Community Service

Next meeting of our Community Service committee: Scroll to Agenda and Zoom Link evolving below the TAR logo.

Join Cornellians and...

make friends among fellow graduates of Cornell, especially recent graduates who are in their first decade after graduation who have very recently joined CCW via this form.
co-host events applying ideas like these in community-building and community service gatherings that are fun, very social, energizing, great for networking, laughing.
receive orientation from Maggie and others to the operations of CCW to understand how it connects area alumni for social, learning, scholarship-offering and community service activities, and fun resources we enjoy in the DMV
move toward serving on a CCW committee or on its Board of Directors (within 1-3 years-- at a pace comfortable to your ambitions and schedule.)

Hey, it's a great resume builder... but also, we care about you and want to KNOW you and introduce you to other cool Cornellians and resources that help recent grads;
Help you enjoy service through your first committee experience in the Cornell Club of Washington. Its's typically light work (a meeting followed by WhatsApping?) while experienced CCW members do the heavy lifting. You can track what's happening on the Community Service Committee if you scroll below.

TENTATIVE: Next full committee meeting:

April 7 at 7pm. Come if you can to touch base and help one another!

ZOOM LINKs for committee meetings will be posted below. Scroll to Calendaring for "individual" zooms.

Zoom links for Interest Meetings (in April) will be posted at bottom of Public AMAZING RACE web site home page for access by participants.

Announcing Ongoing Progress - posted 3/6/2026:

Minutes and resources/ideas that were listed in agendas related to past meetings are in this multi-purpose archive.
Committee's organizational action is focused on 3 documents:
- this page that you are reading (purpose: agendas, links, progress reports, Maggie's to-do list for transparency). Maggie controls one-way communication and updates it every couple of days.
- Collaborative: most on our committee can now edit the leg for which they are responsible: developing legs here: Legs Defined Google Doc where most (Alan, Julie, JJ, Sneha, Liz, Alan) now have access if they gave Maggie a g-mail address. That's where you'll see how you will support OTHER legs, but it's not yet a final draft. Hope to complete leg instructions by March 31. It will take longer to FULLY AND FINALLY assign staff and #s for materials.
- Web site for Participants: Participant facing and public. Squad captains and organizers can e-mail Maggie any content to place there (such as the -shirt order form. Maggie updates it weekly.
- (In addition, Maggie edits CCW home page-- she's acting webmaster for the club--, posts registrations in their Calendar as much as time allows but there can be significant time lags. Maggie prompts CCW social media to post on Instagram and Facebook outlets.)
Monday March 9 Walk Thru in Alexandria to refine locations, transitions, timings, contacts, supplies for all legs except #6: Julie meets Maggie at 3pm, Kaku at 6 pm and JJ and Sneha both meet Maggie closer to 7 pm. Decide which legs will BEGIN by operating under the "corral" model defined in the Q/A portion of the Amazing Race web site for participants. Note all the materials or additional refinements need to be made onto the Legs Defined document. Maybe we target completing that document no later than March 31? (Try to fill in "staffing" as much as possible. Some #s will remain mysterious till April 15.
HERE'S the "official registration link for the Amazing Race which collects payments. <-- send people there to register. We have 1 squad registered and paid as of 3/6/2026
Wed March 11 : We have 3 individuals already signed up for our Interest meeting at Mr. Henry's (a casual dining spot with bar, jazz upstairs at 8 pm) on March 11. Julie and JJ will attend with Maggie approx 5:30-7:30. Feel free to come! March 11 Happy Hour/ Amazing Race Interest meeting. <--Send friends to register there. Maggie has been pushing this to a lot of contacts.
Maggie listed additional (Zoom and in person) TAR Interest Meetings on home page of the web site . Maggie can handle participants at those meetings herself so that committee members are freed for all of their other work. However, any attendance from committee for the April Zooms especially will be helpful.
Maggie Created a WhatsApp thread for logistics for March 6 walk through meeting. It's a good test project. A similar thread could be fun for buzz and also answering questions day of race if we invite squad captains and participants to such a (different Whatsapp) thread. It could help us manage last second logistics and "where are you" on Race Day.
Interest Meeting Series Agenda got additions and development: presently at home page of TAR site) . Summarized in a calendar graphic there. Not all have been mirrored on CCW's calendar due to lags out of Maggie's control.

In Progress:

All: Recruit staffing for each leg!
Maggie will monitor registrations and post # of teams here and eventually at Leaderboard for all to be able to monitor.
Maggie is prompting Squad Captains to share photos, team colors, fun names of teams forthe Leaderboard. Note that the following Squads are fakes for the purposes of illustration and hype only: Mike's Maniacs, Gil's Gladiators, Ezra's ExtraFast, Triumphant Tridelts.
Alan is fine-tuning the race leg (#6) and his instructions/script for the Distribution leg in the appendix of that Legs Defined document. Based on progress of registrations through April, he will prepare bags of the appropriate # of SS handouts, being super careful not to be wasteful. He will bring them all for that Leg on Race Day.
Kaku is collecting info to set up ordering t-shirts or caps. He'll finalize an order procedure and form for Maggie to post on web site for Week 2 of March. People who want to way in on decisions for that order can type their thoughts into the OPINION POLL at the end of the LEGS DEFINED Appendix.
Happy Hour organization is being assigned to someone OUTSIDE of the TAR committee and will apply the learnings achieved by JJ's big research. Stay tuned. Maggie is recruiting someon to take this portion off of our list of to-do's. The HH may be something very informal with several people involved just reserving some tables at the patio of Virtue Feed and Grain which have 2-hour limits and a max of 7 per table. We might be scattered.
Maggie will be overseas mid-March till April 30. 5 time zones away but available to Zoom, Whatapp or Email.
Next WHOLE COMMITTEE MEETINGs are tentative for First Tuesday's of April and May. Mark your calendar for 7 pm.

