Candidate Profile:

 Meghan Day currently serves as President of the New York City Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association and has been actively involved with the Chapter since 2005. Previously, she served as Vice President of the Chapter, as well as Secretary and Social Committee Chair. 

Meghan was the Overall Chair of the 2010 Hope Gala and previously served as the gala’s Events Co-Chair. Currently, she is serving as Finance Chair for the 2011 event.  Meghan is also the recipient of the 2010 Recent Alumna/Alumnus Award, which is presented to a recent alum who has provided exemplary volunteer service to the Penn State Alumni Association.  Additionally, she is a member of The Daily Collegian Alumni Interest Group and the Dance Marathon Alumni Interest Group.

Meghan is Marketing and Special Events Manager for Gerson Lehrman Group, which operates the world’s largest expert network. She specifically oversees initiatives for the company’s growing Life Sciences practice. When she isn’t working, Meghan enjoys traveling, live music, and running, particularly in her neighborhood’s Prospect Park.

After several years of service with the organization, in March I had the opportunity to step into the position of President for our Chapter. Our previous President laid a tremendous framework for the group, but I am eager to build upon our past success and bring the Chapter to new heights.

My first priority as President is to put together a robust network of local alumni who are interested being a more active part of our Chapter. Currently, there are five open seats on our Chapter board that need to be filled within the next 30 days and within each committee, only a small number of active volunteers. I know there are Penn Staters who are interested getting involved and making a difference; I plan to in place a more formal structure, job descriptions and goals that find and keep volunteers more effectively engaged with our organization.

With a more active group of volunteers in place, we will be able to move towards a number of other significant goals I would like to accomplish in the next year that better engage and grow our membership. Sitting at just under 300 members, we have a strong base, but in order for our Chapter to thrive financially, we should aim to increase our membership to at least 500 members. To do so, we need to create more tangible member benefits across all of our committee divisions, including discounted or exclusive access to our programs, more diverse events, and exclusive access to partner organizations or companies.
Additionally, our Chapter has committed to the Alumni Association, on behalf of their efforts to strengthen its fundraising, to double our endowed scholarship to the University by 2014. In order to achieve this goal, we need to better communicate the goals of our scholarship to the community and develop a series of year-round and one-off fundraising initiatives.

Our work to continue to better the New York City Chapter will never be done – we must constantly strive to improve our outreach and engagement with members and prospective members. I ask for your vote in the 2010/2011 elections  to help our Chapter obtain even greater success in the year to come.

Name: Steven Reisberg

 My Penn State experience has been influential on my life and when New York City can be overwhelming it's important to know that my friends and alumnus from my school are so near.  Whether it is football games, philanthropic events or happy hours the NYC Chapter has been vital in keeping fellow Penn Staters remain actively involved.  I will bring to the group excellent leadership, goal development and unsurpassed dedication in making sure that we continually make our members happy and expand our size. I look forward to working as a team with other board members.  Over the past year I have had the privilege of working with current and former board members in my role as the tax accountant for the NYC Chapter.  I will easily be able to transition into a role as Vice President. 

The Secretary shall attend all meetings of the Board of Directors and all business meetings of the members, and act as clerk thereof. He/She shall record all the votes of the Chapter and the minutes of all its transactions. He/She shall perform like duties for all Committees of the Board when required. He/She shall keep the Chapter calendar of events to be provided to the Communication Committee for publication on the website or in the newsletter to the general membership. He/She shall be responsible for the generation and submission of reports to the Regional Director/Executive Director/Volunteer Management Team of the Penn State Alumni Association with the input and consensus of the Executive Core Committee.

Name: Abigail Fairman

Abby Fairman is the current Secretary for the New York City Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association.   She is a 1999 graduate of the College of Communications and holds a degree in Advertising & Public Relations.  During her time at University Park, she was a sales representative for The Daily Collegian, the publicity chair of The University Choir, and a member of the THON communications committee.   Nearly 10 years later, she continues to be an active member of the Penn State community.  In addition to her involvement in the NYC Chapter, Abby is also a lifetime member of the Penn State Alumni Association, a member of the Nittany Lion Club, a member of the Collegian AIG and the Manchester AIG, and a College of Communications alumni mentor.

Professionally, Abby is a marketing manager at Goodwin Procter, a Boston-based law firm of more than 900 attorneys.  She is responsible for the marketing and business development efforts of two major practice groups and provides support for the firm’s diversity initiative.  She has been a member of the Legal Marketing Association for the past 9 years and is responsible for event programming for both the New York City Chapter and the 2010 LMA National Conference.   In her spare time, Abby swims with the Red Tide NYC masters team and plays football with Zog Sports.

I have had an amazing time over the last year working alongside this accomplished board. I would be both honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve a second term as the Treasurer of the NY City Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association.

Since being elected a year ago, I have performed all the stated duties of the treasurer role such as managing the Chapter’s daily cash flow and keeping full and accurate accounts of the Chapter's receipts and disbursements. I also established and cultivated relationships as the organization’s primary financial contact and was actively involved in strategic decision making.

In addition, at the start of my term I performed a complete overhaul of all financial tracking and reporting. I reconciled multiple systems and reporting and provided financial clarity and transparency. I compiled all financial information and provided monthly financial analysis to the board and created the group’s first comprehensive budget. Also, due to new tax filing requirements, I secured a tax firm, prepared all necessary information, and aided in completion of filing. This relationship should prove to be very beneficial moving forward.

I hope to build on the success we have had over the last year. I would expect to be even more involved as the Chapter has just committed to bringing our endowed scholarship to a new threshold. I would welcome the opportunity to work closer with each of our committees to achieve this important goal. I would also like to build closer relationships with all of the various Penn State related groups in the tri state area. I also see opportunity for strong growth in membership and in many of our successful events such as the Hope Gala. I am committed to providing members value in membership.

I have enjoyed working with and getting to know many of you over the last year and would look forward to serving a second term as the Treasurer.