Dear alumni and friends of Women’s Ice Hockey at Cornell,

We are writing to let you know that after 45 years as a varsity sport at Cornell the Women’s Ice Hockey team has formed our own association!!  The Cornell Women’s Hockey Association (CWHA) will have 3 major areas of focus:

1. Connecting alumni to the current program thru social media and events on campus and regional events.  We want to help create and facilitate lifelong relationships among former players and help keep alumni connected to the current team, coaching staff and each other.
   
   
2. Connecting current players to the alumni network:  our alumni can provide great career counseling to our players and guidance as they transition from student athlete to whatever is next in their lives. We look to build a robust mentorship program for WIH.
   
   
3. Fundraising.  We intend to increase the number of donors and the total dollars raised for the WIH program.  We will work closely with the coaches and athletics fundraising officers to help WIH meet their annual fund goal each year an identify potential new benefactors.

Much has been achieved already: 

1. We have formed a Founding Board of Directors. 
   

   The Officers of the Board are:
   President – Cindy(Warren)Schlaepfer
   Vice President – Alison Norton
   Treasurer – Melinda Dower
   Secretary – Jeri(Maerz)Rippon

   Board Members:
   Teddi-Jann Covell
   Diane Duthie
   Amanda Mazzotta
   Stephanie Pratt
   Caroline Scott
   Cyndy Schlaepfer Youker
   Anna Zorn

   The board held its first meeting on Saturday July 15^th in the Harkness Room at Lynah while we were all in town for the WIH 45^th reunion.  It was a lively meeting with a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and commitment evident.

2. We have created our Bylaws and they are being reviewed by the compliance department and the alumni athletics affairs liaison to insure all is in order.  We will be sharing them with everyone once we get final approval.
   
   
3. We have 4 sub-committees who already are working on goals for the 2017-2018 fiscal year which runs from July 1, 2017 thru June 30, 2018.  The sub-committees are:
   

   Public Relations/Events:
   Chairperson – Alison Norton
   Stephanie Pratt, Cyndy Schlaepfer Youker, Anna Zorn

   Mentoring:
   Chairperson – Jerri Rippon
   Amanda Mazzotta

   Fundraising:
   Chairperson – Melinda Dower
   Cindy(Warren)Schlaepfer, Caroline Scott

   Nominating:
   Chairperson – Diane Duthie
   Teddi-Jann Covell

4. We are in the process of establishing our social media platform to ensure everyone has easy access to team news and updates, events, alumni activities and more.
   
   For now, we are still looking for 6-8 more board members.  The time commitment is not significant; we plan to meet two(2) times per year, hopefully around team events and not always in Ithaca.  In addition each board member sits on a sub-committee.  Please contact Diane Duthie at DianeMDuthie@gmail.com or Cindy Schlaepfer at waltandcindy@gmail.com  if you are interested in serving. 
   
   
5. Lastly, we are trying to gather information from our alumni so we can connect with each other more easily.  If you would like to update us on your status please respond to this email and provide answers to the questions listed below.

Name – current and former if appropriate
Address
Email
Mobile #
Years on team or grad year
Position
College and major at Cornell
Further degrees
Further hockey involvement
Professional trade and experience
Any companies with connections
Affiliations 

We will have much more news to communicate in the coming months.  We hope that each of you share in our excitement about the possibilities that exist for us to reinforce and/or renew our affection for Cornell in general and Women’s Ice Hockey specifically.

Go Big Red!