New Alumni Rention

James · #1 11-22-2002, 09:53 PM

When people go away to college they are kind of thrilled to come back in the summer in vist with their old friends. Its just age old human bonding.

I think our alumni programs forget about that. We focus on events and show pieces, not people.

Yeah, I would love to attend a alum party, mixer, picnic, whatever, but I would I would really like to see people that I know there.

Many people don't go because they won't see people they know.And here I am thinking of alum further out.

Do you guys like going someplace abne being unknown?

What it seems we fail to do is try and involve our alums from the very beginning.

Month one from graduation.

The new graduate, we'll call her Anne, knows a lot of the seniors and juniors and some of the sophomores. If the people she knows invites her back, she is more likely to come and visit those people.

But think of the turn over in Greek Life! In three years almost the entire chapter you would have known is gone. Who is there left to visit?

Is there a way to keep involving the new alums with the new incoming classes. That would be key.

If that could be done. Then Anne would have more reason to come back and work with the chapter. Because there would be friendly and known faces waiting. New friends all with the same tradition.

I would suggest to you that friendship would be a more compelling reason to come back than simple loyalty.

Lets see if we can't come up with some sample programs and ideas to try and make this work better.

Or maybe some of you have something like this in place? Or things that work the same way?

Because, its a lot easier to hook people in the begiining when they are still psyched on Greek Life, then to wait ten years down the road.

Tom Earp · #2 11-22-2002, 11:01 PM

James, PM me! I think I know what you are talking about!

If you would like to have a Ma Bell, give me a phone # and will give You a call on my Nickle!

Your Call Main!

I love to give you a little shit as you can see as you and i are a lot alike but I am Maturer that you are!

Have talked to many GCers on Phone and it is Great to meet a voice with a alias!

What you think?

33girl · #3 11-23-2002, 03:07 PM

It's a 2 way street - sisters need to be welcoming, and keep the alums updated in a deeper way. If they are having problems with membership or anything else the FIRST place they should go is the alumnae - not nationals, not the school. Go to the sisters who have been there. They might have a better perspective now that they've been away for a while.

Alums need to make an effort to keep involved. I went back and visited regularly and kept up with the younger sisters. I am proud that I can call them friends and not just sisters that came after me. Everyone needs a little break when you graduate, especially if you've been involved for 4 years. But make an effort to go to that first homecoming, remember no one is going to ask you to make decorations for rush. Nothing pisses me off more than an alum who has cut ties with everyone and then shows back up at the house expecting everyone to kiss her ass. You get what you give.

If your chapter has been out of touch with alums for a long time, try reaching out through email and letters. You have nothing to lose.

KappaTarzan · #4 11-23-2002, 06:01 PM

we're facing the same problem.. i'd love to see ideas to incorporate into our program..

LeslieAGD · #5 11-23-2002, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 33girl
It's a 2 way street - sisters need to be welcoming, and keep the alums updated in a deeper way. If they are having problems with membership or anything else the FIRST place they should go is the alumnae - not nationals, not the school. Go to the sisters who have been there. They might have a better perspective now that they've been away for a while.

Amen! Keep alums posted and just say thank you!

adduncan · #6 11-23-2002, 06:29 PM

Pardon me for thread-crashing.........

I posted a message on alumni/ae dropping off the radar in another post here

It blows my mind that after all the educational effort of new members, people just blow off this fraternal commitment after college. I have two sisters-in-law, both joined the same sorority in college. One continues to be active w/ alumnae, the other practically forgot everything the minute she graduated. I could SHAKE the latter!

For me this issue is a really sensitive one.
Repeating the last line of my previous post: It's ironic that many people who join their respective fraternities in college forget all about it after graduation, and those of us who REALLY want to contribute a life-long commitment don't get the chance.

I REALLY need some more coffee......

