{"id":7961,"date":"2014-12-18T12:11:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T17:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=7961"},"modified":"2015-06-08T14:41:24","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T14:41:24","slug":"evolving-serving-and-having-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/evolving-serving-and-having-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolving, Serving and Having Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Owen\u2019s website says it, the approximately 40 members of the Alumni Board<\/a> \u201cserve the community through the promotion of and support for the school\u2019s strategic priorities and initiatives.\u201d Ask Erika King, MBA\u201999, the board\u2019s new chair, and she\u2019ll tell you that description leaves out an essential detail: \u201cIt\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Alumni<\/a>
During alumni board meetings, members divide into smaller groups and provide insight on matters concerning the school. Nancy Lea Hyer, associate dean for academic programs, facilitates one such session last fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For King, who has been involved with the board since 2011, some of the enjoyment in serving comes from getting to know other alumni and comparing their experiences. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to learn what Owen was like before I got there (it started in an old funeral home, after all), and to hear from people who came after me,\u201d King says.<\/p>\n

But even more, as the board\u2019s role has evolved, serving is not just a way to stay connected but a way to continue to shape the school. Board members, like other alumni, help recruit students, share expertise with current classes, and assist in internship and job placements. In what is a very instrumental role, the board helps shape the school\u2019s strategic direction, Johnson says.<\/p>\n

The board meets on campus twice a year. At those sessions, Alumni Board members break up into small groups of four or five and, with the help of a facilitator, apply their expertise to questions that bear on Owen\u2019s planning for the future. For example, King says, \u201cwe might talk about the future of campus-oriented education. Should Vanderbilt continue having MBAs in residence? Should we grow our health care programs? Should we have a program in technology?<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are things that the dean is generally pondering,\u201d she says. \u201cWe get to bring our collective experience to bear on his thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advisory role for the board, King notes, is relatively new. \u201cFor the person who simply wants to check board experience on their r\u00e9sum\u00e9, this is not the board for them. It\u2019s work. But we get to be consultants to our alma mater. How can that not be fun?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Owen\u2019s website says it, the approximately 40 members of the Alumni Board \u201cserve the community through the promotion of and support for the school\u2019s strategic priorities and initiatives.\u201d Ask Erika King, MBA\u201999, the board\u2019s new chair, and she\u2019ll tell you that description leaves out an essential detail: \u201cIt\u2019s fun.\u201d For King, who has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":368,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,66,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mini-feature","category-departments","category-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/368"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8346,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7961\/revisions\/8346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}