I belong to the AA in my area, and we have a Young Alum Group headed up by one of my pledge sisters:) She plans about 1 event a month, usually to a cute restaurant or bar in the area...or just dinner and a movie and uses Evite to send out invitations to everyone. I think we consider people under 30 as 'Young Alums' in general. There are over 120 people on the list...usually 10-20 at events, and it's not always the same people...so that's good. Even if people don't come to events, it's a great way for them to know that they can still hang out with DGs after graduation. Although I'm still in the area where I went to college and know some of the older alums in the area who were advisors to my chapter, it's great to meet girls from other places who have moved to St. Louis. In general, most of us 'younger' folk don't do the other Alum events (even though we're encouraged to)--but I know people get really bummed when they can't make a young alum event.
The 'leader' of our Young Alum Group is on the regular Alum Board and she is our liason to the older members (and their liason to us). The YAG is a great way for a lot of us (who probably wouldn't have gotten involved otherwise) to feel less inhibited by the Older alums. I suggest to try forming a YAG within your Alumnae Group. Get contact info. for those under 30 (email is a great way to send info.!) and try just meeting up and hanging out. The more informal the better!
Good luck!

I think our problem is that a lot of younger alums move too far away to be involved with our alum chapter, so it's usually mostly older ladies who are doing the activities. I'm going to join my alum chapter this fall when I go back to grad school, so hopefully I can convince a few of my newly-graduated sisters to do it, too.

A lot will depend on what size city you are in.

Some areas do a city wide AA for Chapters from all over the country.

KC had a city wide AA that did not work out so we started our own Chapter AA!

Well, we have from me, 62 to the youngest of 26. Age is irrelivent when we get together.

Rudey, in answer to your question, have a set time of the month, say the 1-2-3 rd day of the week once a month and have a social gathering at a Pub or bar and grill.

Make it at the same place and same time. You will build a following, some will be there everytime and some not. But as others find out about it, it will grow. Get email addresses for a listing to keep them updated, and do not over email.

While each Brother may not know each other, you have one thing in common, Your Fraternity!:cool:

The alumnae chapter that I belong to consists primarily of "younger" alumnae. I think the oldest woman involved is in her early 30s (32 or 33 I think). We haven't been very successful at recruiting the alumnae in the area that didn't go to my school. We can get them to come out for things like Founders' Day, but that's really about it.

Our events range from dinner at a local restaurant to Bunco/game night to wine and cheese parties to family bbqs. But we are fairly small (21 paid members) and looking to expand since there are hundreds of G Phi's in the area.

Does your International have a data base that pin points Alums in your area with email addresses?

If so, why not just send out emails informing them of what you are doing. Maybe it will pick up a few who in turn if they show up will let others know. It may be a slow process but all takes time for the pay off.

Ergo, if you get some of the old Fartettes, you may get more! :)

A seed is planted, watered, and watch it grow!:cool:

Our AA spans between recent graduates to women in their mid to late 30's. We also have some older women on the books but they usually only attend founders day and things like that. The most active women are the youger ones 23-30 though. I'm actually taking over programming this year and I'm planning one event a month plus founders day and mother daughter brunch. Most of the events i've been to this year have centered around food and alchohol
We usually meet at a resturaunt and socialize for a few hours, We also have a business meeting once a month at the Ronald Mcdoanld House. In the works this year are wine tasting, tapas and drinks, possibly a casino cruise and I'd really like to do a semiformal christmas party and give us alums an excuse to dress up. well see how this flies though.
I guess the close local chapter helps with having younger alum but i'm from Vegas and we also have a couple of girls from FSU and our pres. is from USF so we do get girls form all over that just want to be involved. I suppose our central, FL location helps too.

We have a young alumnae subgroup of our alumnae chapter. It started out as women who had take alumnae status in the last 5-6 years, but it's now comprised of women in their 20s and early 30s. We meet once a month and do our own philanthropy projects. We usually have dinners or lunches, go shopping, paint pottery, etc. We are planning a camping trip for the fall and a summer cookout. You don't have to pay additional dues to participate and a lot of the women only participate in the young alum activities. It would be great if everyone attended both, but at least they are active in some way! It's been a great way to recruit more recent alumnae.

