Who's getting Alumnae Development Right?
 

I'm gathering information for an Alumnae Development project, and thought I'd get some insight from all of the well-informed folks on GC w/a little informal poll.

In your opinion, what organization(s) (including, but not limited to NPHC/NPC/NIC, etc.) get it right when it comes to recruitment, retention, and development of alumnae/alumni members, and why?

This is not meant to be a "my organization is better than yours" thread; we all know that some groups just seem to have better success keeping their members interested after graduation; or in the case of organizations that do not involve college life to attract members (I'm thinking Junior League & the like), what do they offer that makes people want to join & stick around?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts...feel free to PM if you'd rather not post in this thread.

I'm not going to name names (mainly because I'm not sure at this point who does what), but here are some of the things that I think are (God how I hate this phrase) best practices:

1. Having special groups for younger women. It's a lot less scary to walk into a room full of people you don't know if you know they're all around your age - and lots of new alumnae don't know WHAT to expect.

2. Having geographically-based alumnae chapters, AND collegiate chapter-based chapter associations. Too many times alum chapters end up segregated by collegiate chapter and anyone from outside that chapter doesn't feel welcome. It also pretty much defeats the purpose of being in a national sorority. Knowing there is a place to go to just discuss what's going on at State U alleviates that.

3. Have at least 10 (or better yet 15 or 20) women when starting a new alumnae chapter. If you can't pull that many girls together, then the chapter is just going to be the same people doing the same thing year after year.

First, I agree with 33girl and her insights. Here are a few more from my work with alumnae chapters and APHs:

1. Strong Leadership and Transition of Leadership - Alumnae members are pulled in a large number of directions (career, family, other volunteer opportunities), so it is often difficult to recruit and maintain good leadership. Accountable Leadership (both national and local level) goes a long way in planning, promoting, and assessing programs of an Alumnae Chapter. I have also seen great alumnae chapters fall apart when leadership is transitioned from a strong leader to a weak leader, but not supported.

2. Goal Setting and Accountability - Once you have a core group of leaders, that group needs to create and work towards goals that they develop. If an alumnae chapter only wants to meet social to reconnect with sisters - great! If it wants to run community service or chapter support program - even better. Groups need to have common values that members want to be a part.

3. Prioritize Membership Recruitment - Its easy to get burned out with volunteer groups, so membership recruitment is important to make a priority.

Family-friendly meeting dates and times

Clustering meetings with activities/events

Strong public relations campaign that emphasizes charity work and demystifies the perceived "elitism"

National support is very important, but if you want to treat alumnae like older collegians, there will be resistance. Alums don't necessarily want to fill out monthly reports, especially if the group doesn't meet monthly.

Family friendly and work hours friendly events are definitely a must.

If the alumnae group is geographically located, allow the group to have the ability to have mixers with the women of the chapters in their area. For the alumnae, it's a recruitment event. For the chapter, it's hosting an alumnae event. Win-win.

Accountability - on a local level to the national organization, but also from the national level to the local groups.

Interestingly, though, it seems like this is almost entirely under local control. What do the national organizations do to support local alumnae groups?

Mine provides some fantastic grants for philanthropy projects and college scholarships. I am assuming everyone else does too, but I could be wrong.

I think the beauty of a well-run alumnae program is that it is much more locally controlled. The women are wildly different from place to place (I'm now on my 4th alumnae association), and cookie cutter, top-down mandates would fail miserably if my Orange County group (meets only occasionally, very loosely structured) had to match the programming of my Cedar Rapids group (met religiously every month, had full programming, got the big grants from FHQ frequently) or my Chicago City group (met monthly or more, usually in bars, all the members were under 30 and everyone was far away from home). I would definitely look for a nationwide program to allow for these variations. Ours sets out guidelines for a variety of group types. Otherwise you'd lose the occasional involvement of some great women who aren't looking for their alumnae membership to equal a Junior League membership.

I don't know if alumnae chapters of any sorority do this, but I think it would be great if the alumnae in the chapter made initial contact with other alumnae in the area. For example, headquarters - or whoever manages the alumnae database - could provide the chapter with a list (at least once a year) of alumnae living in the area, and the chapter could send them an email/letter informing them of the chapter's existence and any upcoming events.

It might be more effective to have smaller events with alumnae of a similar age group. I think it's difficult for some alumnae to just show up to events not knowing if they'll walk into a chapter full of women who are many many years older or younger than them. Of course it's great to get to know alumnae of all ages, but it's obviously easier to socialize, at least initially, with women in a similar age group.

ETA: And it's much easier to talk to and get to know 3-5 women at a time, rather than 10, 20, 30, or more. I find alumnae chapter recruitment to be similar to collegiate COB recruitment. Smaller, more intimate settings are usually the best route to go.

