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State of the Club Address
March 19, 2005
College Alumni Club. I would like to thank Jackie Cathey for organizing this 3rd Annual Retreat. She has
really raised by the bar by adding this “State of the Club Address” to the agenda. I’m going to borrow from
her the theme “Planning Strategically and Implementing Effectively” as I share with you “The State of the
Atlanta-Benedict Alumni Club” for the next few minutes.
To the hard working and dedicated members of the Executive Committee, who have supported and gone
above and beyond the call of duty to fulfill all of their obligations and duties and responsibilities individually
and collectively.
To our esteemed Past President, Lee Bennett, and member, RG Wright, on whose legacy we continue to
build.
To our capable and committed member, Jimmy Greene, who serves as National President of the Benedict
College Booster Club. WE are proud of your leadership of the Booster Club and the strides the Club has
made since your presidency.
To our distinguished members, Bobby Treadwell, Leo Chester, Jimmy Greene, and Harold Johnson, who
have been honored as inductees into the Athletic Hall of Fame; we applaud you for your achievements and
are proud of your accomplishments.
To all of you who are leaders in your own right: as teachers, retired teachers, entrepreneurs, school
administrators, Pastors and Church Ministers, public servants, doctors, soon to be doctors, and ITC
professionals – Did I leave anybody out? We are grateful for all you do for the Atlanta-Benedict Alumni
Club. You recognize that what you do may affect the life of a young person who will one day attend
Benedict and benefit from the education and experience that you have helped to shape as an active
alumnus.
To all of you my hardworking, innovative, energetic, dynamic, ambitious, creative, strong and vibrant
members of the Atlanta Alumni Club, Good Morning!!!
Wow!!! Fellow Tigers, There is a song by Dinah Washington called “What a Difference a Day Makes.”! Well,
what a difference four years make. Somewhere around January 2001, RG called me and asked if I would
help reactivate the Atlanta-Benedict Alumni Club. You know my first response was that I was too busy being
busy – graduate school, job, real estate agent, yada yada....But I had to stop talking about what I was too
busy doing and think about the fact that Atlanta did not have an active alumni club for Benedict Club.
Atlanta, the city with probably the 5th highest, if not lower, amount of graduates, did not have an active
alumni. So, I prayed about it and talked to a few friends, Lewis, Pauline, and others, and decided to take on
the challenge.
At that time, we had app. $100 in the bank and names of app. 50 alumni. We did have Constitution and By-
Laws, but no other organization to speak of.
That was four years ago:
$ Today, thanks to our “planning strategically and implementing effectively”, we have app. 200 names in
our database of alumni living in the Metropolitan Atlanta Area, and at one point or another 37 of these
alumni have been paid members.
$ Before our fiasco with the Treasurer, we had raised, collected, begged and borrowed to the tune of
over $8000 in our Treasury.
$ We have devised an effective communication strategy to make sure that our members stay informed,
utilizing the website, which was created by our own Michelle Mayes, I don’t know of any other Alumni Club
who has a website; CallingPost; Emails, Evites, information line, and occasional mailings. We even
occasionally make personal phone calls.
$ We have established consistency for the Club by purchasing the PO Box, meeting on a regular basis
at Carver Bible College, and conducting quarterly Executive Committee Meetings.
$ We have expanded the circle of our influence by being active members of the AIAC UNCF. Benedict is
well-represented by having two alumni who are officers of that Council. We have established relationships
with other local HBCU Alumni Clubs through our participation in the recent HBCU Alumni Mixer.
$ We have gotten the attention of our fellow alumni across the country by hosting a dance during
Homecoming, and hosting it successfully, I might add. After being in existence for only 1 year, we hosted
the Spring Planning Meeting, and made a profit. I think our National Alumni Association now understands
that we are about moving forward for the good of Benedict College and that they better try to keep up with
us.
$ We also have increased our presence by increasing our attendance at the BCNAA Spring Planning
Meetings and other meetings, running for office, and even managing to be elected as the President-Elect
of the BCNAA.
