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Next meeting of our Community Service committee iwill take place by Zoom Feb 3, 7 pm. Scroll to Agenda and Zoom Link evolving below .
Join Cornellians and...
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.
Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7pm. 40 minutes.
Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7pm. 40 minutes.
Introductions:
JJ and Julie and Sneha and Kaku are volunteers for creating a one-day-in-Alexandria "Amazing Race"
Guest presenter: Alan S will tell us (5 min or less) about his non-profit called StrokeSmart. (Ted Talk by Alan Stillman, Cornell grad.) His StrokeSmart materials are available at Virginia Dept of Health web site https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/stroke/stroke-smart-virginia/
Following up on the December meeting, Maggie will explain the support her "Amazing Race" committee is building to hold a distribution of Stroke Smart's educational posters and magnets around Alexandria -May 9-- please mark your calendar for this big event. It will be "all hands on deck" for our Community Service committee. Recruit others?
Proposed for committee votes: [Consider all these motions as "passed.]
Motion: That we support Stroke Smart by building the Amazing Race around a materials distribution for that organization.
Motion: Confirm the event for May 9th all day (with breakfast and Happy Hours optional to shorten the commitment to midday)
Motion: based on our AMAZING RACE registration by April 30 hard deadline, we will continue OR CANCEL or DRAMATICALLY SIMPLIFY the Amazing Race for this year. (The Community Service cmtee can shift easily to doing DC Central Kitchen as our Summer Cornell Cares event if TAR just doesn't fly fast enough. )
Motion: Confirm March 3 and April 7 CCW Community Service Cmtee meetings to carry out our focus for next 3 months: Prepare for the distribution of Stroke Smart materials (as part of a bigger 1-day-in-Alexandria AMAZING RACE.
Discussions... Task Mastering:
Discussions... Task Mastering:
Julie explains: one can educate self via the Virginia Dept of Health web site https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/stroke/stroke-smart-virginia/
JJ - explain to group that you supplied Julie and me some AI generated content to run with. We did! Accordingly,
Maggie is drafting a SUPER SECRET web site with 10 legs of the race outlined as well as materials that will be provided to participants when they register. It is temporarily accessible to you for 24 hours of this meeting. She can provide an ongoing " view only version" for a committee member who has a gmail address-- send it if you want access, but I'm keeping that site very locked down. Let's look at one page as Maggie makes it public for the next 30 min... I'm attempting to integrate Alan's resources to: GAMIFY a distribution of Stroke Smart posters, magnets as Leg 5 of CCW's "The Amazing Race."
My Goals for the SUPER SECRET web site :
Share that site publicly with registrants by the FIRST (soft roll out) Interest meeting (Ferbruary 19 at a CCW MOndly "Explore DC" happy hour -- it's org'd for whole CCW)
Share it again at March 11 Happy Hour/ Amazing Race Interest meeting. Share it again at a Zoom interest meeting for Squad Captains in April.
Provide an overview of how the race will be run but without the clues or details which will be removed when we go public.
Be able to update the Q/A portion as we field good questions at interest meetings
Have it adaptable where it's easy for me to update and display its LEADER BOARD (Do you love my graphic? Yes you do!)
Be able to display OR hide content that I link from it's home pages (such as clues/ maps/ instructions for race day. Having the "locations" published ahead will help organizers as well as people arriving to the event midday.
Manage realtime if needed updates to the Substitute Loser Pool.
Make it serve us organizers as a one-stop shopping as I project manage and try to write shorter agendas and emails.
Last TAR meeting, we reviewed that Alan had already started to structure the gamified distrubution under a "points" system instead of a "race for fast times" structure for Alexandria or other DMV neighborhoods. His ideas are helping to shape the most important leg of the race: Leg 4, 5 or 6 when we distribute the Stroke Smart materials. TIMING for that one? Help Maggie decide!
Overview /browse what has been developed by Maggie on the SUPER SECRET web site that will be employed to conduct the race. BEGIN to solicit input/Feedback from the committee. Keep it coming to Maggie by email.
Check out the logo above that Maggie's brother designed! She turned it into business cards for multiple purposes... labeling clues, PR, We have 250.