DZHBrown-
Yeah, I was thinking of doing something like that. The problem is I have all these other things to do (like apply to Med School, work my 2 jobs...)! Do you get alumna from the local chapters, or do you get to recruit recent alumna from other chapters?
-M

XOMichelle - We contact all recent/young alumnae in the area, regardless of what chapter they are from. We only have one chapter in the immediate area, so most are from that one. We usually hold a senior tea or senior dinner for the ones who are graduating from that chapter to invite them to the group.

we have both a younger alumnae group (ivy connection) and our traditional alumnae group. our younger alumnae group is composed of women 10 years out of college and younger (mostly 20's-early 30's), but occassionally women from the traditional group (all ages, but mostly mid-30's+) attend activities marketed as ivy connection gatherings.

we have a happy hour once a month on the second wednesday (wild wednesday happy hour) and we rotate the location around the city to serve all of our members. we try to pick locations that are pretty trendy -- we've had more success with restaurants that people area eager to attend. during the summer months we add an additional monthly activity also during happy hour - martinis & manicures at an eclectic local bar - on the fourth thursday of every summer month. at all events we identify ourselves with a red umbrella of some sort placed on or near our table, which makes it much easier for newcomers to find us.

we plan a few events a year with our traditional alumnae group like a founders day dinner and an ultimate party (pampered chef, southern living at home, stampin' up, mary kay, etc all at one party, usually around the holiday time for holiday shopping). we also try to plan a joint summer event that we can invite recent graduates, legacies and collegians taking summer school to - this year it's a beach party and bbq.

something else that's been incredibley useful is our yahoo group and website. our website is a joint website for both alumnae groups and includes calendars, photos from events, a members only section, and numerous other things. since the launching of our website, membership has increased dramatically in the younger alumnae group, and we have experienced improved alumnae relations with our local collegiate chapter.

we've had great turnout at all of our events and membership keeps growing by leaps and bounds!

Re: young Alumns
 

Michelle,

This is a great question. I have found that the key to maintaining a strong alumni association and keeping the recruiting numbers up for younger members is to keep good ties with the area chapters. Make an appearance at a meeting or hang with the bros/sisters at one of their events. It breaks down like this.

1. You need to create a cycle. If you yourself are new to the alum status, as am I, go back to your chapter. The odds are that you still know a lot of the people there and they can relate with you. If you can convince a few to join you and show them that the Alumni Association is awesome then others will follow you. Sooner or later you'll develop a continuum or domino effect and you'll see your numbers increase. Before you know it, the alumni association will expand and the older people will actually get pretty excited to see the involvement.

2. This works best when you still live within a commuting distance from your active chapter and school. If you don't I would suggest paying a visit to the nearest chapter and try socializing a little with the older bros/sisters getting ready to graduate. Maybe take the graduating president out to lunch or a happy hour with the guys/girls after work.

Best Wishes, Boodleboy322

Do any of your alumni associations target recent graduates? What kinds of activities do you do?

-Michelle

Another way to target a variety of groups is to sponsor (not run!) special interest groups.

Cooking Club
Happy Hour
Moms and Tots
Lunch Bunch

If you have the resources to target several age and life stages you can help them connect. They might go to every moms and tots gathering but only one or two of the monthly meetings - but that's ok, because you are filling a need for them. And they feel connected.

I think you've got to be open to what your membership needs.

Just out of curiousity, what is "implosion"?

i belong to the NYC alum group but haven't been active in the last 2 years due to my schedule and the fact that it is too far for me to travel to most events during the week.

they do lots of great activities both as a chapter and with other greek alums.

the website is www.nycaxoalum.com if you want to check it out. they post their activities.

Our chapter destroyed itself from the inside out. (hence implosion)

Thankfully, a couple years later a group of women restarted the chapter... which is why I have any alumni status to speak of.

~ Mel.