Each year, professionals in development and alumni relations at Johns Hopkins University and Medicine participate in a week-long conference focused on enhancing Hopkins knowledge, driving professional development, and offering personal enrichment opportunities. During this year’s conference, which took place in early June, three leadership volunteers joined Hopkins staff to share their perspectives on what makes service on an advisory board or council a meaningful and engaging experience:
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Judy Keen, A&S ’98 (MS), BSPH ’02 (PhD), Med ’04 (PGF) Secretary, Johns Hopkins Alumni Council Executive Committee |
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Roger Leventer
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Allison Reardon, Carey ’07 (MBA) Member, Carey Business School’s Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board Chair, Nominating Committee |
Development and Alumni Relations is tremendously grateful to each of them for taking the time to talk with staff and is pleased to share some of their insights from the conversation.
Allison: The Carey Business School’s Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board is a working board, and we spend a lot of time on student engagement. It’s so nice to be with people who are early in their career, learning about what made them want to go to business school and what they want to do after graduation. It was this experience I had expected. But what I didn’t necessarily expect was how nice it is to hear from the other board members about how they think about, share, and assess things, since we have about 30 people on our board who are from different industries and professions.
Roger: I fit into the grateful patient model of medical philanthropy, as my wife and two children were patients at Johns Hopkins Medicine. There are two things that I find particularly compelling. The first is listening and learning from experts in their fields about topics that are of great interest to me. And the second is being able to provide novel perspective and feedback to leadership on important topics. I think advisory board members are able to provide fresh perspective and ask questions only outsiders can ask. What makes me excited to go to the meetings is what I can learn and what I can offer back.
Judy: The past couple years, the Johns Hopkins Alumni Council Executive Committee has been working on changing the structure [of the alumni council, including] the committee structure and taking a hard look at what we are doing. What are our goals and where are we headed? What things do we need to focus on? How do we engage alumni better? How do we incorporate the opinions of all nine schools? That’s very different than just looking from one school’s perspective. We need to think about how we integrate those goals into the activities that we’re doing.
Allison: We have several committees, including one that focuses on philanthropy development activities. We also have an engagement committee, which historically has worked with students but moving forward will also focus more on engaging with alumni. I lead our nominations committee, and one of our new priorities is moving from being just a nominations committee to more of a board-experience committee. So we’ll be looking at everything from the nominating process, the onboarding process, your life over your term, and what happens when people roll off and how to continue to engage them.
Roger: I think it’s very important that whenever you have an advisory council meeting, you have goals of what you want to accomplish. It’s important for the organizer, but it’s also very important for the group. The group wants to feel like they are contributing, they’re important, and they’re getting something done. It’s also important that you can show results. Otherwise, what’s the point of having the meeting? What are you accomplishing? And I think you always want to accomplish something substantial, both for the organization and also for the advisors.
Additionally, you want speakers who are dynamic and can connect with laypeople, especially in medicine. To me, someone who can really convey their enthusiasm and the passion is the secret sauce! That’s what I find compelling.
Judy: Hybrid meetings can be difficult, especially for the people who are not in the room. What is really important is how you integrate the remote people so they feel like they are part of the meeting and not forgotten, which is easy to do. If you are in a big conference room, often the cameras are on one side and everybody else is on the other side as far away from the camera as possible. In one recent meeting, we got up and moved to all sit around the camera so the remote participants felt part of an inclusive circle. While that’s not always possible, the important thing is thinking about the logistics to make sure you don’t lose the people who can’t be in the room with you. Joining remotely is a great opportunity for people who can’t be there in person to still be able to participate, but it’s also important not to treat them like they’re secondary because they’re on screen and not in the room.
If you have any questions or would like more details on how to get involved, visit our webpage or email us at [email protected].