August 20, 2020 – Held via Zoom
Meeting started at 6:00pm
Margaret Matz opened the meeting and mentioned the two Retreats. Margaret mentioned that the Annual Fund in 2019 surpassed previous years’ numbers. The Concert for Cooper was also a successful fundraiser, which will count towards the 2020 fiscal year.
Voting on Retreat I Meeting Minutes was postponed until a quorum was present.
Anna Brook displayed list of proposed Committee Chairs. Questions were raised whether the Presidential, Secretarial, Treasury, and VP Activities Committees were standing Committees or ad hoc Committees.
A question was raised regarding the proposed Chair of the Tellers Committee because the proposed chair is no longer a Council member.
There was some discussion regarding alternates becoming Council members and serving as Committee Chairs. Available positions are to be filled by alternates who are from the same year as the Council member who is no longer on Council. The Nominating Committee will look into the process to confirm.
Margaret Matz presented the proposed Chairs for the Committees and the following Chairs were approved by vote.
| Committee | Chair |
| Annual Fund | Rob Marano |
| Awards | Laura Spinner |
| Elections | Shankar Venkataraman |
| Events | Nanwei Chen |
| Faculty/Student Liaison | Donato Giacalone (already elected) |
| Gano Dunn Award | Mark Vasquez |
| John Q. Hejduk Award | Lily Zand |
There was also discussion regarding chairs for the following committees: Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award, Communications, Constitution, Membership, and Peter Cooper Public Service Award. Resolution of these and other committees will be taken up at another meeting.
Around 7:20pm, the meeting turned to two ad hoc committees: Integrative and Venice Biennale/Study Abroad
Margaret Matz explained the role of the Integrative Committee. It is to promote a unified response from the CUAA and all the committees, to avoid a silo-ed effect. The discussion noted that a Chair of one Committee can call a different Committee Chair and figure things out and does not need an extra layer of bureaucracy. A consensus was reached to roll the Integrative committee activities into the Membership committee.
Venice Biennale has been rescheduled to Summer 2021, Architecture Dean, professors, and students are participating in the event. There is room for alumni to participate. There was uncertainty whether the Deans from the other schools would participate. More information was requested.
The end result would be an exhibit in an event space in Venice for alumni to be able to create an exhibit (the Dean and students already have another space).
It was requested that the Meeting Minutes reflect the representation (by Margaret Matz) that there would be no CUAA fundraising or cost to CUAA associated with the Venice Biennale Committee.
Mary Lynch asked if there could be expenses, such as costs of putting together the event space, travel for personnel, and setting up the exhibit, and whether the group would do fundraising to cover those expenses.
It was noted that the Venice Biennale activity fits well within the Faculty/Student Liaison role, and could be addressed as part of that Committee.
Ron Vogel noted that there is no line item in the CUAA’s agreed-to budget with the school to address Venice Biennale.
| Ad hoc Committee | Vote Results for existence? |
| Integrative | No vote, rolled into Membership |
| Venice Biennale / Study Abroad | Vote postponed until next meeting |
Margaret Matz requested that the 2019 Exec Comm Minutes to be made public before Council meeting.
Conflict of Interest policy was addressed. All Council members will be asked to sign.
It was noted that there was not good follow-through to collect COI forms from Council members the previous year. A question came up whether Alumni Trustee documents are inconsistent with CUAA COI. The answer was that there is not, the COI is for improper financial dealings with the CUAA.
The COI will be distributed before the Sept. 17 Council meeting and Anna Brook will follow up with everyone to collect signed copies.
There was a brief discussion of Freshman Orientation events: Janet Gardner’s movie screening. Walking tour of Cooper Union area. There were no specific requests from Cooper Union to CUAA for Orientation.
There were edits suggested to the Meeting Minutes from Retreat I (July 23, 2020). A vote was not held.
Other issues: address dates for nominations and future meetings.
Discussion regarding the September 17 Council meeting. Consideration of who may be speakers for the meeting. Having a speaker has historically led to better Council attendance.
Meeting terminated at 8:25 pm after apparent technical difficulties with Zoom.