TUAA Conference Call

Cindy and I just finished our conference call with TUAA and wanted to provide a summary for everyone who couldn't be on the call. (Cindy, please weigh in with your thoughts when you have time).
Obviously, many concerns were aired on the listserv about membership in TUAA, so I'll just bullet point the topics we addressed on the call.

+ Budget - TUAA doesn't offer member groups set budgets. Rather, groups can apply for "new initiatives" funding. This basically involves writing a proposal that requests a specific amount of money for a specific project ($500 was used as an example). In addition, the alumni office tries to give each member group a fair share of their total budget, which would probably be a few hundred dollars. So it's not a large amount of money, but in terms of TPAN's current operations, it would largely cover the costs associated with our annual events/awards.

+ Fundraising - Along those same lines, TPAN allows groups to fundraise either as 501(c)3s (which allows groups to manage their own bank accounts) or offers to keep that money as part of a collective bank account, which groups can access at any time (reducing member groups' administrative burden).

+ Autonomy - The official rules that would govern our relationship with TUAA and Tufts are largely unformed at this point (i.e., are we "allowed" to take actions that would contradict official Tufts positions if we become a member of TUAA?). These rules are something that would have to be hammered out with Tufts' lawyers, the provost, etc. As a side note, I think it may be an opportunity for us to shape our official relationship with TUAA favorably, so that we ensure that we have the leeway to remain faithful to our internal goals, and it's something we should discuss at greater length if we're thinking of joining. TUAA indicated that they expect an increasing number of applications from groups with political, rather than social, leanings. As we're on the forefront of this trend, and it's something that they're going to have to navigate, we may be able to influence the way this membership is conceptualized and regulated...

+ The Liz Incident - There haven't been any official rule changes as a result of the Liz incident, but the leadership of TUAA has fully turned over, and staff members of TUAA "personally believe things wouldn't happen that way again". TUAA did express concern that there was a lot of anger within TPAN over this issue and that it's something we'd have to address.

+ To further the discussion, TUAA has agreed to begin work on determining any official rules we would have to adhere to as members, and to be available to meet with us or otherwise contribute to our conversation around the topic. We've agreed to continue our internal discussion about our interest in joining.

Um, I think that's it. I want to add that I think there are real benefits to our joining TUAA, including an opportunity to fund our activities through TUAA and not out of individual members' pockets, as well as the considerable outreach advantages associated with (especially older) progressive alumni being able to find us easily on the Tufts website... I also think that 501(c)3 status would give us legitimacy and allow us to collect donations outside of our inner circle, possibly from people who actually do itemize their taxes :) I do definitely think that we need to play a role in shaping our relationship with the Association so that we feel comfortable that we will be able to maintain our identity and pursue our organizational goals and that we need to decide if what happened to Liz is something that we need to honor by not joining, or maybe somehow acknowledge as we negotiate our relationship with TUAA. Either way, I think we need to more clearly outline our proposed relationship with TUAA before we can make an informed decision...

Mara