Alliance College Alumni 

President’s Corner                                                                                                                                                                                                            September 2024 

Hello Fellow Alliance College Alumni, 

It was great seeing so many of you last month at the 2024 ACAA Reunion in Erie, PA. The hotel and event venue were first class, and it looked as though people had a fun time Keeping the Spirit Alive!  

The event got off to a great start Thursday August 22 at the Riverside Golf Course. Many alumni and friends played a round of golf, followed by a buffet spread generously sponsored by the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity.  

Most alumni arrived on Friday and were greeted by our membership/registration team immediately upon entering the hotel lobby. There was a wide variety of auction items available to bid on which set a very festive tone for the weekend. Friday night, an alumni mixer was held outdoors under a tent. We had great weather, great food, friendly conversation, and everyone went to bed in great spirits!  

Saturday morning kicked off with a meeting of the Alliance College Foundation and the Alliance College Alumni Association. We sent out a Zoom link for the meetings to involve more alumni.  

Foundation President Richard Day explained the scholarship program to everyone and announced that, moving forward, the intent is to grant two $2,500 scholarships to qualified friends and family of Alliance College alumni. Also, Basia Adams gave a recap presentation of the 2023 Tour of Poland trip. Many attendees were present, and they all commented on how well the tour was organized and how much fun they had while in Poland.  

The Alliance College Alumni Association General Meeting followed the Foundation meeting. There was a full agenda that included financial reports, membership reports and a website update. Each of these topics will be touched upon a little further down the page. The meeting concluded with nominations and elections of new ACAA Board officers and members. We tried to manage the election process electronically. Good idea, poor execution. We apologize for that and will get it right for the next election. Here is your Board of Directors. 

President Mike Anderson (1978) 

Vice-President Audrea Cika Heschmeyer (1985) 

Treasurer Louis Sitnik (1986) 

Secretary Susia Burgess Styborski (1983) 

Director Randy Polovick (1981) Website Committee Chair 

Director Marcia Pilkiewicz (1975) Membership Chair 

Director Lori Neese Kolin (1987) 

Director Mary Ann Posanski (1976) 

Director Dr. Kathleen Polanski Noce (1982) 

Reunion weekend coincided with the famous Zabawa Festival. A great attraction, many alumni stopped by over the course of the weekend to eat Polish food, drink Polish beer and, of course dance the Polka! Good times. 

The weekend concluded with a delicious dinner. Prior to eating we did an Oplatek exchange and were treated to stirring renditions of the Polish and US National anthems by Basia Adams’ husband Kevin. Following our meal, we experienced one of the highlights of the weekend. Several members of the 1972 championship soccer team attended the reunion and honored their coach, Mike Flick. It was a very touching moment. Everyone marveled at how much fun the players, some of whom had not seen each other in over 50 years, had throughout the weekend.  

After dinner conversation flowed and people danced into the night, closing out a terrific weekend.  

Special thanks to Reunion Chair Jim Koscielniak for coordinating such a great weekend we also need to thank everyone who volunteered their time to help with the planning and execution of this event! 

We care about your opinions, so we will be sending out a reunion survey shortly. Please take a moment to complete the survey as it will impact future reunion planning!  

Now, onto more serious business. ACAA finances and membership status. We ran an organizational financial report in the weeks leading up to the reunion. I will spare you the details but at the current rate of membership, the organization may not have sufficient working capital to last another ten years. Mind you, our operating costs are minimal. Necessary, but minimal. It should also be noted that our goal for reunions is to break even. As a result, the only way our organization can sustain itself is through dues and other financial contributions from generous alumni. On the reunion registration forms, we include a line for (optional) payment of two years’ dues at $45. Would it surprise you to know that only 24% of reunion attendees are dues paying alumni? We need to improve upon this and will soon embark upon a far-reaching membership campaign. To do this we need your help and, importantly, your contributions to the ACAA. Would it also surprise you to know that ACAA dues have not changed since 2002? We will look at this as well. After sharing this information with alumni at the reunion I am happy to say we saw a nice lift in membership dues and other generous contributions. We intend to build on this using our new website and enhanced outreach initiatives. As an incentive for you to pay dues we will extend the $45 for two years offer through the end of October. If you have already paid your dues and wish to upgrade to a Lifetime membership, it will cost you an additional $455. This is also good through October 31. We are tweaking the website to enable dues only payments and other contributions.  

Speaking of our website, we are pleased to announce we have retained Marquee Creatives to maintain and enhance our website. Marquee Creatives is owned by our very own Aundrea Cika Heschmeyer, fellow alumni and founding member of the ACAA. We believe having the site maintained by someone who “gets” Alliance College will be a great asset. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the website work done for us by the graduate interns at Penn State-Behrend under the watchful eye of another Alliance graduate, Dr. Kathy Polanski Noce. These students saved our bacon when the site went down. Moving forward we intend to transform our website into a central communication hub for all alumni.  

In closing, I am excited to start working with the new Board of Directors. Increased Alumni I engagement will be our main goal as we get started. However, our little board cannot do it all so we will be reaching out to all alumni to contribute their time and resources to Keep the Spirit of Alliance College alive.  

Take care, Mike!