By Charles Lowrey ’79
Over my last six months at the helm of Ivy, I have come to realize that the Ivy Club is a place of continual movement. Just as a new section of members is getting settled, another is graduating. New friendships are formed, while others disappear upon graduation of the senior class. As the Board of Governors tries to decide how we can best support this fluid motion, as well as some of the more mundane workings of the Club, we’ve decided to create a number of new Board committees to focus on certain important issues.
Our bylaws and constitution need to be revised and updated. Governors George Frelinghuysen ’73, John MacMurray ’61, Corbin Miller ’71, and Alison Bridges ’96 have volunteered for the Governance Committee. They are reviewing the documents to assure that they reflect a sustainable and healthy outline for Club governance.
A House Committee consisting of Regan Kerney ’68, Caroline Shifke ’12, and Corbin Miller ’71 has also been constituted to support the undergraduates with the new multi-club Bicker process and the daily guidelines for Club behavior, as defined in the House Rules. These three Governors have been meeting with the student officers to understand both undergraduate members’ needs and necessary Club requirements. This committee will closely coordinate with the Governance Committee to ensure proper alignment of the different documents.
As you might imagine, the needs for renovation and improvement of our Clubhouse are constant and continual, notwithstanding the work that was completed during the building of the Griffin Wing. A Building Committee including Ivy member architects George Knight ’89 and Ryan Salvatore ’02, along with Corbin Miller ’71, is working with the selected architectural firm to develop a prioritized list of maintenance repairs and upgrades for the building.
Finally, we have also reconstituted a Nominating Committee to consider new members for the Board of Governors. With many of our Board members having tenures of multiple decades, we need to combine both the experience of these long-standing members with the integration of new members. Marco Tablada ’93, Dominic Moross ’90, and John Zacharias ’11 have volunteered to undertake the critical actions of reviewing the Board structure, Board tenure, and the nominating process.
We are reminded of the importance of the institutional memory represented by the Board of Governors, as we discussed the potential shift back to a multi-club Bicker process. As graduate members, we can help serve the undergraduate officers and membership, by reminding them of the challenges and successes encountered in the past. A hopeful bi-product of these four committees is the greater involvement of a committed and talented Board of Governors, which will produce a strengthened bond with undergraduate members and a stronger and even more vibrant Ivy Club.