Introduction of EQUIPMENT! "Potatoes, homemade medals and BEARS, oh, my!" Lots of red ribbon, cowbell, baked bears, medals, flag, pompoms, Cornell sticker swag.... card table, WE WILL KEEP DEVELOPING lists of materials needed per leg.
Consider... in addition to the business cards, should we order SWAG with our logo printed on it? 50 pens costs me $100 at Vistaprint. (I have to spend $50 to get 20.) I have 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.
Can Alan deliver to Maggie soon stacks of SS materials (posters, magnets, wallet cards) that racers will distribute? Deliver to Maggie for the bags? Alan, you can just dump a WHOLE LOT on me and I'll sort them into bags based on how many teams register over time.
Determine registration fees that would secure commitment and provide for us a healthy budget. What costs can we expect? What prizes do we want to fund? A round of drinks at happy hour... ice cream cones, bag of potatoes. The biz cards cost us $50. Motion: $25 registration fee per Squad Leader. Covers all 2-4 on their squad. People who want to be placed on the Loser Substitute Pool can be charged $10 for the chance to join a squad that already has a Squad Leader.
Mark Calendars now to Support our work by using our ZOOM meetings March 3 and April 7 Community Service Zoom meetings as work sessions for such. Additional one-on-one meetings or e-mailing will likely happen, based on needs.
Mark your calendars! March 9: I will have a face to face meeting with any on our committee IN ALEXANDRIA at your convenience. I will be working on details to finalize the design of the clues for the race legs... making sure of timings needed, etc. I could use a partner for that day.
What aspects of organization interest most our committee members? Have this discussion with Maggie to nail down in the coming weeks.
Maggie will Develop Google Form to collect Squad Registrations and photos --a spreadsheeet useful for developng the Leader Board
Create and assign monitoring of a WhatsApp thread? Could be fun for buzz and also answering questions day of race. I can build into th registration procedures that each squad have at least ONE member participating. It could help us manage last second logistics and "where are you" on Race Day.
Interest Meeting Series: Co-hosts to hold April <--PREVIOUS LY at meeting CONTAINED A TYPO! Should have said Feb 19, March 11, April ___ by Zoom interest meetings (agenda presently at home page of SECRET site) at a bar, on Zoom to drum up excitement and team formations?
Note to self: To Do list (in need of update) and Interest Meeting Agenda (under construction) for Squads is still on this page with some outdated content I'm cleaning up on Feb. 1.
Additional February Reports for the Record:
Additional February Reports for the Record:
Maggie presented the "goals" for our Committee's work as listed in the blurb below at the December Board meeting for CCW.-
Do we have any reflections to share on the DCCK event? Consider doing it again in late June or summer?
For the record, the following work was done since our last Community Service Meeting:
Maggie drafted and Steve posted a "save the date" to announce the Amazing Race. She is talking it up when she goes to Board meetings and CCW happy hours, etc.
Cornell published our Jan 24 Cornell Cares event to encourage sign-ups to staff DC Central Kitchen. See: https://cornelluniversity.imodules.com/DC2026CARES
Steve P had the event posted for CCW our event at this link: https://cornellclubdc.org/event-6465489. It ran successfully despite communication issues around the snow closures that weekend. We had 2 cancellations only, so provided 13 people to their staff on Jan. 24. Yea!!!
Maggie had a Community Service spotlight on CCW's home page that read as follows and it was up for about 6 weeks:
Maggie decided to balance in planned National Gallery visits depending on her work load with The Amazing Race and collaborations on Book Talks that include most promisingly SUPPORTING VETERANS and THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY.
Community Service Spotlight: Members of our Running Group participated in Turkey Trots that benefited local charities (like ALIVE in Alexandria) on Thanksgiving. Winter cold is coming, so please donate your gently used and clean winter coat to Thrive's Winter Coat Drive. We will launch sign-ups for our Jan. 24 food service project as soon as the organization has their tech ready, so SAVE THAT DATE! Consider attending this film screening of 1001 Cuts (a virtual event) to bring equity to female surgeons. Our art events honor first responders and Federal Workers, so join us when we visit the NGA on 12/2. Please also send us contact information for organizations that receive used furniture to help Veterans transitioning from service to civilian life. Cornellians have donations to route their way! E-mail the VP of Community Service.
