8.5 Board Recruiting ↑

8.5.1 Brief Club Overview

This page is meant to be used by a board member when meeting with a prospective board member, to give them a brief overview of club operations.

This should generally follow some brief exchange of introductions, including U-M stories.

These are meant to be used as notes, not to be read verbatim by either current or prospective board members.

• Club Status
  • The Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the state of Washington.
  • We are affiliated with, and supported by, the national Alumni Association.
  • The bulk of our club funding comes from the AAUM, which is in turn funded largely by membership dues.
  • All board members must be AAUM members.
  • The Seattle club is over 100 years old, and is the oldest U-M alumni club outside of the state of Michigan.
  • We are a very active and well-respected club within the Michigan network.
  • You can find out more at our website, at umseattle.org.
• Nature of the Board
  • The club is run by an all-volunteer board of directors, aided by some subcommittees.
  • The board consists of 8 - 20 directors, including four officers: president, vp, secretary and treasurer.
  • Board members are generally elected at our annual meeting of members, generally held in May, but may be approved by the board throughout the year.
  • The board generally meets monthly, over dinner, often on the 3rd Tuesday of the month.
  • It is a working board, not simply a governing body.
• Club Operations
  • Administration: scheduling and conducting meetings, recording and publishing minutes, tracking our finances.
  • Watch parties: we have one in Seattle, and one on the Eastside, for all football games.
  • Club merchandise: T-Shirts, sweatshirts, caps, etc.
  • Community Service events: we try to have several of these throughout the year.
  • Other club events: hikes, cultural outings, social events, etc.
  • Scholarship fund-raising, and selection of scholarship recipients.
  • Liaison with local high school students either considering Michigan, or enrolled and preparing to start their first year.
  • Marketing Communications (MarCom): weekly email newsletter, plus social media
• Potential Next Steps
  • Talk to other board members
  • Attend a board meeting
  • Select one or more focus areas