Volume 25 · Number 3 · Spring 2008
CAAA Ad Hoc Centennial Committee Chair Patrick Blacklock ’95, M.A.M. ’97
Alumni
Celebrate the Centennial
CAAA hosts events celebrating 100 years of UC Davis.
UC Davis is turning 100 years old this fall, and plans are in full swing for a year’s worth of festivities. Alumni participation will be an important part of the celebration, so the Cal Aggie Alumni Association has formed a centennial planning committee to brainstorm ways to interest and involve alumni. The group is working in conjunction with the university’s centennial planning team.
Chairing the CAAA Ad Hoc Centennial Committee is Patrick Blacklock ’95, M.A.M. ’97, who in June will begin a two-year term as CAAA president. The group is looking for ways to involve alumni in each of the campus’s key centennial events and for ways to celebrate the centennial during CAAA’s regular activities, as well as considering options for new events during the 2007–08 centennial year.
The committee hopes not only to encourage high alumni participation during the year’s special activities but also to increase involvement in all of CAAA’s activities. “We want to find new ways to include alumni volunteers,” says Blacklock, “and carry this model for volunteerism forward past the centennial.”
Here’s a brief look at four alumni events coming up during the centennial year:
STATE FAIR
Aug. 15–Sept. 1
UC Davis will officially kick off its centennial celebrations with a series of exhibits at the 2008 California State Fair in Sacramento. The exhibits will showcase ways that the university has made an indelible mark on the world in such areas as agriculture, health care and the environment, to name just three.
Ken Nieland ’71, a member of the CAAA board and the CAAA Ad Hoc Centennial Committee, has been working with the university’s centennial team to determine where and how alumni volunteers will be needed. Nieland is encouraging alumni to organize State Fair volunteer efforts through alumni chapters and groups.
Several common threads will run through the various exhibits, including UC Davis history, teaching, research, evolving technologies and hands-on solutions to real-world problems. According to Nieland, alumni volunteers will play critical roles in the success of the exhibits by serving as guides to educate visitors about UC Davis and tie these threads together.
Roddy Resigns top CAAA Post
For the second time in less than a year, the Cal Aggie Alumni Association is looking for a new leader. On Jan. 11, Charlie Roddy resigned as executive director of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association. Roddy, who also served as assistant vice chancellor for Alumni Relations, returned to his home in New England and is working in development at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He cited personal reasons for his departure.
AGGIE WELCOME
September
Aggie Welcome is a series of events designed to welcome UC Davis freshman and transfer students into the Aggie family. These events provide incoming students with the opportunity to meet alumni and ask last-minute questions before fall classes begin. CAAA held eight Aggie Welcome events across the state in 2007 and plans to host at least eight events this September.
This year’s Aggie Welcome will give alumni the chance to educate incoming students about UC Davis history and the centennial festivities before they arrive on campus. According to Joy Dalauidao-Hermsen ’90, M.B.A ’92, a CAAA board director and member of the centennial committee, the tentative theme for this year’s Aggie Welcome is “CAAA welcomes the next 100 years of Aggies.”
The centennial committee is working to expand CAAA’s roster of volunteers in places like the greater San Francisco Bay Area, which produces many Aggies. Hermsen’s goal is to double attendance at this year’s Aggie Welcome by encouraging more alumni volunteers to work at or host the events.
AGGIE DINER
Fall
Aggie Diner is an annual networking event, hosted by the Student Alumni Association, which pairs students with alumni based on mutual career interests. Students have the opportunity to build connections with alumni and learn about career fields they are interested in pursuing. Alumni, on the other hand, have the opportunity to reconnect with campus and lend their expertise to students.
In honor of the centennial, Hermsen says, CAAA has set a goal of signing up 100 alumni — representing as close to 100 careers as possible — to participate in Aggie Diner. Hermsen admits this is a lofty goal: Aggie Diner usually draws about 50 alumni participants. But she’s confident the alumni association will reach the mark by capitalizing on centennial buzz and strengthening its volunteer base.
CAAA and SAA members at Home Game Hoops 2007.
HOME GAME HOOPS
Winter 2009
Home Game Hoops is an opportunity for Student Alumni Association members and Aggie alumni to meet, network and watch a live UC Davis basketball game. Home Game Hoops is part of SAA’s series of annual networking events; the event allows alumni and students to connect in a relaxed, low-stress environment. Plus, alumni get a peek at what’s new on campus.
According to CAAA Board Director Alison Broaddus ’88, the centennial-year edition of Home Game Hoops will showcase “100 years of Aggie Pride.” The alumni association will invite past Aggie Pack, Band-uh, stunt team and dance team members to the event, and organize centennial-themed giveaways and contests.
MORE TO COME
Oct. 10–15, CAAA will be participating in the campus’s Fall Festival, a university-wide centennial celebration that will feature Pajamarino, the Golden Society Reunion and the Home Game Huddle before the Homecoming football game. Alumni are invited back to campus for these events as well as other attractions, such as the Davis Chamber of Commerce Day on the Quad and the opening of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. Plus, stay tuned for details on other CAAA events, including the alumni association’s annual Alumni Awards gala and Picnic Day festivities in April.
If you’d like to volunteer for any of the events listed above, or for another CAAA event, contact Beth Crockett ’06 at ekcrockett@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-1666. Stay up-to-date on centennial events at www.alumni.ucdavis.edu or at centennial.ucdavis.edu.
Neil Freese ’02 is CAAA’s communications officer.