Parent Relations

1896_kai_ · #1 08-04-2003, 12:33 AM

I was wondering how many chapters out there have active alumni relations. When I attended the Institute this summer, I learned the importance of having those relationships with parents, and how they can be beneficial to the chapter and its operations.
Because of this, I started the parents club for my chapter. It is called the 225 Parents Club, 225 being taken from our street address. Eventhough it hasnt been too long, I know this is going to be a great thing and would encourage anyone who doesnt have good parent relations to investigate a similar venture.

__kai__

ZZ-kai- · #2 08-04-2003, 08:32 AM

1896 (is that your roll #??),

Anyway, Oshkosh has a pretty active alumni core, but remember, we are only about 10 years old, so all the guys who have started it, most of them are still involved. We have a list serve on Yahoo solely for Oshkosh Alumni, and there are times when we have 400 e-mails sent per month....about 50% Beta related, then the other 50% is made up of career stuff, jokes, weddings, engagements...etc. We have constant contact with the chapter, so I think our relations are great.

When I was in the chapter, we tried two times to start a parents club. We sent out mailings to all the parents, and only one set of parents bit on it. To say the least, our parents club failed.

I have read from many chapters how sucessful a parents club can be. Good luck with that, and let us know the results.

-kai-

ZZ-kai-

1896_kai_ · #3 08-04-2003, 09:15 AM

Yes, 1896 is my Roll Number!

Betarulz! · #4 08-04-2003, 01:07 PM

We at Alpha Tau have a very active Parent's Alliance. They do all sorts of things from sending snacks (granola bars and such) for Dead Week, to coming to the house to decorate for Christmas, to coming to our Winter Formal to serve us and our dates dinner. They also have raised quite a bit of money for us in the past couple years and have paid for new patio furniture for our deck, steam cleaning of all our bathrooms and the building of a new trophy case.

I have no idea how this activity got started, but I figure you need a dedicated core group of parents for the first couple years. I also think it's important to have things that require varying levels of dedication. Obviously if every parent is going to have to donate 5 hours a week to the Parent's Alliance then no one is going to be interested.

The key is getting pledge's parents involved each new year (maybe in the coming years you can hold a Pledge's parents event - like a month or so after rush gets over - to welcome them to the Beta family...we at Alpha Tau have a Pledge move in day to help the pledges move into the house, there's a nice lunch, and presentations from the Chapter and the Parent's Alliance, so it's basically the parent's first formal introduction to Beta.)

Also, do a lot of singing if you have moms coming. They eat that stuff up. you don't even have to sound that good.

ZZ, I like the idea of the Yahoo news group. I'm going to suggest it to our our Alumni Relations chair. It could be very helpful in letting alumni know about our upcoming 115th Anniversary, as well as the other news you said that goes on.

ZZ-kai- · #5 08-04-2003, 02:58 PM

Our undergrad chapter also has a Yahoo groups set up. This is a great way to communicate for us, as we only have 6-7 guys sleeping in the house.....you may want to look into it.

Also, a list serve for the parents wouldn't be a bad idea either. These Yahoo groups allow you to post documents (meeting minutes, flyers..etc.) for people to read, create a calendar that sends out reminders, upload photos for people to see, create online polls for people to vote on...etc.

It is handy for everyone, not just alumni.

-kai-