Clubs

Congratulations go to the following clubs for winning Club of the Year honors: metro club, New York City; large club, Fairfield County; medium club, Piedmont; small club, Central Ohio; affiliated club: D-GALA.

This year's Club and Affiliated Groups Officers Weekend (CAGOW) occurred during the auspicious time of Winter Carnival. How appropriate that the theme was "Never Never Land," as many of us who attended felt we had never left the campus. The ice sculpture on the Green was an enormous pirate ship that could be boarded by a large ice platform and wooden gangplank. From there one had a glorious view of the surrounding buildings and Main Street of Hanover. If you are a club officer and weren't there, you should have been. It was a sight to behold!

CAGOW is a must for new regional officers, indeed any officer who has not yet been. Each weekend has a theme related to issues facing alumni groups around the world and offers renowned speakers on such topics as leadership, participation and community. In addition to formal presentations by guest speakers, new officers have the opportunity to hear from experienced officers of leading clubs in breakout sessions (this year's sessions included building a Web site, grooming the leaders of tomorrow, working collaboratively with other alumni groups, planning a faculty visit, etc.). Plus, there is lots of time built into the weekend to allow for informal discussions and brainstorming with other alumni leaders, whether over drinks at the Top of the Hop, over dinner at Molly's or over the cheers of the men's hockey game. "CAGOW is an opportunity that should not be missed, especially by new officers!" states Julie Cillo '92, president of the Dartmouth Club of Central Virginia and newly elected vice president of the executive committee for the Colleges Club Officers Association.

This year's theme was leadership and there were plenty of activities and sessions dedicated to the subject. There was a panel of exemplary club leaders discussing "How We're Making it Work Well" and a plenary session on "Making the Most of the Resources Available from the Department of Alumni Relations." The keynote came from Tuck professor Sydney Finkelstein, author of Why Smart Executives Fail. In his talk he cited several examples of how executives had failed to adapt to a changing marketplace even though they had all the information in front of them. Most of them ignored the data because of emotional, non-rational reactions (such as the Red Sox ignoring the success of Jackie Robinson in 1947 by not hiring another black baseball player until Elijia Pumpsie Green in 1959). Finkelstein categorizes these failures as due to one of the following: executive mindset, organizational breakdown, delusions of a dream company or leadership pathologies.

"The goal of our themed programming is to make sure that CAGOW is a meaningful experience for both first-time attendees and returning club officers. If you are a leader in your club (or want to be!), CAGOW is a mustattend event," said executive committee past president Anton Anderson '89.

President Wright spoke passionately about the importance of the regional club system in connecting alumni all over the world to the College. He enlightened us with several recent accolades of the College. Booze Allen Hamilton conducted a study of the strongest brands across all sections of society that had stood the test of time. Among the likes of the Rolling Stones and Salvation Army, only Dartmouth and Oxford were named from among educational institutions. Likewise Standard & Poors awarded Dartmouth a AAA rating, saying, "Dartmouth reflects impressive undergraduate and graduate demand profiles, excellent student quality [and] historically strong financial results." We have much to be proud of.

Take a look at the Web sites of clubs across the world: www.dartmouth.org/about/clubs/. If you have any comments about or news for Club Notes, please contact me.

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