Adrienne

pinkyphimu · #7 11-23-2002, 09:00 PM

If your chapter has been out of touch with alums for a long time, try reaching out through email and letters. You have nothing to lose. -33 girl

this is a great idea, but what if it doesn't help? i recently attended an event at my collegiate chapter and met some of the women there. i graduated 5 years ago, and i live 6 hrs away, and i have managed to get to 1 rush and 1 initation. so some of the women confide in me that things are not ok. i offer to do what i can to help....our alums had already been discussing some things. i get back home and send info to these ladies right away....and i hear NOTHING!!! none of the alums who offered their help that night have heard anything either! so, how many times do you email before you give up? my chapter has meant a lot to me. i want to help, but it is hard to help people who don't want help.

what i have seen so far is that alums are very involved right after college, and as they get further away from graduation, they become less interested. i think some of it has to do with feeling like they don't know anyone, but i know some people who feel like being in a fraternity or a sorority was just something they did in college. now, they are busy with jobs, marriages and families and are "too grown up" for being in a greek group. i remember hearing that being in my sorority would be for life, but i guess that i didn't see too many alums who had graduated from my chapter (i became a member in the 3rd year of its existance on my campus), so i don't think that we understood that concept. i guess my point is that we need to impress upon memebers that it is for a lifetime and find ways for them to want to be involved after graduation, catch young alums and help them to stay in touch....and finally, get those older alums to want to be a part of the fraternity/sorority even tho they are "grown up."

Kevin · #8 11-23-2002, 09:58 PM

It is up to the chapter to keep alums feeling welcome and up to date. It is up to the alums to remain receptive to the chapter's messages.

If you have a problem with either side of that equation you have to change the fundamental culture within your organization.

33girl · #9 11-24-2002, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pinkyphimu
this is a great idea, but what if it doesn't help? i recently attended an event at my collegiate chapter and met some of the women there. i graduated 5 years ago, and i live 6 hrs away, and i have managed to get to 1 rush and 1 initation. so some of the women confide in me that things are not ok. i offer to do what i can to help....our alums had already been discussing some things. i get back home and send info to these ladies right away....and i hear NOTHING!!! none of the alums who offered their help that night have heard anything either! so, how many times do you email before you give up? my chapter has meant a lot to me. i want to help, but it is hard to help people who don't want help.

I think it is very, very hard for the collegiate members sometimes to admit that things are not going well. They've been entrusted with the chapter and want to feel like they are making the alums proud. All you can do is keep in touch and say you're there if they need you. Eventually it will sink in. I know when I was in school, we had horrid alum relations - one of our alums worked in the student life office and basically wanted nothing to do with us. Needless to say we didn't feel too warm & fuzzy about her. Well I resolved that I would do my part to prevent things like that. It took a long time to change our chapter's culture from "alums are pains in the ass" to "alums are fun people and want to help" but we eventually did.

shadokat · #10 11-25-2002, 03:11 PM

There are always going to be people who look at the fraternity/sorority experience as a four year college thing, and then there are those of us who think it's a lifetime. By reaching out to alumnae, whether it be via hard copy newsletters, holiday cards, birthday cards, email newsletters, websites, you can find a lot of alums, but the work has to go into it.

On the other hand, alums can't sit back and think that the collegiate chapter is just going to simply cater to them. It's a two way relationship, as others have said, and you'll get out of it what you put into it.

As for coming back for events, James, you're right. Most alums come back to see their old friends. I have a core group of women who I went to school with/graduated with, and we always make plans to go. And yeah, we chat with new girls and hang out at the house, but we also go to see each other!

swede · #11 12-08-2002, 03:23 PM

As mentioned, one of the key things to getting your alumni to come back to your events is making sure that they know some people there. Alumni want to come to the events primarily to see their friends from when they were in the chapter.

Sure they want to see the new guys, and the house, and school and town where they used to live. But most alumni are not going to take days off work, pack up or leave the wife and kids and drive or fly just for that. They want to see their friends.

That said, there are two different ways to try to accomplish getting more alumni to come to your chapters events. These two ways can be used together.

1) Get a alumni who is in town and fairly active in the events of the chapter. Maybe an official alumni officer or advisor, or someone else. It should be someone old enough to know a majority of the brothers. This works for my 16 year old chapter. You may need to recruit several of these people if you are older. One for every generation or two so to say. But what this alumni does is calls and emails all his alumni friends and tries to get them to come back for an event. This is done separate from the chapters attempt. You still have to send out invitations way ahead of time, and newsletters and all that. This alumni person will help by getting people to come though. It is kind of a snowball effect too. Once you get a few to agree to come, more and more will sign up.

