A Year In Review… President’s Message

My dear Prytaneans! It has been my honor and privilege to have served with our board as your President for the past year and a half and I’d like to take this opportunity to update you on some of our accomplishments. My 2-year term goals have been tri-fold: to strengthen our connection with each other; to the University; and to elevate awareness of and membership in Prytanean to UCLA Alumnae, Alumni and graduating students.

Strengthening our connection with each other and our internal communication:

1. A Summer Social in 2017 kicked it off. We partied-hardy at our “Sunset Summer Soiree” hosted at the Malibu home of Roz and Allan Swartz to sip Allan’s homemade margaritas, munch on yummy Mexican food and watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.
2. Increased our presence on social media. Prytanean member, Suzy Howell, now coordinates our Facebook page. The Alumni Association “tweets” and posts about our events.
3. A strong effort has been made to disseminate Alumni Association communication to our members. We’ve added (by permission) our members to targeted and “appropriate” Alumni Association emails and forwarded Alumni Association emails to members through our own UCLA Prytanean Gmail account.
4. We went “Green,” to comply with UCLA’s Sustainability Policy. Rosters, invitations and announcements are now in electronic format.

Engagement within the Alumni Association:

1. Prior to taking office, I met with Cia Ford, Senior Director, Professional Schools and Affinity Programs, her staff & colleagues (also members of Prytanean.) We brainstormed ways to strengthen Prytanean and our support of one another—thank you Cia for all of your support!
2. “Kicked off” our very first board meeting at the James West Alumni Center. We were honored to have Julie Sina, Associate Vice Chancellor, Alumni Affairs | CFO, UCLA Foundation & UCLA Investment Company speak to us about her role and strategic plan. Cia Ford and Jairo Leon (at that time, our newest Alumni Association liaison) attended and also shared their goals.
3. Alumni Scholarship and Development Department Directors discussed their respective departments and roles at our October 2017 General Meeting.
4. Alumni Scholarship Steering Committee volunteer-position opened Summer 2018. Ellen McFadden (our Prytanean VP Membership) applied and was accepted. (Yay! and congratulations!)
5. Prytanean nominated our member Chris MacLaughlin, for a position on the UCLA Alumni Association Board of Directors. She has already sailed through various steps to becoming a board member and has an interview with the board next month. (We’re pulling for you Chris!)

Elevating awareness of Prytanean to UCLA Alumnae, Alumni and graduating students to expand our membership:

1. Reached out to other Affinity Group leaders to collaborate, share “best-practices” and to bridge the gap between Prytaneans and other UCLA Women’s groups. Invited other Affinity Group leaders to our Sunset Summer Soiree. Met with Gold Shield Alumnae President, Jane Permaul. “Conversation started” through outreach to other UCLA Alumni groups such as the UCLA Latino Alumni Association to plan a joint-mixer Spring 2019.
2. Outreached to student organizations including UCLA Panhellenic Council.
3. Hosted a “Meet & Greet” afternoon for students and Prytaneans at the James West Alumni Center.
4. Advertised Prytanean in the Daily Bruin along with our “Meet & Greet.”
5. Participated for the first time at the Alumni Association’s “Grad-Central,” wherein we had a table-top Prytanean display on graduation day for seniors and their families to come by, enjoy refreshments, be introduced to Prytanean and learn about membership.
6. Through the generosity of our members, we hosted potential new Prytanean members at our 2018 Annual Spring Benefit.
7. Prytaneans voted in new membership categories to attract new and recently graduated seniors
8. UCLA Prytanean now complies with University policy and is open to all genders. We celebrated our first male member (and former Shirley Lyon Memorial Scholar, under the mentorship of Prytanean.)
9. We are exploring the possibility of co-hosting with another Affinity Network, a “Bruin Send-Off” party in Summer 2019.
10. I served as a panelist at the 2018 UCLA Alumni Annual Leadership Conference for a panel- discussion entitled: Engaging Young Alumni in Your Network’s Future.
11. We formed a Membership Ad-Hoc Committee to explore more ways in which to attract new members through our VP Membership and our first meeting was held at Paula Schuman’s home immediately following the 2018 Bear Hugs event.

It is with deep gratitude that I thank our board and all of our members for their support along with a huge “shout out” to Kyrie Bass, our immediate past president, current treasurer and parliamentarian, for her guidance, wisdom and patience—If you didn’t realize how much she did for Prytanean as the “immediate past-president” within her 2-year term alone, as well as her previous 2011-2013 presidential term, let me tell you…it’s ENORMOUS and her commitment remains steadfast! Thank you Kyrie!

Warm Prytanean Regards,

Pamela Farber