Re-Connecting with the Local Alumnae Chapter

[Phi_Mu_Belle]

I realize there are other threads on this subject, but I have several specific questions that are related to one another that I wanted to get your opinions on.

At the beginning of this semester, I was named Alumnae Chairwoman. We recently held our annual Founder’s Day celebration, and only one alumnae attended who was not an advisor. She is a recent alumna and still knows many people in the chapter. Part of the reason for the poor turn out is that I was not able to invite most of the older alumnaes. I had been asking for about five weeks prior to Founder’s Day for the contact info for the alumnae’s and didn’t receive it until six days before Founder’s Day (after I had already bought all of the food). Thankfully, there is a new member directory scheduled to ship this month with the most current alumnae and active information in it. Our chapter advisor announced the brunch we had planned at the alumnae meeting before Founder’s Day, but none of them showed up.

I also think part of the reason the alumnae didn’t show up is that the contact between the alumnae and actives has been broken. This is my fourth semester and have only had good alumnae turn out at one event, and even then it was an event that was very low-key and hosted by our advisor. I have finished my first newsletter catered specifically to the alumnae and am planning to meet with the executive board to see if I can snail mail the first copy to everyone listed in the new directory. Our chapter website has also been renovated after over a year of no updates and I will also be putting the newsletter on the website.

I was wondering if there was anything special the alumnae’s here do with their colligate chapters that they would mind sharing to get us more familiar with each other. We do not have a house on campus and are currently meeting in our school’s Alumni Center (our chapter advisor is the Alumni President at our school and the building’s free). The Alumni Center is going to be torn down this summer to build a new one, so we are looking for meeting places. We have found one that we will probably end up getting, although we aren’t 100% sure yet. If we do get it, I would like to have some sort of a dedication ceremony with the Alumnae being our “special guests.”

Basically what I was wondering is what do you as colligate members do with your Alumnae? What do you as Alumnae like doing with your chapter, and what would you like to do? I’m open to any and all suggestions, so please send them! I’d also like to know what you all think the best way of getting re-connected with our Alumnae is. As I said, the relations between the colligate chapter and Alumnae chapter are very thin and I would LOVE to change that! Thanks for your help!