TPAN/TUAA discussion

Hi all,

The TPAN exec group has been discussing this for some time. I wanted to post what has been said about the issue already. Please scroll down to read the first post by Lou and then subsequent ones. Posted with permission.

Please repond at http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/messageboard.htm. We really do want to hear your thoughts!

-----------
On 3/21/07, Cindy wrote:

Hi all,

Thanks for all your thoughts, I read them with interest and concern. Perhaps many of our questions (how much budget would we get, what are restrictions, etc.) will be answered when Lou and I (and others?) have a phone call with Jonathan Kaplan of TUAA in a couple weeks.

From a marketing perspective (thanks, business school), right now we are able to promise our constituents "an alternative to TUAA" in addition to "progressive alumni networking" and "supporting progressive students through the Social Justice Fund". If we became a part of TUAA, we would lose one of our three identities. The question is, how important is this to who we are, and how would our constituents react if we took it away?

I think this is probably more important than any administrative/fundraising concerns, because if we really wanted to grow without a 501c3, we could do it. It would be difficult, but if our mission and identity is strong enough, we'll be able to get donors without this infrastructure behind us.

In any event, at the end of this discussion, I think we should open it up to the entire TPAN list-serv to get other people's reactions (recognizing that it might be skewed because a majority come with the memory of what happened with Liz, but they are our current base). For a starter, can each of us ask ourselves: if TPAN became a chapter of TUAA, would I still be willing to support it?

Thanks,
Cindy

On 3/16/07, Eva wrote:
congrats Gary on your quote in the Globe. I read it and was pleased to see they interviewed you.
I also think that you asked some very important questions in you last email. Lou - do you know when we talk with the guy from TUAA will we be able to get some answers around these issues?? also - if we were to become a chapter now, couldnt we also always leave if it came down to that?

in general i support the idea of getting recognized (and funded) by TUAA. I do of course appreciate the concerns, and i think we will have to be very sure before hand that TUAA wont limit our actions and activities. Maybe we should contact one of the other alumni groups that are on that website to see how their relationship with TUAA has been - like the drama/dance alumni, or the Black Alumni group. ALthough our concerns are specific to the mission of our organization, those other alumni groups might be able to shed some light on TUAA for us. I will email some of them if no one has objections.

In terms of Dougs question of whether or not we really need a budget: Personally, as outreach coordinator, i think a budget for operating costs would be extreamly helpful for us. For one, wiht a little bit of money we can make our technology so much better - and it is via technology that we are trying to serve our members and influence tufts. For example, there is a program to send out newletters which i have used before called Constant Contact - so instead of sending a long email every month we can send out a beautiful, colorful and easy to read e-mail newsletter. It will only cost us $15 per month, however right now we dont even have access to that much money. I am on a lot of listserves and i can tell you - those that have an easy to read, colorful format are simply more accesible. We have also talked about developing a database of TPAN members -- these kinds of internet based services cost money. Also we have no idea what kinds of projects may come up in the future for us, but if we can build a little bit of a financial base now we will be undoubtable be better equipped.

Also - while I of course understand the motivations for being an 'alternative" to TUAA, based on what they did to Liz, I also recognize that most alums were not on campus when that happened, and dont have associations with TUAA one way or another. If people dont know you Liz, or dont know what happened to you, then being an "alternative to TUAA" doenst really mean anything. And hopefully we will grow and will have much older and much younger members. I think the best way to actually be an effective force at countering TUAAs conservative behavior is to grow as much as possible, and it seems that becoming a chapter of TUAA will help us do that.

xoxo eva
On 3/16/07, Doug wrote:
By the way, what are TUAA's serious concerns? I like that. Seriously, maybe our mutual concerns is the fertile ground for honest discussion and perhaps a change in TUAA's political outlook.

I like a few of the suggestions Gary made in his email about scholarships, meetings, etc. I second them. But I worry about implementation, and whether TUAA will be amenable to our goals, or at least whether they're not mutually exclusive.

Love,

Doug
On 3/16/07, Gary wrote:
Hi all,

I can see there are administrative advantages for getting under the TUAA umbrella.
Louis has presented a case for it - it gives TPAN fiscal respectability.
But I wonder what they get out of it? I have become very suspicious after many years
and many Tufts administrations. TUAA will be more than a conduit for donors'
contributions. They will have access to names of people who will
have given to TPAN. They will know how well TPAN is doing at garnering
contributions. Maybe this just allows them to advertise larger numbers of donors
compared to their peer institutions. Or maybe it enables TUAA to make sure that
TPAN does nothing too outrageous.

