Mit club of great britain

MIT CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN
Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, 11 September 2007 at 6.30 pm
Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6DE
Attendees:
Clive Norris
Linda E. Morecroft
Christopher Voisey
Juliet E. Lord-Haughton
Ben Maron
Henry M. Goldstein
Marek Banasiak
Vicky Athanasiou
Valerie Wong
Philip Van Overberghe
Apologies for absence from:
Michael Colao
Scott Warner
Michael A. Talalay
Indy Neogy
Andrew Rhomberg
Paul Tanner
Konstantina Drakouli
George Berkowski
Rodrigo Madanes
Roderick M Logan
Abdeldjalil Chaib
Fehmi Sami
Marc Bartel
Babu Bangaru
Simon Stokes
Eileen Tanghal
Riccardo Merello
Carol Mancke
Ien Cheng
Leon H. Liebman
___________________________________________________________________________
Welcome
1. Meeting Opened
Linda Morecroft opened the meeting, and thanked those present for agreeing to move the meeting from the previous week.
2. Minutes of the meetings on 17 May, 2007
Juliet proposed, and Clive seconded a resolution that the minutes of the meeting be accepted with one correction - the addition to the list of board members and volunteers of Scott Warner.
The minutes of the meeting of the 17 May, as amended, were unanimously accepted.
The revised list is attached
3. Board Members' Updates
Treasurer
Marek reported that the accounts are in a good state, and that no further spurious debits have occurred. He agreed to, and did, email the secretary with the precise balances:
current account - £4,154.62
saver account - £26,621.00
Membership
Juliet reported that, after considerable work, she has reconciled cheques received from MIT with membership payments reported by SmarTrans. Linda thanked her for her work in doing this.
Juliet proposed, and Clive seconded a resolution to revise the dollar-denominated membership fees in view of the current dollar-sterling exchange rates to:
regular membership $45.00
sustaining membership $110.00
The resolution was unanimously agreed. Juliet agreed to modify the SmarTrans pages, and Henry the webpages to reflect this change.
Juliet reported that the club had 5 new members since July, 1 membership renewal, and 49 standing orders. A membership drive will be implemented in September.
It was also agreed that personal emails will be sent in October / November to encourage 'lapsed' paying members to subscribe.
Linda noted that often alumni who were leaving the UK would email her to that effect, and that she would reply to them, informing them how to change their Infinite Connection details. She agreed to copy Juliet on her replies so that Juliet could update her membership information more easily.
Programme
Speaker Series
Chris reported on his activities in trying to get information from MIT about visiting professors as possible speakers - in particular, those writing or publishing new books. He noted that many professors travel in connection with paying work, and that local alumni clubs are not 'on their agenda'.
Philip suggested that it might be worthwhile contacting heads of departments, in a 'top-down' approach, as well as trying to find relevant individual professors to contact.
Chris agreed to try to arrange to meet Florence and Philip to work our a strategy for targeting and contacting potential speakers.
Events
Vicky presented the results of a survey that she had organised. The aims of the survey were to: identify the areas of interest of members; get an idea about partipation intention; and determine price sensitivity for different event categories.
She was encouraged by the response to the survey questionnaire. She concluded that the club should:
Focus mainly on social events and speaker series and less on outings and volunteer activities;
Price event at £20-£50 for social activities (the higher prices for 'prestige' activities, such as Opera / Theatre) and £20 for other activities;
Hold at least one activity outside London.
Vicky said that she was hoping for one event per month.
Linda said that she was looking to arrange for another 'meet the MIT students at Cambridge' event.
Book Club
Clive reported that he planned to issue two newsletters in the next few months – one with book reviews and the other with Christmas gift book recommendations. They will appear on the Club's website.
Sloan Club
There was no report. Philip asked to be added to the list of Sloan Club volunteers as deputy to Marc Bartel.
Enterprise Forum
Linda reported that neither she nor Paul had received further input from MIT. No further action is planned at this time.
MIT - 10
Ben reported that the MIT-10 activity planning group had reached an impasse in finding venues that were central and offered acceptably-priced private facilities.
