Alumnae at Formal
 

This year, my chapter is celebrating it's 20th anniversary since it's founding. The active sisters would like for formal to be a large success, and they would like to have as many alumnae members attend as possible.

For the most part, the only alumnae that come to formal are locals who have graduated in the past few years. Usually, we don't see any more than 5 alumnae attend. We're a small chapter of less than 20, but the active sisters would really love to have a lot of alumnae come out this year. And so would I.

I attended the 15th anniversary formal, and there were a few more alumnae who attended, including some founding sisters who traveled quite a ways to be there. So it is possible to get some of them to spend a little more money in order to be there.

My question is... what can the sisters do throughout the school year to make it so the alumnae members will definitely want to attend? Alumnae communications have been difficult to maintain to begin with, so a few things they've thought of: Send Christmas cards, send "finals baskets" to the few girls who are in graduate school, email updates of how the formal plans are progressing, etc.

Any more ideas would be helpful!

(And keep in mind that we're always working with a small budget)

Rather than cards and care packages (and spending the $$$ which the alums are quite aware you don't have), just keep the alums up to date w/ regular emails. I am guessing that if the oldest people are 20 years out they all have emails (as opposed to a chapter founded in 1950 or something).

Be sure to put something in Behrend's alumni bulletin or see if you can get it posted on the website and have a person to contact. Some alums may have fallen out of touch w/ AST & not have updated addresses.

ASK the alums what they want to see - if they want to make it a weekend event, if they want to see a slide show, or what.

And be sure to impress on the actives that even though they're going to have dates with them, they need to pay attention to the alums as well.

Last fall, the Collegiate Alumnae Liaison made it a point to track down almost every single alumnae member. She completely revamped and edited the alumnae list, so the girls have most of their contact information.

The Social Chair did send out an email to all of the alumnae asking them their opinions about formal, and what they would like to see happen for it. But she only received a response back from one or two of them. I'm currently trying to see if I can communicate with some of the alumnae through Facebook (as I obviously know more of them than the active sisters do) to see if their contact info has changed.

As for paying attention to the alum... that's another problem. It's not even that they're more focused on their dates. Half the time the dates all hang out together while the sisters dance. lol. But I don't know if the actives understand the importance of talking to (or at least introducing themselves to) the alumae at formal. But that's kind of hard to gague with there always being so few of them there. But I think that with a much larger number of them, it might be different. I know that it was 5 years ago.

Here's another question to add on...

Are there any extra activities that your members do at your formals? Or something that they bring with them? I know the Delta Chi chapter at my school, during their new member period, paint a brick with their name, their big’s name, a symbol that reminds them of their big, and a symbol that is important to them. At formal, they ask for everyone to bring theirs and they make a small wall with them. It’s actually a pretty cool idea. Maybe the girls could start their own tradition?

Any ideas?

My husband's collegiate chapter's Histor has already sent him the dates of all the most likely to be attended by alum events for the entire year. This included formal, special rituals, homecoming, etc. Advance notice is the kindest gesture you can give your alum.

What about a tradition that is similar to your big/little match? Find your grand......big and the rest of your family tree?

I was thinking about this. A formal dance might be a hard sell to alumnae. It involves more commitment - admission(?), a dress, a date, an entire evening, a babysitter, etc.

I love the idea of getting collegiates and alums together - my AXiD alumnae chapter is having a brunch with the local collegiate chapter - but I think that a more casual event during the day may work better.

Some ideas -

- brunch - collegiates cook for the alums
- lunch/picnic following a service event (a walk, garbage cleanup, anything where you would have a chance to talk while "working")
- bowling
- afternoon at Chucky Cheese or Dave and Buster's -type place (might be a little more $$)
- schedule a "cocktail hour" (no alcohol) and have hors' d'vours at a restaurant the weekend of homecoming (alums may already be attending that). Contact the manager of the restaurant and ask for a deal based on a group of "X", set the menu and have a buffet-style. Many places have small rooms for this and you can get a decent set up for $10-15 a person. I don't think that it's too steep to ask anyone to contribute.

Whatever you do, make it as less costly (money, time, effort) as possible for the alums, and give as much advance notice as you can. Best of luck!