Maggie manage... do or assign later:

Liz will run the registration table May 9. Maggie will collect a set of instructions and materials such as a card table, flag, clipboards, lanyards with nametags of participants....
Maggie has time to "hand-make" some winners' medals for our top teams. See the medals that I made for our Jun '25 Charity Run at lower left pic.
Ongoing INSTAGRAM posts? WhatsApp hype? QR codes?
Determine and organize the prizes to be handed out each leg: cash in envelopes, hats?, Cornell stickers...
Determine and have "corral finish" colored cards to communicate clearly at end of each race leg in case our numbers look like they will be chaotic. (Maggie will do.)
Should we set up a WhatsApp thread for lead up? For May 9? (Why not?) Who sets up? Who monitors? Which TAR members would participate? Based on experience, I know comms through this mechanism hit only a partial set of the audience who can opt in or opt out.) If we set one up, I can put the link at the Web Site and develop a "Contact" page there closer to the race.
We will make a mid -April decision about whether we have enough squads to hold a whole day event or revert to only the part where we distribute Stroke Smart materials.
What should ORGANIZERS wear to stand out on race day? Should Kaku order t-shirts? Baseball caps? Red bandanas? I have lanyards with badges (the kind you get at a conference)
April 15 we will do a "temperature check" to see if we have at least 3 paid Squads and a substantial enough Sub Pool to continue organizing the FULL TAR. Deadline for individuals runs to April 30 which gives time to pull individuals together into Squads. We will decide to shrink event to just the leg for distributing SS materials if we don't have at least a FEW DEPENDABLE SQUADS to justify the larger race organization. It is just REALLY unpredictable to know if this event will get a lot of registrants or not. So many variables, and we have to build in anticipation of a significant number of no-shows. Our LAST SECOND PR can happen between April 15-30 when Maggie has listed 2 additional Zoom interest meetings she'll conduct from Europe. April 30 needs to be a hard deadline (to ensure we could communicate modifications to our program across registrants. <-- based on significant experience with CCW communications systems.)

Consider these criteria for legs of THE AMAZING RACE:

Click open the Legs Defined Google Doc (requires google login)

Can the LEGS of the race be improved from this Feb. 3's first draft to be a balance of physical, cultural, community service, competitive, problem-solving that people of ALL AGES can be drawn upon in their Squads? Expect diverse squads. It would be a mistake to keep the challenges lop-sided in one direction, ie., just physical.
Is the ORDER of LEGs helping people CONNECT among squad members and between squads? Does the order building community connection, and momentum for racers? Suspense? Does the Leg involving DISTRIBUTION OF STROKE SMART utilize "who's left" on a day that might feel long and involve elimination rounds? At what points do we eliminate squads? Can a "fast forward" (define it better) save a team in the back of the pack?
Will the possibililities of the Joiner/Sub pool help us build excitement, bonding and participation as I hope?
Can we suggest photo ops along the way? Require submitting images we can use on social media at any leg?
Maggie has piles of "potential props" and equipment she'll bring race day and to Interest Meetings. 7 stuffed bears, lotsa red ribbon, bag of red feathers, Cornell flag, card table to haul around to different "leg starts" or "leg finish lines..." colored masking tape, thumb tacks, plastic bags, 250 biz cards with our logo and CCW web address as take-aways at Happy Hours, etc, 50-ish lanyards with "their respective plastic see-through nametag pouches-- the kinds uses at conferences and can label Organizers or Participants during legs of the race if we need people to "stand out."

Calendaring for The Amazing Race:

TAR = The Amazing Race

TAR committee members can tell Maggie when you can meet on 1-4 of these occasions. You are not required to come to all! In some cases, Maggie just needs one other person there or a one-on-one parlay!

March 3 and April 7, (and maybe add May 5 which is the Tuesday before Race Day?)

March 9 TAR Committee "walk through" in Alexandria organizational meeting (3-7 pm --come when you can followed by optional dinner) to "test the legs" of the race as our super secret web site currently explains them. Purpose: Walk out the legs to test timing since 10 legs might be too many. Gather specifics like addresses for clues/ starts/ finishes. List supplies needed for each leg's "start." Assign one TAR member as tsar of that leg, responsible to develop with Maggie the details of that part of TAR. Compose the final wording of the "clues" that start each leg. Discuss sourcing the equipment needed for each race leg. Continually re-group, reflect/make goals for upcoming meetings. (Who's attending? Maggie and Julie will meet around 3 pm. JJ will come around 7 pm. Kaku might join us. Sneha?) Alan need not attend; the focus will be the other legs.