2/3/2026 Zoom's Minutes Under Construction:
Two Committees came together to attend:
Standing Community Service Committee (CS) (Liz (driving), Elysa (absent) and Eric(absent)
Temporary committee to create The Amazing Race (TAR): Alan S from Stroke Smart, JJ, Julie, Sneha, Kaku-- THANK YOU!!! WE NEED YOU!
Intros were made, and we learned about Stroke Smart and its founder, Alan. We will make Stroke Smart distribution the MAIN LEG of The Amazing Race on May 9.
We framed out and overviewed key pieces in place to build the race-- reflected in and being fine-tuned in the Super Secret Web site. Maggie will "disappear" the race leg descriptions very soon. Continue to view them in lead up to Feb 19 publication if you share a GMAIL address with Maggie.
March 3 and April 7 CCW Community Service Cmtee meetings (for Liz, Elysa, Eric) will take on THE AMAZING RACE as its chief focus, making those "work sessions" that invite the separate committee for THE AMAZING RACE to have work sessions for updates from TAR committee (Kaku, JJ, Julie, Sneha, Alan.)
Maggie was stressed (has little experience/skill forchairing Zoom meetings,) but we got through a LOT of info in 1 hour and no one quit the committee-- PHEW!!!! The follow-up one-on-one's between Maggie and TAR will be more relaxed and fruitful with manageable deliverables to move forward the interest meetings, registration process, race design and conduct of race.
Maggie will be traveling March 18- April 28, but will be available by Zoom (Spain/Rome/Greece time zone where she'll go to sleep 5 hours earlier than the East Coast does.)
Web Site Under Construction: we browsed it... Maggie asks that people take time to digest the Web Site and contribute feedback to her by e=mail to make it presentable in a soft roll-out at a table at Feb. 19th's CCW General happy hour.
Alan will scrutinize and fine-tune with Maggie the race leg (#4?) used for distribution of Stroke Smart materials, and based on progress of registrations through April, will ship the appropriate # of SS handouts, being super careful not to be wasteful. Maggie will monitor registrations and post # of teams at Leaderboard for all to be able to monitor.
Alan shared: "Throughout Alexandria, there are Zebra newspaper boxes that say Stroke Smart on them. You may spot one or two as you’re out on the course. If so, taking a photo next to one could be a fun part of the race experience." YES! WE CAN EASILY ADD "PHOTO OP" suggestions to each leg. People can post to the WhatsApp thread which crowd sources media for after-race celebration that our CCW webmaster and Instagrammer and Facebooker need!
All: Write Maggie by an e-mail with your g-mail address if you have one and want view only access to the super secret web site, or if our bilateral work could be supported by Google Docs.
Maggie works best by e-mail to not lose track of CCW to-do's. Honestly, I text with only about 5 crazy people in my life but I can handle WhatsApp.
Changed terminology away from "Losers" to "Substitutes" Pool - done!
Posting the Interest Meetings is already underway (Maggie sending stuff to Steve P to post at CCW web site.)
Trust Maggie to follow up the meeting by reaching out individually to match tasks to each person's ability/ availablity. See next box.
Decisions / Announcements to make next meeting. Tasks to assign: Under Construction:
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 will be April 30 to 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. Sound good? Our LAST SECOND PR can happen between April 15-30. 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.)
What is our fee structure? It's taken me a while to process, but we might do it this way (anticipating people's plans will change.) Squad Captain rate: $15 (CCW members only). Participant on a Squad (name which captain in an email to Librarian MS@ Gmail .com): $12 Individual seeking a squad to join $12.
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" 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?
Will Maggie's email box explode with questions hard to process? I'm trying to clear the decks to field a ton of comm.
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.)
How many Squad Captains are registered so far? Note that these Squads are fakes for the purposes of illustration and hype only: Mike's Maniacs, Gil's Gladiators, Ezra's ExtraFast, Triumphant Tridelts.
Let's revisit idea of making t-shirts or baseball caps for order during the registration process. How could orders be collected outside of the CCW web site but by a committee member not me? Can someone head up the investigation? Tell Maggie for the contact info of the supplier her bro uses because the quality is VERY good, unlike VistaPrint's. Maggie will post their contact info here.
Maggie has piles of "potential props" and equipment she'll bring race day and to Interest Meetings. 7 stuffed bears, lotsa red ribbon, 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."
What should ORGANIZERS wear to stand out on race day? Should I order t-shirts? Baseball caps?
