough food.

Andrew's Report:

• Andrew is arranging our fall volunteer event with Philabundance.
• Trying to lock in a date now and hoping for a Saturday morning with a potential date of 11/8/08 but will most likely be in early December.
• If we cannot get it in before the end of the year, we will do early next year

Joann's Report:

• Will send President's Letter to Monica

Club of the Year Award from Lehigh:

• Dinner at Buddakan similar to last year
• Mike suggested putting the money back into the Club
• Put the money towards our Annual Wine & Cheese Event in January
• Melissa is still planning to host the event

In Person Meeting:

• Sunday in October or November
• 11/9/08; 11:00AM at the Wayne Hotel
• Phone Conference on October 15, 2008 @ 6:30

Location: virtual by phone.

Attendees (all via teleconference): Joann Giangiulio, Michael Glasheen; Andrew Hartmann, Arthur Loder

Future Events and Issues

1. Lights of Liberty
   June 26

   Mellissa will be the host and Joann will be the backup for the tour (www.lightsofliberty.org).




Action Item: Melissa should prepare the email to be sent.


2. Morris Aboretum Summer Concert
   Tentatively Postponed

   The board decided that if this event were to fit between the Lights of Liberty tour and the Freshman Sendoff, it would have to take place on Thursday, July 10th, meaning there would be three Thursday night events in a four week span. Due to the concerns brought up at the last board meeting, it was decided that this event will be put on hold.



3. Board Elections
   June

   Action Item: Joann will contact Jill to determine the protocol for the elections.



4. Freshman Sendoff
   July 24

   Date was confirmed to be July 24th.

5. Lehigh/Villanova Tailgate
   September 13

   Previous minutes incorrectly listed the date; however, the game is on Saturday, September 13th. Steve Somers, a Lehigh alum who lives in the Bryn Mawr area, may be able to host a pre-game event at his home.



6. Rosenbach Library Event
   October 19; 1:00-4:00PM

   Mike pointed out that there was an article in the May 11th Philadelphia Inquirer about the Rosenbach. Joann wondered whether we could attach the article to the flyer that gets sent out for the event.

   Action Item: Jill will see if someone from Linderman Library would be available to give a talk.

7. Philabundance Event
   December

   http://www.philabundance.org/

   Andrew will host an the first week of December.

8. Next Board Meeting

   The next meeting will be via teleconference at 7:00 PM on either Tuesday, June 17th or Tuesday, June 24th. Joann sent out an email asking for the people's preferences.

Location: In-Person at the Radnor Hotel (http://radnorhotel.com/).

Attendees: Jill Anderson, Melissa Glozman; Raquel Carbonari, Rose Caruso; Michael Glasheen; Megan Kline, Arthur Loder; Hillar Puskar

Future Events and Issues

1. Recurring Patriot League Happy Hour
   

   After last month's very successful happy hour event, it was proposed that this could be a recurring event held the last Thursday of every month and that we could cut food to reduce expenses; it's unknown whether other Patriot League schools would contribute.

   These events fall under Lehigh University's insurance policy; the issue with these events is liability, not money. As long as the event information is sent through the Alumni Club email ahead of time, the University insurance policy will cover the club for the event.

   Also, there is an issue about how to disseminate the information for these possible recurring events; so as not to inundate people with too many emails, the happy hours could be bundled together so that they are announced along with the other monthly events. The Lehigh Alumni Office needs the full details about each event six weeks ahead of time, which gives a two-week lead before the email is sent out one month before the event.

   Action Item: Mellissa will talk to Guenther and Rose and get back to Jill about how the club will handle these happy hours.

2. Lights of Liberty
   June

   Mellissa announced that we will skip the dinner beforehand and simply take the tour (www.lightsofliberty.org).



3. Board Elections
   

   It was decided that nominations would be done in June so that they can be announced in July at the Freshman Sendoff.



4. Book Award
   July

   This is an essay request with 3 or 4 questions about life at Lehigh. The winner receives $500 ($250 from Mellissa and $250 from the club, though others expressed interest in contributing as well). Winners will be announced at the Freshman Sendoff. Hillar will be responsible for the Book Award process.

5. Freshman Sendoff
   July

   The club will ask previous Book Award winners if they would like to go to the awarding of this current year's winners. The club will also look into posting previous winning essays since the respondents agreed to such usage.