Members of the board advised that perhaps private space was not a key factor at this time.
Clive suggested, and after enthusiastic input from a number of those present, Valerie took on board the idea of a get-together at a different part of the London area each month. A number of area / pub / restaurant suggestions were given to Valerie.
Webpage
Nothing to report.
Counsel
Simon, with apologies for his absence, had informed Linda that there was nothing to report.
Educational Council
Having offered apologies for his absence, Fehmi emailed the following information for inclusion in the minutes.
College day details are:
Date: Saturday September 29, 2007
Venue: The New Connaught Rooms, 61-65. Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5DA
Linda noted that it would be good if recent graduates attended, as they are most familiar with MIT today.
Last year's statistics:
Referrals: 286 (initial interest universe)
Interviewed: 54
Finals: 86
Admitted: 6 (6.97% admittance rate)
Not Admitted: 79
Incomplete: 200
Also we have 21 educational counsellors registered.
Senior Advisory Group
No report was received
Newsletter
No report was received
5. Alumni Leadership Conference
Linda will be attending (most of) the meeting this year on 28/29 September.
Chris proposed, and Juliet seconded a resolution that Linda's travel costs be borne by the club. The resolution was unanimously agreed, with Linda abstaining.
Chris suggested that the club should sponsor two people to go to the ALC each year. This suggestion met with general approval, but was not put to the vote.
6. Any other business
Linda reminded the meeting of the MIT Externship Program and asked anyone who might wish to offer a place to contact the program organisers; details are on the website.
7. Date of the next board meeting
The next meeting will be held at the same place – Clive Norris' office, on Thursday 29 November 2007 - 6:30pm.
MIT Club of Great Britain
Board Member Positions and Volunteers
1st July 2007 - 30th June 2008
12th September 2007
President
Ms Linda E. Morecroft lem@alum.mit.edu
Treasurer
Marek Banasiak marek_banasiak@yahoo.com
Membership
Juliet E. Lord-Haughton jlohaughton@alum.mit.edu
Programs
Florence Eid feid@alum.mit.edu
Philip Van Overberghe
philip_vanoverberghe@alum.mit.edu
Christopher Voisey cvoisey@mit.edu
Vicky Athanasiou
vathanasiou.mba2007@london.edu
Babu Bangaru bangaru@alum.mit.edu
Abdeldjalil Chaib djalil@mit.edu
Konstantina Drakouli
Konstantina.Drakouli@ubs.com
kdrakoul@alum.mit.edu
Rahul Kamath rahul.kamath@sloan.mit.edu
Riccardo Merello riccardo.merello@arup.com
Eileen Tanghal tanghal@alum.mit.edu
Clive Norris clive_norris@alum.mit.edu
Indranath Neogy indy@alum.mit.edu
Webmaster and Secretary
Henry M. Goldstein henryg@alum.mit.edu
Sloan Club
Marc Bartel mbartel@alum.mit.edu
Philip Van Overberghe
philip_vanoverberghe@alum.mit.edu
Counsel
Simon Stokes Simon.Stokes@bllaw.co.uk
Educational Council
Fehmi Sami fehmi_sami@hotmail.com
Michael Colao mikali@alum.mit.edu
MIT10
Ien Cheng ien.cheng@ft.com
Rodrigo Madanes rodrigo@alum.mit.edu
Ben Maron maron@alum.mit.edu
Valerie Wong wong.val@gmail.com
Senior Advisory Group
Leon H. Liebman vcinvestor@msn.com
Clive Norris clive_norris@alum.mit.edu
MIT Enterprise Forum
George Berkowski gberko@gmail.com
Paul Tanner paul_tanner@alum.mit.edu
Newsletter
Paul Tanner paul_tanner@alum.mit.edu
Volunteers
Roderick M. Logan Rodlogan@btinternet.com
Carol Mancke cjmancke@hotmail.com
Andrew Rhomberg arhom@alum.mit.edu
Michael A.Talalay mike_talalay@alum.mit.edu
Scott Warner scottdwarner@yahoo.com
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