I've been VERY involved in just what you are talking about. The problem is the databases are wildly outdated because after women graduate, a lot of them are gone forever so the address on file is their parents', even if the last time they lived there was 1962.

But yes, your headquarters should be able to give you a list by zip code. Do them a favor and let them know the dead addresses. And google is your friend.

Facebook is a good friend too.

Alumnae who wish to help with the sorority should be used as much as possible. Too often I am seeing women who want to be involved sitting around without being able to help.

I also like the idea of alumnae chapters contacting alumnae in the area.

There could also be a position where HQ contacts women in an area asking if they want to form a chapter.

There is a Phi Sig NoVa alumnae chapter, but it meets more toward DC, which for me, is impossible to get to on a weeknight, and hard to work with when you have a family and live about 30 miles away.

I kind of look at this differently. From what I understand, NPHC groups have undergraduate and graduate chapters where the meeting structure is pretty much the same for both categories - and as we all know, they have a LOT more active alumnae than NPC groups do. Maybe the key to making NPC alumnae appreciate their membership more is by asking more from them. I feel like sometimes we make it TOO easy for alum chapters to start/maintain themselves.

If all they are willing to do is send in a report once a year, maybe it's time to create a different kind of alumnae chapter, an "Insert Your Jewel Here Circle" or something.

I agree 100%. If there were expectations for alumnae membership to remain a member in good standing, then I believe we would have more robust alumnae associations and memberships.

I can tell you, of the 4 alumnae chapters I've been part of, the one with the most structure was the most successful, and I think most appreciated by the members. Starting a brand new chapter with limited structure might be able to bring in hesitant members, but programs and responsibilities I think will keep the group going in the long term.

For me, as a new alum, being able to meet and mix with young alums from other chapters is important to me. I'm a member of my local alum association and have found that the girls from the city chapters (colleges in that city) tend to segregate together. Subsequently those of us that didn't go to school in this city have held events together, become friends, etc. I wish it wasn't that way, but it feels awkward when I attend events.

I'm not saying that structure isn't important. Perhaps the different classifications would be helpful. A group of alums that meets twice a year is different than the alum group that may only meet 3 times a year but has a couple of events a month. Does the proximity of a chapter make a difference in the activeness level of an alumnae group? What if the chapter closes? Will the group support a new chapter?

This is what I view as one of the most difficult areas to deal with by far. Alumnae range from 20 something to those thinking of what they'll be doing to their 90th birthday party. Having achievement standards for alumnae groups is great, but not all groups will want to be the same. And a group may not be the same from year to year. I really think there is no easy solution to alumnae development, nor is there any one way to do it.

I do think that keeping alumnae engaged in some way, shape, or form is the ultimate goal for all of us. I've been on a panel of a non-Greek fraternal organization to discuss retention and member interest levels. Their active members range in age from 19 to 105 (bless him!). Their issues are similar and the goals seem to be what ours are - engage members, educate members, be member-only friendly yet family friendly, offer member recognition, and especially contribute to the overall health of the organization both locally and nationally. It's a struggle to reach the goals, though not for lack of trying.

Thank you all for so much great feedback! I know many of us are doing some of the things that have been mentioned & look forward to exploring ways to implement some of the other ideas.

I am very active in my 4th Alumnae Chapter. We range in age from just graduated college to "one hundred and dead." We meet monthly (except during the summer). We hold a short (no more than 30 minute) business meeting and then have some kind of program. We have been very successful in planning events which are fun for all ages. We have 40 paid members and usually have about 20-25 members attend our meetings. Those meeting which have a meal-- first/last meeting of the year, any other time we decide, we tend to get over 30 ladies to attend and usually at least 1-2 bring a prospective new member.

1) We make sure we ALL welcome any new member who comes through the door. We then make sure we introduce her to the current members. Most of us try to pair the new member with someone about the same age and with a bit of luck possibly from the same chapter.

2) We make sure our membership chairperson calls the new member within a few days to let her know how happy we are she attended. Let her ask questions and hopefully get her to join.

3) We get them involved as soon as they join. Ask them to help on a committee, ask them to be on the board when the next nominating committee begins to work on a slate of officers. We want the new members on the board so we have new ideas.

4) National will give us a database of all members living within specified zip codes. We know these are pretty accurate as they give us lists of those who have given them their current e-mail addresses. Usually when we have current e-mails, we also have current mailing addresses. We invite them to a membership activity. They are usually at someone's home. This year we had 4 new members join during a wine tasting event. The chairs of the event went to Trader Joe's bought 3 white, 3 red wines. Bagged them and then had us guess the kind of wine, the region it was from and the country. Most of us couldn't begin to guess, but we sure had fun making things up.

5) Our group is getting younger and younger as our new members are now dragging their friends to meetings.

DaffyKD

This made me LOL. I am assuming it is that particular member who described herself in that way and am also assuming that she is a blast to be around.