The 2020 annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Harvard University Club was held on Tuesday, July 14.  Because of the Covid situation at the time, the meeting was conducted via Zoom teleconference.  President JK Costello called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm; members in attendance were:

Tom Beresford Wayne Eads John Griffin Stacey Lyne
Paul Chessin Ed Field Janette Heung William Mann
JK Costello Curt Freed Sunhee Hodges Allyson Mendenhall
Christie DiNapoli Bruce Geller Bill Horton Christopher Miller
Robert Dodge Christina Gomez Charlotte Horton Fred Ris

 

Members of the Club's Steering Committee were recognized:  Paul Chessin, Christie DiNapoli, John Griffin, Janette Heung, Sunhee Hodges, Bill Horton, Charlotte Horton, Stacey Lyne, Chris Miller, and Fred Ris; Flip Koch was unable to join the meeting.

 

Brief accounts of the Club's activities since the 2019 annual meeting were discussed:

 

  • JK Costello gave an overview of the major activities and events held by the Club.  These included a hike to the top of Mount Harvard on the 150th anniversary of its first recorded ascent, a group visit to a Colorado Rockies game, a beer-tasting event, two welcome-to-your-city events, trivia night events, a rural firehouse visit, the annual Harvard-Yale game gathering, a guided visit to the Clyfford Still Museum, our usual holiday party, three global networking nights, a group visit and backstage tour to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and five community service events at a downtown  soup kitchen.  All this was prior to the Covid lockdown.  After that, we conducted three interactive talks via Zoom.

 

  • Charlotte Horton and Stacey Lyne gave the highlights of the Schools Committee's work in the Class of 2024 interviewing season.  Colorado set yet another record for the third straight year with 459 applicants.  Of these, seven were admitted in Early Action, eight more were admitted in Regular Action, and one was admitted from the waitlist for the Class of 2025.  Decisions to defer were required by July 24.  [In the end, five students decided to defer their enrollment by one year.]

 

  • Club treasurer Fred Ris presented an overview of the Club's prior fiscal year (July 2019 - June 2020).  Subject to potential outstanding liabilities, our profit was about $600 based on income of $12,500.

Because the University's election of Overseers and members of the Harvard Alumni Association's Board of Directors was ongoing at the time of the Club's annual meeting (not a normal occurrence), SC member Bill Horton provided an explanation of how these two boards fit into the University's governance structure.

 

There were two Trustee positions to be filled.  The terms of office of Christina Gomez and Fred Ris were expiring; Christina had resigned upon appointment to the Colorado Court of Appeals in February, and Fred was ready to retire from being a Trustee (since 2006).  The Steering Committee made two nominations for the open three-year terms:  Christie DiNapoli and Bill Horton.  They introduced themselves; there were no additional nominations; and a motion was made, seconded, and carried to declare each of them elected by acclamation.  This makes the Trustee lineup for 2020-21:

John Griffin 2021 JK Costello 2022 Christie DiNapoli 2023
Sunhee Hodges 2021 Flip Koch 2022 Bill Horton 2023

 

The group was then divided into two pieces to conduct 15-minute discussions of how the Club can better serve its constituency, reconvened to share thoughts, and the meeting was then adjourned at 7:49 pm.

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At a meeting of the Trustees on August 4, 2020, the following officers were appointed:

President Bill Horton
President-elect [no candidate proposed]
Secretary Stacey Lyne
Treasurer Fred Ris

 

A nominating committee was established, to be chaired by Sunhee Hodges, to consider the vacant president-elect position as well as other key leadership positions in the Club.

 

The Trustees reaffirmed that a Conflict of Interest statement would be required for the coming year of all Trustees, Steering Committee Members, and other Club committees.