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Passion, excitement, expertise is how Laura Nosek has described her experience as a member of the Alumni Task Force, the group charged with creating an alumni organization at Case Western Reserve University.
“This has been one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences that I’ve ever had, and this includes my professional career,” she says. “The level of dedication and commitment has been terrific.”
Dr. Nosek (NUR ’61 and ’68; GRS ’86, nursing), Task Force Chair and University Trustee Harold McRae (ADL ’65), and about thirty alumni from across the country, have met by conference call for several months to help the university establish a single, inclusive alumni organization.
The Office of Alumni Relations, Programs, and Events, led by Associate Vice President Lara Kalafatis, continues to facilitate this process in consultation with North Common Associates.
“We are very much on course to have this new organization in place by June,” says Mr. McRae. “I anticipate that we’ll have our first draft model available for the board of trustees in February; at least that is our intent.”
The task force is reviewing three models of structure. The draft model they propose will indicate the ways in which the new alumni organization will function, based in large part on feedback received following an Alumni Forum held last summer on campus.
More than 100 forum participants made it clear that they want to be active partners in a vibrant, relevant organization that contributes to the growth of the university and to their own professional and personal development. They also want to be involved in helping the university attract students with potential to provide superior leadership in a wide range of professional fields. Most importantly, they want the world to know about the university and the quality of education they received.
To help develop the appropriate model, the task force formed five work groups: organized and affiliated alumni groups, local and regional alumni groups, governance, leadership, and communication. Each group is considering relevant issues that will affect the new organization.
Dr. Nosek says that whatever model is chosen, alumni must realize this will be their organization and that the organization will work in partnership with the university. She emphasizes that President Edward M. Hundert, Provost John Anderson, and the board of trustees are solidly behind this effort.
“They want it to be alumni-driven. The president has said that he values the alumni and the ideas they bring. He wants to be able to draw from their expertise and go to them for counsel, but he can’t do that with twenty-one different alumni stakeholder groups,” she says.
One of the challenges Mr. McRae has faced is keeping people interested and the process moving forward. “It’s important that we not be sidetracked by political issues or other matters that are not part of our charge. We’ve had a lot of great ideas come forth and we need to develop them.”
For Dr. Nosek, her challenge is communicating the process and progress to the greater alumni body, some 96,000-plus graduates.
While the Alumni Forum website, www.case.edu/alumni/forum, is the primary method of updating alumni, Mr. McRae adds that it is important that everyone involved in the process become ambassadors and spread the word.
“My hope is that what we come up with will spark a new interest in the university, and give people the feeling that this is a place to come to be advisors to the president and the university.
“I hope alumni will embrace this concept, participate in the new organization, and realize they have something to contribute, as President Hundert says, to help make the university one of the most powerful learning environments in the world.” 
Marsha Lynn Bragg
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