The Plan for Action
The Question: Leaving a Legacy with Longevity
For a group with 40 years of adventures, touring, and entertaining under their belt, the Din & Tonics have a surprisingly little in the way of organizational structure and support. This situation is endemic in college organizations, with leadership typically turning over every year, and membership fully refreshing every three to four years at the most. This situation presents a sort of conundrum of how exactly to instate a structure that will both facilitate function and be easily transferrable to the next round of leadership.As a world-touring jazz a cappella group, we are becoming increasingly more invested in ways to make those experiences which we offer our members more accessible to people from all backgrounds and statuses. One way we advanced this mission was by dropping our gendered status as explicitly "all male" when I joined the group in 2016. Another way we are seeking to do this is by establishing an endowment to allow greater accessibility for students from all financial backgrounds to be able to afford what is an increasingly expensive venture: an 11-week world tour. This tour is an expensive venture to plan--a $70-80,000 project, including airfare, ground travel, living arrangements, and visas. Personally, members have traditionally been expected to cover their own meals, in addition to any other costs which may occur for traveling members--personally, my 2018 Summer Tour experience cost upwards of $2,500. The long-term goal of the endowment is to establish a source of revenue to provide travel stipends for touring Dins.
The goals of this project are constructed to jointly increase accessibility and ease of planning, in addition to combating those forces which would otherwise make institutional development and improvement impossible. These goals are, in short:
1. To establish an endowment for future Dins, to subsidize group travel and expenses, in addition to eventually providing travel stipends to group members to reduce the personal costs of touring and make the opportunity more accessible.
2. Assert the proper legal and organizational structure to manage such an endowment, which can survive rapid reiterations of on-campus undergraduate officerial management.
Findings through Research: Concerns & Considerations
When approaching the question of how to organize the structural capacities of a touring performance group with an affiliation to an undergraduate college, there are two primary resources to consult. The first is those who run similar organizations, and the second is college administrators.To the first point, I conducted interviews and case studies with The Harvard Krokodiloes (an all-male a cappella group at Harvard, founded 1946) and The Yale Whiffenpoofs (the oldest collegiate a cappella group in the United States, founded 1909). While these conversations were necessarily confidential in nature by request of those interviewees (as they involved discussions of structure, operations, challenges and successes, which may not be publicly available), the take-aways were very important in forming my list of concerns and considerations.
Additionally, I have interfaced with the Yale Office of Student Affairs, the MIT Student Activities Office, and the Harvard Dean of Students Office. Through both online resources, and conversations with the likes of Yale's Hannah Peck, MIT's Leah Flynn Gallant, and Harvard's Kate Colleran, I have pieced together the concerns which undergraduate colleges may have when approaching the conversations of student groups' dealings with . alumni relations, funding and fundraising, tax and legal status, organizational structure, and general interfacing with the college administration and undergraduate population. I have also worked closely with the Harvard Law School Transactional Clinic, whom have provided pro bono legal council to myself and the group over the duration of this project.
Aside from the research, the timing of these initiatives is particularly relevant. This spring, on April 13, 2019, was the 40th Anniversary of The Din & Tonics. This involved welcoming over 120 alums from around the United States (and the world) to campus, and hosting a weekend of activities. I chose to use this event as a jumping-off point for the endowment work, providing the opportunity for a large capital campaign and time to solicit thoughts from Din Alumni about how to approach the situation of organizational structure and the lessons learned during their time in the group, both as active singing members and as members of the alumni community.
The primary concerns and considerations solicited through this investigative process include:
1. How do we conform to university requirements for copyright law and interfacing with the college?
According to the Harvard Dean of Students Office: "Recognition by the College does not grant student organizations the University's federal tax-exempt status." This means that for all intents and purposes, organizations have no tax status, nor protection against eventualities--financial, legal, health, or otherwise related--as anything other than an undergraduate. For a group with six-figure cash flow, this is not acceptable liability for an undergraduate of 19 or 20 years old to be fully assuming.
2. How do we incorporate (or even leverage) individual alumni and alumni organizations while still maintaining operational and motivational independence from non-undergraduate individuals who are not on campus?
Maintaining autonomy is a requirement of this process because, as we know from many Crimson articles from the last couple years in addition to the RSO and USGSO conversations, alumni can have a lot of sway and control over undergraduate organizations if those undergraduate members do not prioritize their autonomy. The undergraduate administrations at Harvard, Yale, and MIT all made comments to this extent, indicating that there have been problems in the past and that this must not be a priority, but truly a requirement.
