CURTIS JOHNSON JR.’S BIG PLANS MEET THE NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE FAMU NATIONAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

BY [ Megan TRUSDELL ]

Most people don’t contemplate joining their alumni association until long after graduation. But Curtis Johnson Jr. isn’t like most people. Upon graduating with his MBA in 1992, Johnson immediately set his sights on the Florida A&M University (FAMU) National Alumni Association (NAA) and becoming a financially supporting member of his beloved alma mater. He became a lifetime member four years later.

“It’s just what I saw people doing,” said Johnson, explaining that his mother was a proud FAMU alumna herself. “I knew it was the right thing to do. Wherever I have lived, I have been around Rattlers. I was still immersed in FAMU. I would go to the Classic, take my family, enjoy the band, hang out with my classmates.”

Johnson was elected as the 19th FAMU National Alumni Association (NAA) president last year, after serving as the executive board’s sergeant-at-arms for two and a half years. He succeeded Col. (Ret.) Gregory L. Clark, who served six and a half years.

Johnson is a Fort Pierce City Commissioner and owner/founder of The CUVEY Group, a Port St. Lucie-based professional development training firm.

In his new role, Johnson has prioritized doubling paid membership to 10,000 members, handing out scholarships, and raising money for the NAA’s “Save Our Students” Scholarship Retention Campaign, which launched in February 2016 after the association learned there was a significant number of documented students, who could not register for classes because of debt.

“I’m talking openly about our drive to get to 10,000,” Johnson said. “Certainly, we’re going to be doing things differently when it comes to our national conference, then of course trying to always raise money.”

The alumni association’s budget is derived from membership dues, fundraising, and sponsorships. To become a member, the annual dues are $50 plus local chapter and regional dues. The one-time lifetime membership fee is $750, and the only dues that you will pay over your lifetime are local chapter and regional dues.

The alumni association is a volunteer organization and a majority of the association’s work is geared towards student recruitment and raising funds for scholarships. The alumni association collaborates with the FAMU Foundation Board of Directors, the FAMU Board of Trustees, the University President, and even state legislators.

“We are a team that works together,” Johnson said. “No matter what it may be, we are here to support FAMU!”

The NAA is a crucial direct support organization (DSO), said Carmen Cummings, assistant vice president of Alumni Affairs/ University Advancement.

“One of the key elements in terms of responsibilities of DSOs is to support students, to help them matriculate and graduate, and then as alums to connect them to various entities that may be able to help open the door to either a springboard of their career or a landing space,” she said. “We are grateful that we are the No. 1 public HBCU (historically black college or university) as indicated by U.S. News & World Report for the fourth consecutive year. We have to protect that.”

Advocacy is at the forefront of the NAA’s mission, encouraging members to call reps and senators in the months leading up to a session. Members advocated for and received more funding from the State Legislature to complete the $40 million, 73,000-square-foot Center for Access and Student Success (CASS) building, which houses various Division of Student Affairs offices.

Under Clark’s leadership, the NAA petitioned the Governor and the Legislature to change the Performance Based Funding Model, which relies on a series of metrics, such as four-year graduation rates, freshman retention, and salaries of recent graduates, to determine performance-based funding for state schools. The system denied extra funding to the “bottom three” universities. FAMU was consistently in the bottom three.

Rep. Ramon Alexander, a FAMU graduate who lobbied for the change, said the ranking system was unfair because it pitted vastly different institutions, such as the University of Florida, a major research university, against New College, a small liberal arts school. He also said in interviews it was unfair to withhold money from the bottom three if they were improving yet still trailed the top schools.

“We put together a plan to start petitioning the Governor and the Legislature to increase those funding dollars,” said Clark, who is now the vice president for Institutional Advancement at Alabama State University in Montgomery. “We worked with the Congressional Black Caucus and other legislative bodies in the Florida State

Johnson and Clark said the key to recruiting members is to meet them where they are — whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram — and to start early. In fact, half of the freshman class is recruited to the NAA at orientation, Clark said.

“You are going to see an increase in communications from me going out to alums who are not part of the NAA about what we do, how their lifetime membership gift helps to support current students,” Johnson said. “A lot of it is being present at Homecoming, other games on the road, membership calls, and an active membership chair.”

Legislature to abolish the bottom three. Now you’re talking about another $18 million that came back to FAMU’s budget.”

Moreover, alumni donations are the leading source of charitable support for the school. Alumni support was critical to securing funding for the $750,000 renovations to GalimorePowell Field House — the first phase of the “ALL IN” campaign under the Rattler Athletic Fund. (Phase 2 is to renovate Bragg Memorial Stadium, and Phase 3 will be the construction of a new stadium complex by 2030.)

The key to making change is to work with leadership in “lockstep,” Clark said.

“When you see me, you will see the president of the university, the president of the Board of Trustees, and the president of the (FAMU) Foundation,” he said. “We made a lot of decisions that made FAMU what it is today. We moved in tandem.”

Clark’s advice to Johnson? “Put good people around you, move out of the way, let them work, and they will help make you successful.”