The Minnesota Corporation Board continues to operate with the generous efforts of several dedicated Minnesota alumni. At present, the Board's main focus is to oversee the undergraduate chapter, provide guidance and advice to Chapter officers, and to handle issues relating to the physical facilities. The new undergraduate officers have been working hard and succeeding in getting the Chapter into top form. In turn, the alumni have worked hard to get all of the proper forms and paperwork filled out to maintain its tax-exempt organizational status. In the meantime, alumni have also been working hard to lay the groundwork for some big upcoming events. On April 17th, the 3rd Annual Rick Bennett Memorial Poker Tournament will be held at the Chapter House. This great event has raised lots of money through poker proceeds to fund scholarships for our best and brightest students. There are more details about the event in this newsletter. The poker tournament will also act as the official kickoff of the housing campaign, which will be explained in greater detail in the Housing Committee report.
As the months and years roll by, it is always important to bring alumni back into the mix. Feel free to stop by to attend one of the quarterly chapter meetings or offer to volunteer a little of your time to DU in other ways. Most likely there were alumni around to help out in some small way when you were a student. Hopefully you can provide a little of your time for the current DU's as they explore the college world. Feel free to contact me with questions or to inquire about volunteering opportunities.
Next Corp Meeting April 17th 5:00 Chapter House. Please come join us and then attend Poker Night.
Housing Committee Update
The Housing Committee is a subset of the alumni Corporation Board. The current purpose of the Housing Committee is to help the Minnesota Chapter purchase and live in its own home once again. For the past eighteen years, the Minnesota Chapter has leased facilities from various landlords and has had to bounce around from building to building, which means that we've never truly had a home. Our goal is to end that situation. Once completed, the Housing Committee will transform into the facilities management arm of the Corporation Board. Over the past several years, the Housing Committee has met on a monthly basis in order to move towards the goal of home ownership. To do so, we've focused on four main areas: 1) Alumni, 2) Housing; 3) Finances; and 4) Fundraising.
1) Alumni - We recognized a need to reestablish relations with Minnesota alumni. We started by reaching out to those alumni who had not been in contact with the Minnesota Chapter in recent years. Next, we started holding monthly alumni gatherings and increasing the communication with alumni via newsletters and phone calls. Most recently, the committee completed a massive update of our contact lists to make sure that we can reach as many of you as possible. Alumni are the backbone of any strong chapter and typically have a strong hand in both the procurement, ownership, and stewardship of chapter facilities.
2) Housing - The committee began exploring both the needs of the Chapter and those of modern students. We felt that the current house fits most of our critical needs and has the ability to meet them all once owned. To confirm this notion, the committee hired a commercial appraiser to study the house and deliver a report along with a purchase estimate. The committee then took an inventory of all upcoming maintenance needs and developed a long-range schedule of anticipated replacement expenses. There are certain upgrades such as life safety and electrical that can be made to bring the house into conformity with students' and the chapter's needs. Of course, no repair or upgrade can be done without money so the next step was to explore finances.
3) Finances - The committee has worked diligently to understand the income and expenses of the chapter and to develop a financial proforma that considers long term operating expenses. The great news is that owning the chapter house will provide DU with enough money to easily afford a mortgage and to put away ample dollars for future repairs and improvements. The committee has also worked with several local banks to understand the lending requirements for a chapter house purchase. Even though there is more than enough cash flow to support the purchase, the biggest hurdle is to deliver a down payment. That brings us to...
4) Fundraising - From the beginning, discussions with local lending
institutions have led us to believe that a 20% down payment is needed to purchase a chapter house.
Of course, the recent economic downturn has tightened the lending markets and
raised the possibility of needing a larger down payment, but our ongoing
relationship with potential banks and a stabilizing economy should help keep
that requirement around the 20% mark. If so, then the alumni need to have
approximately $110,000 for the down payment. Over the years, undergraduate
members (including myself) have been contributing their hard-earned money
towards a housing fund. There is more than $20,000 in that account that will be
combined with alumni donations to purchase the house. In addition, we already
have several alumni who have pledged to donate a good portion of the remaining
down payment. Our fundraising campaign will start at the Rick Bennett Memorial
Poker Tournament when we mail off letters to each and every one of you, asking
for you to consider contributing to the effort. We would like each alumnus to
help bridge the gap to our down payment goal. It will take both large and small
donations to reach that goal and we sincerely hope that you can help in some
capacity. Between now and the kickoff of the campaign when you receive the
fundraising letter, please take a moment to think about how you may be able to
contribute to the fundraising effort. Consider an amount that you can easily
contribute (be it $50 or $5,000) and then see if you can find the courage to
donate a little more. Every dollar will help ensure a legacy for DU in
Minnesota. This is a legacy that started in 1834, was brought to the University
of Minnesota in 1890, and has been continued by each one of us ever since. We
look forward to talking with each one of you over the next several months.
-Andy Kahn