While talking to various alums during the 40th Anniversary celebration, I realized how many legally and financially competent individuals I had at my disposal. Many had grappled before with the questions and initiatives I'm tackling, and also have a vested interest in my (our) success. Ignoring or understating the leverage and usefulness of alumni in this process, on the other extreme of this situation, would also be a disservice to the goals I look to accomplish.
3. How do we create a process which is manageable for future undergraduates whom may not have legal or financial experience?
This is far and away the most difficult question to answer. In all situations of similarly-run groups, alumni were fully necessary to actually allow for seamless transition between officerial boards. Especially considering the complications of running a 501(c)(3) and managing situations pertaining to finance, insurance, legal/tax reporting, and IP rights, this seems to also be a critical part of any well-laid organizational longevity initiative.
Recommendations: Structural Security & Future Foundational Funding
Of the two goals which I have outlined, one is already underway. To provide some context, before this spring, we had two funds established already with the Din Alumni Council (DAC). The first is simply an operations fund for the DAC itself, primarily to cover the costs of incorporation and Directors & Officers insurance for the executive board. The second is a tour fund from which loans can be provided to the undergraduate group for fronting tour and travel expenses. These loans must be paid back by the October following a world tour; world tours generally run from the end of May through the beginning of August.For the 40th Anniversary, I worked jointly with the Din Alumni Council (their own incorporated 501(c)(3)) to run a capital campaign. This capital campaign, entitled "$40,000 by the 40th," was intended to kickstart a third account, the Din Development Fund, which is to serve as a nest egg for the group, such that some time down the road, stipends can be provided to the undergraduate group to subsidize world tour travel.
Was it successful? Yes, very! One Din alumnus I reached out to expressed interest to match up to $10,000 of donations from other alumni, and we were able to raise around $35,000 by the 40th Anniversary Celebration weekend. By the end of the week following, we had surpassed our $40,000 goal (we're somewhere around $43,000, although more has been pledged). This money will be invested in an index fund, and managed by the Din Alumni Council, because it is really the only way to manage these funds and not have them squandered away unknowingly by some business manager down the road who doesn't know the intention of the fund.
As for the second initiative, organizational structure, I have presented my findings and recommendations to the Din Alumni Council and current officers of the undergraduate group. We will be electing our new officers in the coming weeks, and I will likely remain affiliated as an advisory member to help enact, establish, and secure those changes which we make.
Given those aforementioned goals and their requisite considerations when taking action, I have the following recommendations for organizational structure:
1. Establish a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, with undergraduate officers and a Board of Directors comprised of alumni.
This entity will be legally distinct from the Din Alumni Council, and will operate with advisory and administrative assistance from the alumni, albeit with full control of decisions given to the undergraduates. This is sustainable as a legally distinct organization both from Harvard and from the alumni. After speaking with undergraduate groups at both Harvard and Yale, incorporation is certainly feasible, and it is possible to raise enough revenue to cover D&O insurance, incorporation fees, and all other undergraduate initiatives.
2. Utilize alumni for retainment of institutional memory and filing assistance.
The strength and power of the Din & Tonics alumni community is quite remarkable, and ought to be strongly leveraged throughout this process. While touring, we often stay in the homes of our alumni, and as we gathered over half of all members ever to sing in the group to a reunion celebration, this alumni support network is only on the rise. All other similar organizations whom I have spoken with track their own finances within their undergraduate group, then ask a designated alumnus to serve as a CPA to assist with filing. I will be asking the Din Alumni Council to elect a member yearly to assist with this filing. If no such candidates are found, I will attempt to establish a permanent relationship with the Harvard Law Transactional Clinic to assist us instead. The benefit of this being an alumnus, however, is their vested interested in the group and long-standing commitment to its success--this is why I believe that we can use the first alternative.
3. Establish a formal contract for all members of the undergraduate group and alumni council whom act as advisory members.
This is somewhat of an uncustomary formality within the Dins; however, it is a necessary rubber stamp so that the intention of any relationship between the undergraduate group and alumni council is well-defined and clearly understood. This also helps the undergraduate officers to understand their own responsibilities and how to faithfully and successfully complete their obligations. This is how to establish succession planning and institutional continuation.
The Din & Tonics are an organization worth preserving, and while the composition of the group has and will forever continue to change and evolve, the spirit or community, Dinniness, and musical excellence will remain the same. I wish to preserve that spirit, and so following the delivery of these recommendations, I will ensure with the rest of my time as an undergraduate that I successfully establish this organization for the future. As an alumnus, I will do the same--but the urgency is strong, as I have the power to do this now, while on campus, in a way which I won't necessarily down the road once I'm outside of the Harvard system. I am excited to continue working for this organization which I care so much about.
DIN-cerely,
Austin Lentsch, Din #246
Stage Manager 2019
