By Maureen E. Moran ’89
When Colleen Totten-Amann ’92 moved to Maine in the
summer of 1999, it was a stroke of good luck for area alums.
Amann had moved from Connecticut to the Portland area with
her husband, Peter ’93. While in Connecticut, she had
been involved with the Hartford regional club, conducting
alumni interviews for the College. When she got to Maine,
Amann was interested in continuing her involvement with alumni
affairs. She was disappointed in what she found.
Although active in the 1970s and ’80s, the Portland-based
Maine alumni club had been rather quiet in recent years,
with the exception of a President’s Reception in 1999.
With more than 400 Holy Cross graduates in the state, however,
the potential existed to renew the club and infuse it with
fresh ideas and a burst of energy.
And that’s exactly what Amann did.
Late in 1999, Amann approached the club’s leadership
with a request to become more involved with the existing
group. In 2000, she was asked if she would be interested
in becoming club president, an opportunity she found appealing,
but one she would pursue after the birth of her second child
in October of that year. In January 2001, Amann—who
had been a member of the General Alumni Association since
1998—assumed the club’s presidency, jumping in
with both feet.
Soon after becoming president, Amann met with the club’s
board of directors to review a long-discussed survey of alums
living in Maine. “Was there an interest in a club? Finding
that out was my first challenge,” she says.
Working with the College’s Office of Alumni Relations,
Amann distributed the survey in June 2001. The survey was
designed to gauge the level of interest in a regional alumni
club and club activities, as well as whether members would
be willing to pay dues, and if anyone would be interested
in conducting alumni interviews. She received more than 80
responses, and published the results in an October 2001 newsletter
sent to Maine alums.
In addition to the survey, Amann began planning club activities.
In July 2001, she organized an alumni admissions training
session. In August, she put together a barbecue for accepted
students and graduates in Two Light State Park in Cape Elizabeth.
In November, she organized a President’s Reception that
featured Jacqueline Peterson, vice president for Student
Affairs and Dean of Students, as the keynote speaker.
“I wanted to give something to alums to prove that
I was serious about the club,” Amann says.
Amann has utilized a club newsletter to generate interest
in the Maine club, as well as foster a sense of community
among alums throughout the state. Although published on an
as-needed basis, the newsletter has been distributed just
about every three months. In the January 2002 newsletter,
Amann reviewed the recent President’s Reception, an
October GAA meeting, and information concerning the College’s
Sept. 11 scholarship fund.
“In putting together the newsletter, I feel my role
is to provide information about the club’s activities,
as well as about the College,” she says. “If, for
example, a Holy Cross team is going to be in Maine for a
sporting event, I like to include a notation, so if alums
here want to go, they can.”
In 2002, a renewed and revitalized Maine club has gotten
off to a good start. In late February, 15 volunteers—including
10 alums—braved a cold winter day to gather in Portland
to work on a Habitat for Humanity home. The group donned
tool belts, picked up hammers and climbed ladders to install
siding on three of the home’s walls, as well as build
a wall in the basement.
“We received a lot of interest in February’s Habitat
for Humanity project,” Amann says. “Because of
that, I’m going to look into another site we could work
on this summer.”
In 2002, Amann looks forward to continuing many of the activities
she introduced in 2001: A send-off barbecue in late August
for accepted students, a President’s Reception, perhaps
even a cocktail party at Christmas that would ask alums who
attend to bring a toy that would be donated to charity.
With a master’s degree in speech pathology and two
toddlers at home, Amann is a busy person. Despite the competing
demands for her time, she is committed to making certain
that Maine’s renewed regional club continues to thrive
and grow.
“It’s been fun,” she says. “I’ve
enjoyed meeting alums and reconnecting with classmates. As
club president, I’ve also enjoyed the opportunity to
become more involved at the College level, through the GAA.”
As she looks ahead to the future of the Maine club, Amann
plans to establish events that will “run” themselves
in the years to come, through carefully created frameworks
and detailed notes. Given how large Maine is, she’d
like to see two regional clubs, one for the northern part
of the state and one for the south, both operating under
one president.
Breathing new life into Maine’s regional club has meant
a lot of hard work for Amann, and she’s pleased with
what she sees. She hopes what has happened with the Maine
club can serve as an example for other small clubs around
the country.
“I’d like the Maine club to be looked upon as
successful,” Amann says, “as an example of what
a smaller, inactive club can do to revitalize itself, if
area alums are willing and interested in getting together
and bringing a little bit of Holy Cross to their part of
the country.”
Maureen E. Moran ’89 is a free-lance writer from
Mansfield, Mass.
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