2) The second way to accomplish good alumni relations is personal contract from the chapter to the alumni. I know that there is kind of a feeling, that all the alumni ever do is show up drunk and break stuff. At least that is how it is at my chapter. But if you think of the alumni, they have most likely experienced any "high drama" situation that will occur in your house. A brother wanting to resign from the chapter, a person quitting rush chair two days before rush, crap like that. So if you ask them for their help you may be amazed at how much they know.

The way to get on this good of terms with your alumni, where you can talk open with them is through personal contact. By this, you don't even have to meet them in person. But email them. That is easiest. Get to know them a little bit, let them know what is going on in the chapter or with other alumni, on a personal level. Not just via a newsletter in the mail or mass email or something like that. You will be amazed at how many alumni will respond to this kind of attention and get back involved in the chapter.

One good way to get your new members started with contacting alumni is to have a alumni and new member pen pal program. Pick some alumni and then have each new member email or write to two or three of them. The alumni will be thrilled to hear from these new members and it will get them fired up about your chapter again.

swede · #12 12-08-2002, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pinkyphimu
what i have seen so far is that alums are very involved right after college, and as they get further away from graduation, they become less interested. i think some of it has to do with feeling like they don't know anyone, but i know some people who feel like being in a fraternity or a sorority was just something they did in college. now, they are busy with jobs, marriages and families and are "too grown up" for being in a greek group.

I often hear from people that they used to be a "insert GLO here." OR I was in one in college.

These people have either forgotten their commitment to their organization or never understood it in the first place.

Some of these people are maybe like this because the chapter did not have an alumni relations program. Some are probably this way because that is just how they are.

CanadianTeke · #13 12-09-2002, 04:08 PM

We are in the process of attempting to set up an alumni big brother project, where not only is a pledge paired up with an active big brother he is also paired up with an alumnus. That way the alumni get to know the new class and can feel comfortable coming to events. I should point out our chapter is very young (we were chartered less than 3 years ago) so we all know most of our alumni from when they were ative.

FuzzieAlum · #14 12-09-2002, 05:08 PM

James, you hit a key issue here. And it's hardest of all to reach out to alums who are far away.

I've moved far away from my school. I would love to go back and visit, but the longer I've been gone, the less the current girls mean to me. Sure, I'm glad to keep up with their news, and I'll do what I can to support them, but seeing them in the flesh doesn't do that much for me. What I want to see when I go back are the alums who were in school when I was there.

It's not reasonable for me to travel back as frequently as a local alum who helps the chapter out all the time. There's just no way you can give me a connection to the current girls; I only have two weeks of vacation a year!

I think the hardest period for retention isn't immediately after graduation, since we still come back to visit the girls we know. It's harder in that growing period of alienation a few years later, when we know fewer and fewer members, and when *gasp* the chapter is changing from what we knew, that we lose a lot of people.

The problem is that once that thread, that continuity is severed, an alum can fall out of touch. And you just know that in the (hopefully many) years before you die, your chapter is going to have a weak alum chair at times, and that flow of information will be broken. Fellow alums who have been out five or more years and so no longer personally know many members, how often do you get a newsletter from the old chapter?

What the chapter can do is keep us alums chock full of news on my fellow alums and up-to-date with the chapter's current doings. Local alums should be invited over frequently. And then no more than once a year, they should have a gathering specifically for alums so we can see each other and nod proudly over the current members. Too many events for the non-local alums is counterproductive, because it spreads the attendees too thin. If I spend money to fly cross-country, I want to know I will see all the old gang, not hear that Beth was there last week and I just missed her. And while I'm hanging out at the house, filled with the warm glow of nostalgia, you send the corp board prez over to hit me up for a donation, if you're really smart!

doubleblue&gold · #15 12-09-2002, 06:26 PM

I also am from an alum group that is small. For many years we had no college chapter close by, so those new grads moving here spent their time establishing careers and families.

Now that there is a college chapter close, we encourage our members to be active as much as possible to show them that this is a lifetime commitment----without being there all the time or making them feel we're telling them what to do. We hoethat will make them feel welcome to continue to be active alums. On the flip side, when the chapter complains that they don't see alums as much as they want, we remind them they too need to remain active after they graduate, thus continuing the circle.