Alumni Associations limited in ways that chapters can't?
 

I'm curious as to whether any Fraternity or Sorority out there has alumni associations which are limited to specific brothers using criteria that chapters would not be able to use to limit brotherhood.

For example, your fraternity allows all Christians to become brothers, and there is a recognized alumni association for Catholics only.

or, your fraternity is for limited to Engineers, but allows all engineers, and you have a recognized alumni association for only those with Electrical Engineering degrees.

The topic line makes my brain hurt.

SK doesn't limit our alum chapters, although I suppose it's hypothetically possible the chapter could drive people away who don't fit a certain type.

However we do have break out groups that chapter members can set up for book clubs, nights out, etc. Nothing exclusionary though.

No, not in my organizaton. I would think that'd discourage alumni involvement.

Alpha Phi Alpha does not have this. Alumni chapters do not focus on special interests or common interests.

On a national level, we have expanded the various national committees which brothers from certain professions might have an affinity to. For example, the Arts & Humanities Advisory Council actually inspired many brothers to return to active alumni status. But I believe that social fraternities and sororities like mine the responsibility to investigate the role of our brand of social action on the arts and humanities, the sciences, education, etc. An NPC or NIC org might not feel that obligation (and that's okay).

Regardless, an ASA Alumnae Association for Crocheters..... a Lambda Chi Alpha Rowing Club..... nah, people generally have their own outlets for these things and they don't have to have the organization's branding.

I think special interest alumni associations are ill-conceived and are better off as unofficial groups, like facebook groups or yahoo groups.

Or to paraphrase 33girl - two people standing on the corner don't make an alumni association. They can just be friends.

I would say that our alumnae chapters focus on common interests within the context of our Five Point Programmatic Thrust and national and regional frameworks. Our membership demographics reveal the similar careers that Sorors tend to be in. So, generally speaking, alumnae chapters are likeminded and similarly situated women with Delta in our hearts and on our minds.

ETA: I now see what is meant by "common interests" in this thread. No, our alumnae chapters are not based on "common interests" in the sense that "if you are a college professor or like to sculpt, join this chapter." Whether people are eligible to join particular chapters is based on other factors.

On that note, Sorors who have similar interests often join certain committees and participate in certain programs. If you're a medical doctor, for instance, you may be interested in the Physical and Mental Health programmatic thrust and therefore join a committee and work with those programs/create programs. This works toward Delta and also for expanding your social and professional networks. Also, similar to what Drolefile stated, people who have similar interests beyond that can form their own book club, church-going groups, and other social and professional networks outside of the alumnae chapter. Wherever there are people, there will be associations (ETA: even if they aren't the formality of an "alumni association"). :)

Our alumni chapter is open to any alumnus of our chapter who is in good standing with the active chapter and is not still enrolled somewhere pursuing an undergraduate degree.

Alumni associations for Sigma Nu cover a geographical area. The nearest one I'm aware of is in DFW.

Each of our undgergrad chapters have their own alumni association (AVC).

With a school like mine, though, that puts out almost solely architects and engineers, it's very possible for the AVC to be like-minded and interested in the same things. For other schools, though, it's a bunch of different guys. Plus, the AVCs are composed of both alumni from the home school and the surrounding geographical area.

So no, there aren't "specialized" alumni groups for my org.

OP - Are you saying that such sub-groups do exist and are looking for evidence in other Fraternities/Sororities, or are you asking if such sub-groups exist at all?

The only possible example I can think of is if a group of alumnae from a certain CHAPTER of Chi Omega chose to exist with only alumnae from said active chapter. I know of no such example for any "official" alumnae chapter, but I can imagine it is out there.

The same is true for my organization, although two of our collegiate chapters have their own alumni chapters for graduates to transition into.

I wonder if the post that brought this about was the one that asked about creating an alumnae chapter made up of people from geographic location A while living in geographic location B (instead of just joining an alum chapter in B made up mostly of people from B.)

I'm trying to find comparisons to the situation in Alpha Phi Omega where there are geographic Alumni Associations which are restricted to only men, even though most chapters are co-ed.

If you're just talking about geography, and you're in an overlapping area, I guess the personal choice could be based on average age of current members, common interests, etc., but in AXiD and Gamma Sig, I personally know of no "special-interest" alumnae chapters.

I wonder if the example the OP used - a Catholic alumni group - might exist in the case that most alumni in a particular alum chapter graduated from a Catholic university? You don't have to be Catholic to attend a Catholic school at any grade, so I can't imagine there being a limitation for alumni/ae to be of a certain religion. Then again, enough people do move to areas outside of the geographic region from where they went to school and join their closest alum chapter. Neither of my alumnae association/chapter are fully comprised of women from the closest collegiate chapter.

Pardon the double-post, but how do you account for people who move into new geographical area? I would be pretty bummed out if I moved and tried to join a different alumnae chapter only to be forbidden. Then again, given what I have observed with APO (the chapter on my campus was co-ed, but not every male member was happy about it), I can see where there might be some clashes.

It's funny, because ours is exactly the opposite.

Alumni Chapters are geographically based (e.g. Capitol Area Alumni Chapter, Eastern Iowa Alumni Chapter) and they are fully recognized voting bodies.

Alumni Associations are composed of alumni from one or two specific chapters regardless of their geographic location.

To the original question, what Drolefille/Dr. Phil said.