$ We have established an event, which we hope to become our SIGNATURE EVENT, that our visiting
alumni can look forward to every year–the Football Victory Brunch.
$ We are now the 4th highest in terms of membership among all 54 Clubs and have consistently been in
the top 10 for Club for the Annual Fund Giving Campaign. We have consistently increased our Annual Fund
Giving contributions over the past 4 years.
$ Thanks to Lee Bennett, we are always represented well at the local high school college fairs.
$ For the past year, our membership committee assembled an informative packet for our new members
to make sure that they are receive as much information as possible as they join. The committee also
created calling cards that members can share with alumni who have yet to join our fold.
$ We have designed (3) unique t-shirts to distinguish the illustrious Atlanta Club members from all other
alumni and help t build comradery.
$ We are now “planning strategically and implementing effectively” by conducting annual planning
retreats.
$ And, next month we will elect our next set of dynamic and powerful leaders who will transform this
Club to even greater heights.
We have accomplished a lot together, and we have a lot to be proud of. So, today as we “plan strategically
and implement effectively”, let’s continue to build upon the many things that we have achieved over the
past four years and honor our commitment to Benedict College. But we recognize that we have many
improvements to make:
As we “plan strategically and implement effectively”, we should strive to make Benedict College a
household name among colleges with similar size and structure. We should not have to explain where
Benedict is located, or explain that it is not Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
We should strive to ensure that Benedict College, in Columbia, SC, is known for a strong academic
program, which produces students that any employer would be pleased to hire or any graduate school
would be ecstatic to admit.
We should strive to ensure that the athletic program produces student athletes who can compete on any
professional team, or use their leadership abilities in any other career choice.
Overall, we should strive to ensure that we increase our rate of active alumni vs. the number of graduates
to at least 30% versus the current rate of 7.5%.
In Atlanta, we are slightly above average with 9.1% number of active members vs. the number of alumni
living in Atlanta.
We’re doing better in terms of Annual Fund Giving. Over 15% of our alumni give to the Annual Fund Giving.
So, even if we are not paying dues, we are sending money back to the College. But that 15% only equals to
approx. $550,000.00.
We should strive to increase the involvement of our young and younger alumni. Right now, we have an
average of 3 active members from the Class of 1987 - 2001.
And most importantly, we should strive to ensure that the environment on campus is enriching,
enlightening, and thought-provoking, so that students will be proud to say that they are graduates of
Benedict College, and will in turn be active alumni members.
As we witness closings, and loss of accreditations of many of our HBCUs, we know that Benedict College is
not exempt from this type of devastation. As alumni who are progressive-minded, we have to continue to
“plan strategically and implement effectively” so we can ensure that the same thing doesn’t happen to
Benedict College.
I thank you for coming today,
Keep a competitive edge. Stay motivated. Stay encouraged. Stay empowered. And stay focused.
CLOSING CHARGE
I thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend the retreat.
As alumni of Benedict College, we need to continue to be excellent, to continue to challenge mediocrity, to
continue to honor the College’s rich history, continue to speak out against injustices, and wrongdoings that
may prove fatal to the existence of the College, continue to be the leader in proactiveness and
effectiveness, and continue to uplift the name of the College.
I leave you with these words that I borrowed from the Delta Sigma Theta National President at our 47th
National Convention:
So, it doesn’t matter that people are unreasonable, and illogical; you’ve got to love them any way.
If you do good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. But do good any way.
If you’re successful, you will win false friends and true enemies, but succeed any way.
Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable, but be honest and frank any way.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. But do good any way.
The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest
ideas. But think big any way.
People favor the underdog, but follow only the top dog. Fight for the underdog any way.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight, but build any way.
“Be strong, we are not here to play, to dream, to drift, we have hard work to do and loads to lift. Shun not
the struggle, face it, it’s God gift, be strong.”
Benedict Alumni Be Strong.