I have been a lifetime member of the Penn State Alumni Association for well over 30 years. It’s a badge of honor I share with more than 173,000 others. And, our favorite mantra since 1995 is that we’re the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world. A pretty impressive statistic and one I’ve repeated many times to shine a positive light on Penn State.
Now, during its 154 years of existence, as it grew to become the largest in the world, the Alumni Association has had only 11 chief executives. Unfortunately, just last month Paul Clifford announced that after eight years as CEO of the Alumni Association, he was leaving to pursue other opportunities. Which opens up the door for just the 12th person ever to assume the leadership role of this great organization.
And, you may ask, who will be making this momentous decision of hiring the new CEO of the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world? Well, here’s where things get a little interesting.
According to the organization’s Third Amended And Restated Alumni Association Purpose And Bylaws, “The CEO shall be appointed by the Executive Board for such terms and under such conditions as the Executive Board may determine.”
Which seems fine, right? The “Executive Board” sounds pretty official. And, everything seems to be working well with the Alumni Association, doesn’t it?
For example, as Alumni Association members, we get our outstanding Penn Stater magazine in the mail. We use the Alumni Directory online to find our long-lost dorm friends. We get our discounts on various insurance products. We take advantage of opportunities to travel the world with other Penn Staters. We use Career Services to help with our work lives. We read the Football Newsletter in our email. As I said, things seem to be fine.
So, do what we’ve done in the past. Who better to make the appointment of a new CEO than the Executive Board of the Alumni Association?
Well, the benefits of being a member of the Alumni Association that I listed are, by-and-large, a function of the paid management and staff of the Alumni Association, not the members of the Alumni Council and their Executive Board.
What you should know is that there are two distinct parts to the Alumni Association. The first is the management and staff – which was led by Paul Clifford. They run the day-to-day operations and are responsible for the “management” of the Alumni Association and overseeing all the various alumni chapters, societies, groups, etc.
Then you have the volunteer Alumni Council and its Executive Board. They are what is commonly referred to as the “governance” of the Alumni Association. They set the overarching structures, functions and goals of the group so that it can achieve its mission in the most effective and transparent manner possible. Which would rightly include the selection and appointment of Association’s CEO.
This “governance vs. management” model is the way just about every nonprofit organization in the country that is large enough to have a paid staff operates. So, why might this be interesting? It seems, as I said, business as usual.
Well, it might be interesting because of the way the Alumni Council’s Executive Board comes to be.
The current bylaws of the Alumni Association do not mandate a dictatorship, but they do leave the door open for one. The president appoints the chairs of all the standing committees, and at least 12 members of the Executive Board (only two of which need to be elected members). Then, with the other officers, the president appoints seven new Alumni Council members every year, and alone or with the Executive Board has the power to create committees.
So, how does the president of the Alumni Council come to be in such a powerful position?
By being elected vice president. Then, after two years in that position, the vice president automatically becomes the president for two years.
So, how does someone get elected vice president then? Well, the president of Alumni Council appoints a Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is chaired by the current vice president. At the fall Alumni Council meeting in even numbered years, the Nominating Committee presents a single vice president nominee to the entire Alumni Council, who then vote on the vice president at the next meeting in the spring.
Granted, Alumni Council members do have the opportunity to make additional nominations immediately before the election at that spring meeting, but the “official” nominee has worn the imprimatur of the only “nominee” for months by that time and is usually elected.
To recap that, the current vice president chairs a Nominating Committee completely appointed by the current president, and nominates a single new vice president nominee who will be presented to Alumni Council as “the” nominee. Then the vice president automatically becomes the president, and the process starts over. Do you see how this might be interesting?
Then, once that vice president becomes the president, one of the first orders of business is creating the aforementioned Executive Board with the power to appoint the CEO.
So, who is on it?
Alumni Council’s Executive Board consists of the president, treasurer (who is appointed by the President), the immediate past president, vice president and at least 12 Council members appointed by the president, including all chairs of the standing committees – who were, of course, appointed by the president.
In other words, it’s possible the only people above not in the interconnected presidential circle are two of the appointed members, who need to have been elected members of Alumni Council. Keep in mind that the officers – president, vice president, treasurer, past president and secretary appoint seven new Alumni Council members each year – so those appointed Executive Board members could have been appointed to Alumni Council by the officers in the first place.
Beyond that the Executive Board consists of only four other voting members: the chair of the University Faculty Senate, a president of one of the four major student governments, someone who represents the campus alumni societies and someone who represents the college alumni societies. The CEO of the Alumni Association does serve as an ex-officio member but has no vote.
As I said at the beginning, perhaps you can see the possibility that it might be a little interesting that the Executive Board is who will be making this momentous decision of hiring the new CEO of the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I was an elected member of Alumni Council from 2017 – 2020. At that time Alumni Association members elected 10 new people to Council every year. I was one of 29 nominees on the ballot in May 2017. But, similarly to the current system, 10 additional members were appointed by the officers.
Thousands of Alumni Association members participated in that 2017 election, and in the many elections before and since. I believe they did so because they have a desire for an open and responsible Alumni Council that listens to its membership, and takes their governing duties seriously.
Which is the reason I’m calling attention to what I think is an interesting turn of events.
And, in the interest of not calling attention to something without offering possible solutions, here are some changes I think Alumni Council should make:
Hold elections every two years for every officer.
The president, vice president, secretary and treasurer should all be accountable to the entire Alumni Council, not potentially to whoever may have appointed them. Alumni Association members elect members to Alumni Council every year – those people should have the same ability to choose their leaders.
Eliminate the Nominating Committee.
Nominations for offices should be handled like any election. Have a call for nominations, and hold an election between those who are nominated.
Eliminate the Executive Board.
Endow the officers – who will have been elected by the entire Alumni Council – with the ability to transact those rare business dealings which require organizational approval and can’t wait for an entire Council decision. Alumni Council should then be apprised immediately of any usage of this power.
Eliminate all appointed Alumni Council members.
The potential appearance of impropriety that goes along with any “appointment” is, I believe, antithetical to what Penn State Alumni Association members want out of their organization: transparency and a continued focus on the mission of the organization. The mission to connect alumni to the university and to each other, to provide valued services to members and to support the university’s mission of teaching, research and service.
If the Alumni Council should decide to make those changes, I think the choice for a new CEO to lead the largest dues-paying alumni organization in the world will definitely be exciting, but a lot less interesting!