Louis' 2nd point: Will they have some leverage over what TPAN puts its money into?
This is where Liz is justifiably quite concerned, I think.
I suspect, although I have only the evidence of the Senior Award incident, that TUAA
has been conservative in what it supports and tolerates. It does not want to offend
any potential big donors, and those potential donors are probably wealthy business
people with corporate interests. Just suppose, in what we physicists would call a
thought experiment, that TPAN decided to give financial support to graduate
students trying to unionize. What would TUAA say to that? Or suppose TPAN
wanted Tufts to divest from corporations that do substantial military business.
Or to get Pepsi products off campus (they did business with Burma's dictatorship)?


What about the Social Justice Fund? How does money get into that fund, given
that it is administered through the Tufts financial-accounting offices. I see a
summary of the account when I ask for it, so that I can write several checks
during the year for the chosen projects. How do people contribute currently?
It is like a scholarship fund. I guess that there could be administrative costs
taken out of it also. How much of TPAN donations would go into SJF?

I see that one important question for TPAN is what do people want to do with
the contributions? SJF is one possibility. Holding alum meetings regularly,
just to socialize and network. What are others? Assuring
progressive voices be heard on campus. Sending students to internships that
have progressive political components. Funding scholarships for students from
disadvantaged economic, as well as social backgrounds. There are many more
possibilities. Would TUAA staff help with such efforts and goals?

Peace,
Gary

On 3/16/07, Douglass Hansen wrote:
Hey All.

Hope everyone's well and happy. A few thoughts.

I have mixed feelings about joining TUAA.

On the one hand, there are obvious monetary benefits, as well as simple advertising, which is perhaps invaluable.

On the other hand, I do like the idea of us being a separate entity, free of direct affiliation with the university and particularly TUAA. I also have an ongoing grudge over TUAA's decision making process and what happened to Liz. Are these still the same people running TUAA? Has there ever been anything said by them in the aftermath? There's also the lesser problem that I sent them a note some time back expressing my dismay, and that I wouldn't donate money to the TUAA until they changed course. I presume many others made similar pledges. I doubt this is a deal breaker, but those of us who made such a pledge will have to swallow hard and effectively renounce their prior statements if we join and send money earmarked for TPAN.

A few critical issues I'm considering:

1) how much money would we actually get from TUAA? Lou, I infer from your last email that getting a budget means getting money aside from what we may raise. Is that true?
2) Do we really need to have a budget at all? Obviously we are growing and there may be needs we haven't had to cover yet. But do we actually need more money? What projects would the money go to? Besides fliering and raising money for the senior award, is there anything we need money for right now? (I understand that we may want to join because of the next big project.)
3) Do we want 501(c)(3) status so donors don't pay taxes or so that the money we collect isn't taxed? I'm not sure it's a problem wither way.
I doubt lack of tax exempt status prevents donations? When I was gainfully employed and actually gave money to a series of organizations like Amnesty and Oxfam, I dutifully took my donation receipts to H&R Block and was told I had to donate more than something like $4,000 a year to qualify for a write off. Seeing as I donated a few hundred dollars, I didn't meet the criteria. The point is, I don't know how much any single donor will give that would push them from the "you have to declare" category into the "you can write this off" category.
I can also check with the Hartford Independent Media Center, were I used to be a collective member, and see how the banking bit went on our end, since we were not 501(c)(3) and didn't pay taxes. I think we had a simple small business checking account that cost us a couple of dollars a month, but nothing more. Over the two years I was with the collective we raised somewhere between $5,000-$6,000 and never paid a cent in taxes.

4) While most of our outreach likely comes through word of mouth, and that people will trust us on that basis, I think there is value in being affiliated with TUAA as an outreach mechanism, if only for geezers even older than me.

5) Can we advocate as forcefully as we hope within the structure as without?

6) Lou, what kind of logistical support can we expect from TUAA? When would we need it? Without knowing any specifics, this does seem helpful.

As I see it, and maybe I'm wrong, the benefits of joining are money, logistics and advertising. The drawbacks are association with TUAA itself and perhaps the loss of some freedoms to resist Tufts policies.

I'm not sure this is helpful. But I hope we can continue to discuss this.

Love to you all.

Doug





On 3/15/07, Lou Esparza wrote:


We get a link here: http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/a-groups.html .

We get a nice budget.

TUAA staff help with marketing & organizing of events.

Donors who don't know us personally can trust that the money is being used properly.