Most alums have formal dresses from office Christmas parties or else just wear their old ones that they have stashed away. Most often they don't come with a date.

This concept really only works if formal isn't included in dues and only the people who go pay for it.

The problem is, the alumnae who live hundreds of miles away aren't going to visit for a Sunday brunch.

The point is to get alumnae that aren't around often to come to at least one event a year. Or.. one event every 5 years, in some cases. And if we make it a weekend thing, where they can go out on Friday night, meet up with people they haven't seen in a while, stay in a hotel, have a formal dinner on Saturday, and go home on Sunday, I think they'll be more likely to come. Even if it is a little more money, it makes more sense to travel for something that is going to last more than an hour or two.

We have an alum dinner once a year, at a nice restaurant in town, usually in early December. Last year, I believe there were 6 or 7 local alum who showed up. And some of them come around for ceremonies, also. So the chapter is still doing things to try and keep alumnae involved.

The point is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the chapter, which I think would be even better if we had a large alumnae turnout.

The chapter I advise recently held an alumnae phone-a-thon where they attempted to contact 900+ members by phone to update contact information and tell them about homecoming (a huge event on our campus) and other chapter operations. In the age of unlimited cell phone minutes, the expense was nearly non-existant and allowed the generations to speak with each other. It was a nice and personal way to make contact that the chapter needs to maintain as we look forward to a 50th anniversary in a few years. Hopefully if we can establish and maintain contact like this, it will be easier to get alumnae from all over the country to get excited about a milestone event and perhaps return to the small college town for a weekend celebration.

Have you thought about having an event during Homecoming weekend or Reunion weekend when alumnae may be more likely to be back on campus if they have moved from the area?

We don't really have a homecoming like most other schools. And reunion weekend, well.. if we did have something then, it still wouldn't be that large of an event. With such a small chapter, there aren't ever more than maybe 7 people graduating at one time, so even if all of them came back, it would still be similar to the dinner we put on already.

ree-Xi's ideas would be good if maybe we did them on the Friday before formal, or even on that Saturday morning. It's just hard to hold certain events (especially when we don't have a house).

What else should we do to attract alumnae? As I've said, extra events on Friday and Saturday? What would work when we don't have a house and we have a small budget?

Believe it or not, your alumnae have very busy lives. Most of them are at the point in their lives - age 40 or so - where they have teen-agers or older children who are involved in ballgames, scouts, dance, karate, etc etc. Many also work full-time jobs. It's VERY difficult to get them to break away for two or three events a year.

Once a year - or every 5 years - should be enough to expect - but don't stop inviting them! Send a newsletter every year (right after recruitment would be great, and maybe another in the early spring). It's so cheap to do it now with e-mail - but make sure you also send paper copies to those who don't have e-mail.

I commend you for doing your best to keep your alumnae informed and a part of the chapter! :p

Oh, trust me, I know they're very busy. The point is, most of the alumnae come out on the big anniversaries (10, 15, 20...), so to have a lot of alumnae in one place at one time, even once every 5 years, is great. We have little events, and mainly the alum who are recent graduates and who are unmarried without children are the ones that come. The idea of this formal, is for one weekend, to get a whole bunch of alumnae to show up. The chapter is aware that there will always be a few that definitely come every year (again, usually the ones who graduated within the past couple years that don't have crazy busy lives yet). But they want, for just one weekend, for everyone to come. It's just a matter of keeping busy for the weekend, and keeping their interest so that they'll attend.

Which is where I'm asking all of you for help :)

Consider a receiving line, at least for the chapter officers to meet the alumnae before they're seated.

Less ideal would be a seating chart, making sure alums and collegians are interspersed instead of segregated.

I know for my APO chapter anniversaries, pledge classes prefer to sit together. So a receiving line may be better.

I would make sure the alum know it is a big deal for the chapter. What kind of things did the chapter do for the 15 year reunion? Have you sent out a survey to the alum to find out what would make them want to come? or you could try calling the founding sisters that attended the last time and ask them for help in brainstorming ways to get the alum involved. If you get a few excited, that should start the fire to get more excited.