Alumni Gatherings

[rom12398]

As a member of my chapter alumni board, I have been trying to reinvoigorate our alumni to become more interested and active in the active chapter. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to how to get alumni who have not been active for some time re-interested in chapter activities? We are planning on hosting regional events across the country (Boston, philadelphia, LA), but have come up with little above and beyond that. Does anyone have any good ideas/suggestions/comments? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[Tom Earp]

Do you have a Alum web site, email listing?

We have tried to find and break it down with areas where there are enough Alums to have a small gatering.

In The K C area, we have a monthly gathering at a local resturant and bar. We are also working on the Joplin, Mo. and Tulsa, Ok. areas.

We also have a yearly golf outing usually held in KC area which has the most members. It used to be huge and members came from all over as it was not only a golf outing, but a family thing afterwards at a Brothers house in his barn. No horse type barn!


Many come from all over and make a weekend of it.

Good luck!

[rom12398]

We do have an alumni website, but it is rarely used and is updated even less often. In recent years we have begun holding holding annual golf outings, although attendance has been poor and does not seem to be growing at the pace we would like.

While myself and the others on the alumni board will do our best to keep the alumni website up to date, do you have any suggestions as to what content should be placed on the page? Does current information on the active chapter seem to draw your alumni back to keep updated? Or is there something else that keeps them interested. It just seems, at least in my chapter, that alumni have little interest in what goes on with the chapter house after they leave.

[susan314]

In my personal experience, it is difficult to keep alumni who are scattered all over the country in touch in one cohesive group dedicated to one chapter.

We tried to start a group with alumnae from our specific chapter. However, we found it was difficult to get people to participate in events being so scattered geographically. There has been much more success with encouraging alumnae members to get involved with the local alumnae chapter for their geographic region. Ultimately, having alumnae from our chapter being involved with the regional groups affiliated with our IHQ still benefits the organization as a whole and hopefully future efforts to recolonize our chapter. (Our chapter is currently closed, but hoping to recolonize within the next few years - that's why we initially tried to get a group going for alumnae specific to the chapter.) And we found that sisters were more likely to be able to commit to events and activities on a local level.

Does your National organization have existing alumni groups across the country, or are you trying to start from scratch?

[rom12398]

there are alumni groups, but their usage is as spotty as our prograrms are, so it is not much help at this time. We have been trying though, as a chapter, to hold regional events hosted by alumni who have volunteered to organize the event. We have not yet hosted any such events, but have received feedback from several alumni who seem interested in organizing the event. We do not expect turnout to be large at first, but here's hoping over time these events will attract more alumni (and maybe even alums from other chapters).