El Congreso Alumni Association
Minutes
November 6, 1999

Present:
Ivonne Cardenas, Patty Cardenas, Gonzalo Davila, Joe Ortiz, Sandra Ramirez, Rudy Rodriguez, Cristina Saucedo, Benny Torres, Andre Vasquez

I. Updates from Committee

A. Communications Committee

1. Web site

It’s up and running at Congreso_Alumni.tripod.com. It is currently very basic. Mateo and Joe are checking our e-mail account regularly and responding as needed. The two things on the web site now are the minutes from the October meeting the date for the November meeting.

It was suggested to add pictures to the web site as a way of making it more visually appealing. (for example, a picture of campus) The communications will look into that.

Benny thought it was important to list the names of the board members as a way of facilitating communication. Mateo and Joe will be including our e-mail addresses so people can communicate with us. They need to know what e-mail address to post on the web site. Everyone agreed to communicate with them as to which account we want posted. This should be done as soon as possible.

The Committee will look into getting the web site on other search engines. This may cost us some money, but the committee will look into it and report at the next meeting.

It was suggested to look into linking up with other web pages. For example the "For Chicano/a Studies Foundation" web page, and the "El Congreso" Web page. The communications committee will look into that and report at the next meeting.

2. Data base

The data base would be the mechanism by which to organize, keep and easily access information. Andre will ask Joe to start developing a data base system. Rudy said he could also work on it if Joe doesn’t have time. Some programs that were suggested were File Maker Pro and Access. Some categories needed for organizing information are: name, address, telephone number, email, board member, general member, amount given, tech support, and networking.

3. Letterhead/logo

Linette worked on a sample letterhead. She is currently looking for pre-columbian art to add to the letterhead. She is specifically looking for a snake to replace the line to the right of the board member names. She is also suggesting that we start thinking about an Association logo. Andre will post some of these requests on the list serve to see if we get a response. The following are some suggestions on the sample letterhead:

Increase the space for actual writing by significantly reducing the size of the board members.

Change the font of the title to something called Mayan or Aztec? Move the mission statement so it is directly underneath the title? Move the P.O. Box so it is on the bottom of the page.

4. List Serv.

Andre discussed that right now he is using his own personal Hotmail address book to keep list serve. He will continue to do this until he cant any more. Joe will look into it at that point. Andre wanted to know if everyone was o.k. receiving all the emails he is sending out. Nobody reported having a problem with it.

Cristina will get information regarding the Chicano Alumni Association that is currently being started up by Ozzie at UCSB. We might want to know what they are doing. Benny thought we should consider later on becoming members of the Alumni UCSB.

5. Information Packet

The information packet was reviewed. Some changes were suggested. Andre thought the current packet suggested that the Association started in October.

However, he reminded everyone that it actually started in beginning of the summer. Some changes will be made and emailed out again. We will also need to add information about the fund for Santa Barbara. Eventually this information can be included on the web site and made into a brochure (will ask Linette for help on formatting info. into a brochure).

B. Fundraising Committee

1. Benny talked to the Fund for Santa Barbara, a non profit agency in SB who provide money to progressive projects. He spoke to the Executive Director, Nancy Weiss. He told her what the plan of the Association and she suggested opening a general account with the fund. We would be developing a sub account that would be doner specific. The Fund for Santa Barbara would charge the Association a fee of 5–12% to administer the money. The Fund for Santa Barbara can provide a variety of services, for example; hold the money, send out RFP’s to interested applicants, receive applications, provide training on how to do an RFP, publicity, end of the year reporting, etc. The cost goes to fund staff time. Nancy also said she can give us a tax ID number to use to make the donation tax deductible.

2. Benny talked to Sonia about helping out in setting up with the Fund for SB. She will be the link between the Association and the Fund for Santa Barbara. The Association will need to open a P.O. Box for donations to be sent. We will ask Sonia if she can be the person checking the P.O. box (at least while she is still in SB).

C. Technical Committee

Benny will put together a list of tools and training material to develop a sample of tools available to distribute to the students.

D. Support Committee

No report at this time

II. Congreso Update

  1. Andre talked to Luis, Congreso chair. Andre updated him on what is happening with the Association. He has been reading the emails and he knows what is going on with us. He thinks what is pressing at UCSB is the political climate between the Research Center and the Department. Denise Segura stepped down as the Director of the Research Center. The University is trying to convince her to stay. Chancellor Yang is concerned about Chicano Professor’s leaving. Lomeli got rid of Congreso’s vote and let the Chicano Studies majors be the only ones making decisions. Luis says Congreso is pushing to get a vote back with the Department. Manny Casas is the acting Director of the Research Center. Carl Gutierrez Jones will be Director for the spring. The university is opening up a National Search. Congreso is trying to get people on that committee. Lomeli is also at the end of his term as Chair of the Department.
  2. Luis believes Congreso membership is pretty good. Some of the older students are not coming around. According to Andre that has been a recent trend.
  3. Membership is mostly made up of freshman and sophomores.
  4. Congreso wants to set up a committee to review the constitution. It is supposed to be reviewed every year. They are having questions about the fraternity and sorority amendments made to the constitution.
  5. Benny asked what is happening with the Raza Talks. He wanted to know how they came about. Andre did not know and he will ask Luis.
  6. Benny suggested the Association could provide Congreso with a presentation on the "History of El Congreso". He thought we could go back at least 15 years. It was also suggested to present the Arnulfo Casillas document that was a chronicle of El Congreso in the 1970’s. The Support Committee will set something up with Congreso.
  7. Andre invited El Congreso to attend ECAA Board Meetings. He suggested having the next meeting in Santa Barbara to facilitate their participation.

III. Board Members

The following list are people who have expressed an interest in joining the board, who were not at the meeting in October.

Dan Umana

Luis Ramirez

Linette Peralta Haynes

Joe Ortiz

Sandra Ramirez

Gonzalo Davila

Everyone agreed that if there were more than 20 people on the board that would be o.k. Benny suggested making sure we get a diverse group of people, including older alumni. This will be reviewed again at the next meeting.

IV. Timeline

 The following are dates to remember:
  • By December 4th all committees will make a written report via email about their progress. Each committee should communicate with each other and decide who will do that. This is in lieu of a meeting in December.
  • Next meeting is January 8th at 1:00 at the Centro at UCSB.
  • The Association is shooting for end of January to be ready to start requesting donations.
  • The goal is to be able to fund the first project in the spring. It was suggested to request that the first project be a History of El Congreso to possibly be published by Mateo’s publishing company.