CDAA Welcomes Two New Officers

The CDAA Board of Directors met in Charlottesville on Sept. 28, 2002, and once again I was impressed with how much we have accomplished in a short period of time. I am pleased to bring you this update on board affairs:

New Executive Committee Members
Let me begin by welcoming our two newest members of the CDAA Executive Committee. Lisa Guernsey Krupicka, (‘93) has filled the vice president position, and Candice Shepherd (‘97) has become our treasurer. Both are long-standing CDAA board members. Lisa most recently served as programming director. Her primary focus will continue to be on scholarships (she already sits on this committee), as well as assisting with both the CD workshop programming and the alumni networking efforts of the CDAA.

Candice will have her hands full with normal treasurer responsibilities, including managing the newly instituted budgeting process and working with Alumni Hall to ensure proper accounting of our funds. We are very excited to have them join the Executive Committee, and we thank their predecessors, Greg Trevor (‘86) and Chad Hall (‘96) for their hard work and commitment to the CDAA.

New Initiative: History of the CD
It has been our intent for some time that the CDAA should create a history of The Cavalier Daily to preserve the institutional memory of one of the oldest student organizations on Grounds. Board members Bob Cullen (‘70) and Fred Heblich (‘71) have volunteered to lead this effort, starting with a survey aimed at compiling the recollections of past staff members and publishing them, first on the CDAA Web site (See story, Page 1). Bob and Fred are looking for essays that discuss alumni perspective on all years of the newspaper’s publication, specifically touching on nine questions developed to ensure consistency and thoroughness of content. Essays can be as long as you wish—we look forward to hearing from you!

New Initiative: Networking Committee
We are very pleased to announce the formation of the CDAA Networking Committee, led by Lauren Shepherd (‘00). This committee is currently updating our alumni networking database to better assist CD staff members and alumni seeking an internship or future career change. The committee has developed a quick career survey, which I hope you received along with our fund-raising letter in December. We ask that you take just five minutes to complete the survey and return it to us so this group can improve our networking resources for everyone! Should you misplace your survey, you can access it at www.cdalumni.org.

Update: Strategic Plan
The CDAA Strategic Planning Committee’s plan was approved by the full board in the fall. In brief, the CDAA’s goals for the next five years include the four items listed below. Specific tasks supporting these goals are detailed in the document, which will be posted to our website. Feedback is welcome!

• Improve CDAA work efficiencies: We seek to accomplish more in less time by streamlining processes, eliminating non-value-added activities, and focusing efforts on key initiatives and committee projects.

• Strengthen relationships with the CD staff: The success of the CDAA in any given year is in direct proportion to our relationship with the CD, and there are a number of efforts we can make to improve this rapport.

• Recruit new volunteers: We seek additional support at both the committee and the board level to involve more people, accomplish more tasks, and minimize burnout of our dedicated members.

• Improve current committee efforts: Communications, scholarships, programming, events and fund-raising are all at the core of what we do, and while these committees have had huge successes in recent years, we do not plan to rest on our laurels. There is always more to be done, and we have developed a set of tasks to accomplish new goals in each area.

Update: Digitization
Another recent ongoing project has been the development of user requirements for our CD Bound Volume Digitization Project. We are working in conjunction with the University Library System to preserve all of the editions of College Topics (The CD’s predecessor, not this newsletter!) and The Cavalier Daily in a searchable electronic format before the paper copies disintegrate.

In the spring of 2002, our contacts at Alderman Library requested that we detail our needs for such an archive. This document, along with input from other users, will ultimately form the basis for Alderman’s vendor selection. Spearheaded by Scott Ramsey (‘92), a committee drafted the requirements, which the full board approved at the fall meeting. This document was submitted to the University Library System in December and is available at www.cdalumni.org.

As you can see, we’ve been pretty busy the last six months, and 2003 looks to be more of the same! As you can imagine, these efforts take time as well as money to be successful. I hope that you received our annual fund-raising letter in December and that you will be able to make a contribution this year. Your donation supports our general fund, which we use for everything from CD workshop programming, hosting alumni events and publishing this College Topics newsletter, to the day-to-day operating expenses of the CDAA. Donations can be sent to:
CDAA, P.O. Box 4731, Charlottesville, VA 22905. Thank you for your support.

Questions, concerns, want to know how to get more involved with the CDAA? Email me at dianedkrehmeyer@yahoo.com—I hope to hear from you!