Let's definitnely revisit the idea of maybe ordering t-shirts or caps (for organizers, made availabale for purchase by interested participants) Need someone to lead out on this, but I can supply logo-- it works best against a white background. You would save receipts and turn in to Mel, our treasurer, for fast repayment. Must determine our budget for this as I have almost no $$$ to pay for it, so it should be self-funding. Maggie would pay max $10 for a cap or $12 for her own t-shirt, FYI, and PREFERENCE is if I can get it sized / shaped for women in large. Custom ink is a source for ink designs but I'd prefer embroidered by my brother's contact.
All, I think it's wise for me to collect your phone number to have in case of emergency.
I'm assessing everyone's willingness and availability for tasts while trying to make sure you don't get more than you bargained for! At this early stage, here are hints at whom I'll contact for what:
Alan's chief of Distribution of Stroke Smart Leg, explanations, duration, etc. Write it all out to share with committee?
All: encourage buzz around TAR. Encourage people to think of forming Squads and coming to at least one interest meeting and "bring a friend."
All: consider coming to 1 or more Interest meeting to support Maggie and field Questions. Those meetings (box below) will offer Maggie a time to connect on planning tasks, too. Liz, your WARMTH would really work for this, but I know you are tightly scheduled with work and Board responsibilites. Sneha, your enthusiasm could REALLY draw in young ones. Handsome JJ, who could resist you? Could everyone on CS and TAR push our Interest Meetings on at least 3 targets as Squad Captains???
All but especially JJ and Julie: Maggie really needs others' eyes to thin, copy-edit, make clear what she puts in too much writing. Speak up with questions, feedback. I have vestigial ideas that still need to be deleted from the SUPER SECRET web site when our February status is different from what I once wrote in November. I am agressively cleaning it all up for the SUPER SECRET WEB SITE, but tell me if you ssee the word "loser" anywhere or something else that might be outdated.
Kaku- any interest in looking into t-shirts or caps to order? Would you chief that mission start to finish with delivery included?
Kaku, your family might be a chief target to FORM A SQUAD to run TAR. I could give you that responsibility to be our "guinea pigs" to test our registration procedures.
ALL: see above. I need a guinea pig squad to be the first to appy the registration steps that I'll devise. It's hard for me without a test-pilot.
Julie and JJ, I really could use your help to EXAMINE THE LEGS and help develop a "run of show" for Race Day. TIMINGS and LOCATIONS? Clarity of clues?
I will be doing a lot of tech work, PR and liaising with our comms people like Steve, Emma, Karen with CCW in balance with my ongoing webmastering responsibilities.
ALL: you don't know how important SEEING YOU at a meeting to support this crazy idea is to me. ALL: please tolerate the messiness of some of this work at this PARTICULAR stage. We don't know yet how many people will want to engage but I build systems to grow for future years when numbers may SWELL. In the future we will likely run this again in a new location and probably expand to All Ivy distribution lists that Steve P can project to. I just cant manage it my first year and with the April travel.
Watch this to-do section develop! What did I miss? THANK YOU for collaborating with a crazy lady! It's going to be AMAZING, meaningful, hilarious and memory-making. It takes a village and you'll be so proud on Race Day!
Meetings to Schedule:
Meetings to Schedule:
Please, TAR committee members, 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!
Feb 19 World of Beers in Bethesda - TAR sits at a table to promote the event during a "general" happy hour that CCW has on the calendar. Registration will go live on that day.
March 3 and April 7 CCW Community Service Standing Cmtee meetings (for Liz, Elysa, Eric) will take on THE AMAZING RACE as their chief focus. TAR committee members can come if able and contribute "reports" of individual progress or feedback.
March 9 TAR Committee "walk through" in Alexandria organizational meeting 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.
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).
Daytime TAR Interest Meeting and Squad Formation (TBD, an 11 am offering) to inform and gather people into squads at National Gallery of Art midday-- Maggie will conduct alone.
Zoom April Interest Meeting (TBD) to inform and gather participants into squads with specific assigned Squad Captains. There will be a big emphasis to create squads out of the people in the Substitute/Joiner Pool. Maggie can conduct alone.
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.
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 email-- can set up a "huddle!"
What our committee does:
What our committee does:
Community Service Committee
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
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