6. Morris Aboretum Summer Concert
   July

   Because this is in July, the club worried about it taking place too close to the Freshman Sendoff and Lights of Liberty Tour. Depending on the way the dates line up, this event might get pushed back until 2009.



7. Rosenbach Library Event
   

   Mike did more research into hosting an event at the Rosenbach Library (http://rosenbach.org/) on Delancy Street (by Rittenhouse). The cost for private room reservation is $300, and we can cancel up to one week in advance with no penalty.

   Club agreed that $30 admission would be reasonable and help cover the room reservation, $8 admission, and $300 for a self-catered wine and cheese at the event. Jill said to make sure the marketing for this event clearly explains how much participants will be receiving for their money.

   Action Item: Mike will wait for the Eagles 2008 schedule to be announced to pick a weekend without a home Eagles game (so we won't have to deal with the game-day traffic).

Action Item: Jill will see if someone from Linderman Library would be available to give a talk.

8. Margate Summer Happy Hour
   August

   Megan will look into hosting a summer happy hour in Margate.



9. Lehigh/Villanova Tailgate
   September 13

   Lehigh plays Villanova on Saturday, September 19. Megan can be the point on this.



10. Wine Tasting
    August/November

    Megan would like to host a wine tasting at The Towne House in Media (http://www.townehouse.com/) in August or November (probably November since so many people are at the shore in August).



11. Next Board Meeting

    The next meeting will be via teleconference on Wednesday, May 14th at 7:00 PM.

Location: virtual by phone.

Attendees (all via teleconference): Melissa Glozman; Joann Giangiulio; Rose Caruso; Michael Glasheen; Sanket Kapadia (Young Alumni Council)

Future Events and Issues

1. Patriot League Happy Hour
   March 27

   The event will proceed as scheduled at Mission Grill (www.themissiongrill.com) in Philadelphia from 6-9 pm. Rose reported that financing commitments of $100 had been received from Bucknell, Fordham, Holy Cross, Lafayette, and Lehigh. Essential points are that a second e-mail will be sent which will advise that there will be no cover charge and request RSVP. Efforts will be made to use only half of money to buy food in advance and use the balance if needed and obtain use of back room if available and financially feasible. Concept is that if another, similar event is scheduled in the future, then the non-paying schools this time should undertake at least the financial commitment for the future event. Rose and Guenter have obviously done a lot of work to pull this event together.

2. Young Alumni National Event

   Sanket reported that the Young Alumni Council is trying to create a series of events, on a regional/national basis, for the young alumni that will be held on the same date in all locations. Types of events being considered are bowling, community service, and an outdoor activity (such as volleyball). Santer was seeking our input on the level of response we receive from young alumni to our events and the ability of the Club to contribute financially to such event(s). The first event (bowling) is tentatively targeted for April 24 in Boston, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, San Francisco and the South. It is thought that the event can be more widely publicized using such vehicles as My Space, etc.

   The Club responded that we would be as helpful as possible, but pragmatically recognized that financial support was extremely limited. Our attendance experience was given that the most that might be expected is 30 people. Also, in a constructive, operational way, it was pointed out that there was barely enough time to get this event together, given the lead time that the LUAA needs to send out information and since Sanket did not think that the YAC would meet until late March to finalize decisions and plans.

   Sanket was very appreciative of our input. More to follow.

3. Special Olympics Swim Meet
   April 5

   Special Olympics swim meet to be held at Widener University in Chester. However, due to the press of time and business, it was determined that it is not feasible for the Club to support this event.

4. Lights of Liberty Walking Tour
   May/June

   Melissa will organize the Lights of Liberty walking tour (www.lightsofliberty.org). A decision was made, based both on time and expense considerations, that we will not attempt to schedule a dinner in conjunction with the tour. A minimum of 15 people is needed to form a group (although LOL might allow us to slide by a person or two). Melissa is further researching dates, either for a Sunday in May or a Thursday in June.

5. Rosenbach Library Event
   September/October

   Mike gathered information about holding an event at the Rosenbach Library (www.rosenbach.org) on Delancy Street (by Rittenhouse). Wine and cheese party is contemplated in conjunction with house and exhibition tours. Key point is rental cost for a reception room at the Library to host the social event. Mike will investigate whether we can cancel the room/event without substantial financial penalty if we do not receive a sufficient response.

6. Morris Arboretum Concert
   Summer

   No decision made on date. To be taken up at next BOD meeting.

7. Next Board Meeting

   The next meeting will be an in-person meeting. Melissa will look for potential dates in April and circulate.