Alumni
 

Hey--

I love being a local--we've invested so much time and meaning into it. But the one thing I feel that we'll miss out on is alumni association--our first class graduated last year, and they've gone to all ends of the country--one even moved to England. I feel a lifetime committment to the girls in DH--when I joined I didn't imagine how much I would come to love it. But growing up in the military, I know that distance is a very real obstacle. How many locals out there have alumni involvement? Or does being local mean four years and that's it?

ALWAYS A SISTER
 

DHGirl,
I an alumni from a local sorority and we have a saying "Once a Kappa, Always a Kappa!" Just because you're an alumni doesn't mean that your experiences with your sorority have to end. I graduated in 2000 and still go to KRX's functions, smokers, the night the pledges, cross, etc, as do some of my fellow alumni.

But I do understand your concern about alumni being all over the country. Our sorority, Kappa Gamma Chi, is at Emerson College in Boston, MA. We have alumni (like myself) that are right in the city, but also have girls in NY, WA, CA, and lots of other places. The key is staying connected.

Is there an active in your sorority that is an "alumni chairman" If not, you might want to have a position like that created. Have them collect a database of the alumni and once or twice a semester, have a news letter sent out to the alumni to let them know what is going on with the sorority. Encourage them to write to the sorority, so they can put alumni updates in the news letter.

Also, for the girls that are close by, have an alumni lunch, or if you have a big anniversary coming up, try to plan an event... if your college hosts an "alumni weekend," see if you could have an event planned at the same time, so you can get alumni from your sorority to check out the school and your sorority! Kappa Gamma Chi turned 100 years-old in Janurary, and I know the actives are working with the alumni department to have a lunch party during alumni weekend for us. I am SO excited for it.

Anyway, I know I have rambled on! But I hope this helps. If you want to chat, feel free to email me at Vixenradio@aol.com, or if you have AOL IM, IM me under the same screen name. GOOD LUCK :D :D

We're currently in the process of trying to set up an alumni association! My local's only 6 years old but we now have alumna sisters in Korea, The Phillippeans, Ontario, and myself (although not an official alumna yet, just moved away!) as well as sisters still in Nova Scotia that we haven't heard from in eons!

I'm not sure on what we're doing first, but our plans include a monthly meeting for anyone in NS, a website with alumna/active info and a yearly alumna weekend. It's hard but you gotta find someway to stay in touch with your sisters.....I know I do via emails!:D

Thanks--I'm trying to get something started. We're looking into getting an elder semi-formal/dinner cruise thing going. A newsletter is a great idea, but I think all of our alumni
(few that there are) get the meeting minutes. It might be nice for them though, to get a summary of what's going on though, than the exact split of a vote on which broadway production we're going to see this semester! What got me started on this was reading the alumni involvement forum.