Alum Chairs/Officership

[Tom Earp]

While LXA calls its Alum Chair High Rho, it is still an Alumni Officership.

I have been working with My Chapter for 40 + years and have been trying to keep as many email addresses as possible.

The Alum Officership is relegated to a minor Officer on the Pole of ranking.

I think most GLOs have done the same thing which I have come to the conclusion is totally wrong. The Alumni Chair should become a Major Office.

I have made it a point to try to get this changed.

So what You might ask?

While the majority of GLOs finances come from dues of Undergrads, all are in a money crunch and if membership drops, there is only one place to go for donations, Alums.

We have discussed this on LXA Thread and some feel it needs to be started on the Local level.

I feel it should be a two point attack, Local and a priority at The National level. This could be pointed out to give Active Chapters a better perspective.

We Alums are here because We Love Our Greek System and Each of Our GLOs or would not be here. So as We have seen, Actives Graduate and are never heard from again for what ever reason, true?

But, there are those who are out there and get lost and do not hear from the Chapter and interest wanes.

By getting a stronger person in the Alum Chair, it could and should benefit each of us.

Just thought I would throw this out and get some feed back from you.

I have contacted one of Our Board of Directors what My feeling are about this and He has agreed to bring it up and make it a point.

He stated that He also feels the same way.

[ECUJacob]

I agree. I was Alumni Relations Chairman for my chapter (prior to doing Pledge Education) and now I am Alumni Relations Advisor. I don't think the undergraduates will truly understand its importance until they have walked across the stage and see the way the world changes when you're not paying dues. I think more chapters could stand to place more emphasis on their alumni relationships.

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

For us, Alumnae Relations is a minor office as well.....and yet, there are TWO alum relations awards at convention......

[Tom Earp]

Originally posted by SmartBlondeGPhB
For us, Alumnae Relations is a minor office as well.....and yet, there are TWO alum relations awards at convention......

Isnt that The Problem?

I have proposed to to not only My Fraternity but to Other of Two Exec. Directors of Natitional Fraternity/Sororitys.

While We are All In Money Problems and Keeping Track of Alums, who in later Years have the best Chanch To donate than Alums.

It is not only about Donations, but keeping in contact with Them!

They as Alums will donate when they can, but want to know what is happening with The Chapter and Many Brothers/Sisters.

I have decided to make this one of My Goals for My Fraternity.

Please Do The Same if You will!

[Kevin]

This is great Tom. The other side of this issue is that the alums are not powerless in this situation. I have the benefit of being a founding member of a very young chapter.

Sigma Nu has Alumni Chapters which are set up for the alums of a particular chapter. Their requirement to form one of these bad boys is a petition filled out including the signatures of 10 alums of the chapter. As soon as we had 10 alums to fill one of these things out, it was written.

This is a great vehicle for alums to essentially force the chapter to recognize them. We not only have the alumni chapter, we have also paired each officer up with an advisor, as well as having advisors to several important committees (exec, j-board). We have a very involved alumni base which I sincerely hope will continue to regenerate and expand as the years progress.

I was an active participant in that group, but since starting school again, I'm just too swamped to adequately fill those shoes. It's fun stuff, and there's nothing like having front-row seats to see something that you helped start prosper.

[Tom Earp]

I know that some but just a few are reviewing the Alum Position such as AGD who seems to be further ahead of all of us..

Why The Alum Chair.

1. Keep Alums interested in The Local Chapter.
2. Keep Alums donating Money to Local/National.
3. Keep The Alums in The loop of Local/National.

By keeping Alums interested, by letting them know what is going on, they will come back if possible and be more active in many ways.

I only drive a Honda, not ride a White Steed in Armor!

But, this seems to be My Crusade for LXA and all Greeks.

[A Random DphiE]

*i posted this reply on tom's [very similiar] other thread*

i totally agree.

were it not for those that came before us,
much [if not everything] we cherish would not exist.

we owe it to our alums to keep them posted and to hold them at a high esteem.

as an undergrad, i was the first alumnae coordinator to take my position seriously; i created an alum database, held the first alumnae picnic, created a yahoogroup, sent the first newsletter, and took pride in knowing where i came from... and actually meeting our local founders. ♥

as an alum myself, i now see the importance of continuously reaching out... the updates, the emails, the pictures, the subtle touches that let us know we are still appreciated [remembered].

more often than not, life gets it the way,
but constant communication allows us to feel as if we are still somewhat "in the loop" therefore more willing to attend events and provide support when requested.

on a national level, dphie has been focusing on alumnae outreach. i wish we had the alum support that older organizations have, but i understand we are a "younger" glo, therefore we must start somewhere....

hopefully one day my org will also see the alum support that other glo's seem to have, which will greatly increase the expansion and viability of our chapters nationwide.