Interest meetings for potential Squads- Maggie can conduct alone if necessary:

- - - - Wed March 11 TAR-specific Happy Hour as an Interest Meeting and Squad Building Session at Mr. Henry's in DC (5:45 - 7:15... jazz follows upstairs at 8 pm). Registration link for CCW members already set up. (Who's attending? Maggie, Julie ...and JJ will drop in)
        Sat. March 14 at 3:30 pm Daytime TAR Interest Meeting and Squad Formation to inform and gather people into squads. Location: National Gallery of Art "Garden Cafe"-- Maggie can conduct alone. Very small turnout anticipated. She will conduct this immediately following a 2pm French Sculpture Tour. (Who's attending? Maggie and ___ )
        Zoom DAYTIME April Interest Meetings as indicated at bottom of page here. There will be a big emphasis to create squads out of the people in the Substitute/Joiner Pool. Maggie can conduct alone, but would love support! (Who's attending? Maggie and ___ ) I will post the Zoom links on the home page of the Amazing Race WEB SITE.
May 9: Please all be committed to attending and helping conduct the registration, legs of the race, set up equipment, "judging victories" along the way. I will probably assign each of you the leg that you command start to finish, while assigning other TAR to support you that leg.

One-on-One Meetings between Maggie and individual committee members:
Per task assignments, we'll all be doing additional one-on-one phone calls, Zooms or in person meetings (Maggie likes those most!) Contact Maggie by email-- can set up a "huddle!"
- - - - Date: Feb. 16 at 10 am Maggie and Julie will meet for coffee at Maggie's house to examine legs/roles/tasks
      - Date: last week in February, Alan and Maggie will have a one-on-one meeting ONLY focused on fine-tuning his leg of TAR, that is the Stroke Smart distributuion. Alexandria. Exact time TBD. 10 am Monday?
      - Sneha when? I need your phone #
      - Alan March 5, 5:15 pm Tysons WHOLE FOODS

What our committee does:

Community Service Committee

The Vice-President (Community Service) chairs the Community Service Committee, which manages periodic service events. The chair appoints vice-chairs as are necessary to the functioning of the committee.

Purpose: Our PRIMARY work involves planning, posting, and interfacing to ensure the success of 2 Cornell Cares events per year. (VP/CS provides a monthly report of our activities at the Board Meetings.)
As able and wlling, committee members initiate and lead out ADDITIONAL service projects, programs, charity fundraisers and events and meet-ups at charity organizations' with whom we partner for their success. They apply event-planning resources for 2026 that are useful and currently housed at the VP's site here and noted at on CCW's web site at volunteer resources and opportunities.
We nurture volunteerism within CCW which makes CCW a thriving, attractive and purposeful organization by ensuring communication to our membership via CCW homepage, social media, event listings, and the (quarterly) club newsletter blasts.
Keep an up-to-date list of our resources and community service involvement under "Volunteer" at the CCW web site.
Effectively document for Board Use the operations and contacts of our committee for ease of training and application for year-to-year access and use.
Participation/Attendance of committee members is strongly recommended at the half-day "Cornell Cares" events that we run-- one in Jan and one in July or June. Attending the additional CCW CS events that a committee member herself initiates, chairs or vice-chairs is a "given" unless an able sub can be arranged in an emergency.
No experience needed! This is a great, low intensity committee to join to get a feel for CCW!
Time commitment is variable per month... only about 10-20 hours cumulative for the entire year.
Time of Year: most intense periods are September/Oct-- to establish a schedule and direction for the two major "Cornell Cares" events that will occur in January and July.
(Ensuring PR support from Ithaca for Cornell Cares events, especiallymay require starting 12 weeks ahead (for Cornell Cares events.)

(For additional service initiatives that the committee could take on at other times on the calendar, we typically research, plan, post and manage registrations/ communications about the event over the 6 weeks prior to the date of its conduct.)

How often and when are CS meetings? Only as necessary 4-6 x per year, usually first Monday, 6 pm by Zoom. Additional committee business is conducted primarily by email or phone. (Attending also the "Second Tuesday" Board meetings for CCW is encouraged but not required.)
Goals for 2025-2026: 1) successfully conduct both a January and a June (or July) "Cornell Cares" event that is promoted by PR from Ithaca and from CCW. 2) improve and update documentation of our contacts and committee work to have available for future use in CCW's"digital filing cabinet" (the platform called Wild Apricot.) 3) Creatively make our community service events inclusive and "socially bonding" for club members. 4) Celebrate volunteerism by posting at least 4 times on CCW's Instagram before July, 2026. 5) Ensure that the CCW home page and/or web pages regularly spotlights and opportunities for public service, refreshing and keeping them timely.
Committee members '25-'26 are CCW Board members Maggie Carpenter (VP). CCW members Elysa G-L and Eric B and Liz G

Community Service Committee Meeting records such as MINUTES: Archived here.

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