There is administrative oversight by TUAA staff, should TPAN board members flake.

There is no alternative that anyone on this board has expressed interest in actually doing.

On 3/15/07, Cindy wrote:


Lou, are there other benefits to being a member of TUAA than the ability to raise funds as a 501(c)3? Technically, people could donate money to us now, we just cannot give their donations tax-exemption and there's no legal recourse if one of us were to run off with the money that we raise.

I'm still undecided on this. Thanks for giving your feedbacks.

Cindy


On 3/9/07, Liz Monnin-Browder

Hi folks,

As I have expressed in the past, I am very much opposed to TPAN joining TUAA. We have such great momentum going with TPAN, and I would definitely see TUAA affiliation as a step backwards, not forward. This is just my opinion, but I would probably choose not to be affiliated with TPAN, if TPAN were affiliated with TUAA. When I have recruited new TPAN members, a big part of my plug for TPAN is that it is an alternative to TUAA. Part of the reason I have invested more time in TPAN this year was to "put my money where my mouth is" in terms of supporting TPAN in growing, without joining TUAA.

But I do appreciate that there are good reasons for TPAN to pursue some type of organizational affiliation, particularly for financial reasons. I wonder if there are other ways to do so without aligning ourselves with TUAA. Are there other Tufts groups that we could affiliate ourselves with? I don't know how this would work exactly, but I would like to see us consider other options. Possible Tufts orgs that would be willing to work with us: Office of Student Activities (maybe we could be an alum version of a student activity group?), Office of Development (?), UCCPS, any of the centers... Again, I really don't know how this would work, but I think it's worth considering. Of course, I don't have the time to volunteer to look into this right now.

This is my 2 cents on the subject. Look forward to hearing what other folks think.

take care,
Liz


On 3/7/07, Lou Esparza wrote:


Hello All,

A few of us have been discussing the possibility of joining TUAA. This board has had a conversation about this in the past. In October of last year, as the '06 Board cohort was just coming on, I had started the process of applying for Chapter membership to TUAA and then aborted the process after consensus was not obtained on the issue. This was after almost a year of people talking about doing this.

In preparation for a proposal to the TPAN Board to recommend that we join TUAA, I contacted Jonathan Kaplan from TUAA to answer some questions. The questions were:

If TPAN became a chapter ofTUAA...

1) Could we use TUAA's 501(c)3 status to collect money from our members for TPAN's operating budget?
2) Would there be restrictions on what TPAN could say or do?

The answers were not clear, but there were signs of life. Basically he said yes, we could collect money for an operating budget but the money goes through Tufts and no, generally there are no specific restrictions, but both Jonathan and I agreed that the culture of TUAA has some expectations and that there could be some moments of conflict. He wants to work on this and wants to meet us halfway. Rather than writing a proposal, I think that we should openly talk about it again amongst ourselves and with TUAA's Special Constituencies Committee.

There are serious concerns on our end about joining TUAA, some of which I share. I'm no softie. I would like to find a way to do it, but obviously not if it means compromising our beliefs and/or activities. The two questions I wrote above are really important to me. If we can resolve them, then I would support this move. There are also serious concerns about our joining TUAA on their end. Jonathan is for it, but their Board has some questions about it.

I think this question about joining TUAA is becoming increasingly urgent. TPAN is growing and we cannot organize effectively if we have no way to fund our activities or to collect donations from our members. Many of our initiatives have been paid for out of pocket by individuals on this listserv. Pride on the Hill, the Queer alumni group, initially went the route of becoming a 501(c)3 for some of the same reasons that came up in our own discussions. They have recently abandoned that project and have become a chapter of TUAA deciding that maintaining a 501(c)3 is a lot to ask for volunteers to do and the payoff is not worth it. If, hypothetically, we were to become a 501(c)3, who among us is going to help put in the time necessary to do all the paperwork and run it for free? And wouldn't that time be better spent organizing events and developing the network while letting Jonathan and his comrades do all that work? And staying the course as we are now is to keep us forever as a small, resource-poor organization. We have a lot of things going for us, but without taking steps to becoming fiscally soluble we will always have this major institutional obstacle.

Jonathan has offered to have a phone conference between the committee and members of our Board on the evening of April 10th so that we can discuss all the issues that each side has with TPAN becoming a chapter of TUAA. I would like very much for people who are interested in this issue to try to be a part of this conversation. I'd also like to hear what others think by talking it out on the listserv. If it helps, we can also have a phone conference of our own prior to the one on April 10th.


Lets talk.



Affectionately,
Louis