Stronger Alumni Association

[Boodleboy322]

Fellow GLOs Active/Alums,

Which type of activities or involvement between actives and alumi produce the best results? I'm currently a member of my alumni association and I want to see the this group continue to grow and excel!!!

[Tom Earp]

Monthly meeting Stip club, bar, or what ever.

How about a golf outing. Some call it a Tourney!

Hell whether you play well or not, it is a fun outing except for those who want to be weeniers.

BBQ and Beer at an Alums. Everybody donates for the Meat and all bring a dish.

One of our Alums does this yearly around the 4 th of July and damn is there food galore, things for the kids like fishing, big kids do horeshoes. Later in the evening, everyone who comes brings fireworks and pool them. May not be Pro Blow, but still fun!

Oh, this is not for Alums only, it is for Actives as well, wives and dates!

The golf outing, same thing, a BBQ afterwards fo the wives, dates, and kids can be part of it.

We used to have such a big one, some of the Alums planned a weeks vacation around it to see their Parents and do this. Something for all!

[zonaspidey]

Try creating events around your university's Homecoming and/or Alumni Weekend functions. Cocktail parties, golf outings, award banquets are just a few of the ideas.

You may also want to consider establishing a Hall of Fame program to recognize alumni for their success and accomplishments in their professions, local communities, chapters, national fraternities and universities. You'll find that their initiation classmates will want to join in the fun.


Pete Parker

[BSUPhiSig'92]

Golf outings are very popular, and I know of a few chapters that do active/alum float trips.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Monthly happy hour that is at the same place and at the same time. This requires little planning or effort, and it is a way for the local alumni to begin to connect.

[hoosier]

3 old brothers were discussing what they wanted to accomplish b4 they die.

An eighty-five year old says, b4 I die, I want to be able to have the WORLDS BEST poop.

A ninety year old says, yea, me, I wanna be able to pee w/out pain

A ninety-eight year old replys, Well, lucky me. In the morning, I have a envigorating pee. 30 minutes later, an Inticing poop.

What I want most of all tho is to be awake to enjoy them...

[AOIIalum]

If football and/or basketball tickets are available, plan a "Night at the Game." Of course, if tailgating is big at your school and everyone already has football tickets, tailgate instead (following all laws and rules concerning alcohol, etc...y'all know that drill!)

If you have a racetrack nearby, a "Day at the Races" is always a good event.

What about an annual Flag Football tournament and cookout with Alums vs. actives?

HTH!
Christin

[winneythepooh7]

Our AA has grown A LOT over the past year. We have selected an "E-Board" of some of the most active members of the group. We have also started to have "committees". Our Social Committee is excellent and has started planning events for at least once or twice a month. We have created our own listserv in yahoo groups, and use EVITE.COM. These are both excellent tools for getting the word out on events. We also encourage everyone to plan an event. This is great because it could be something as simple as a Happy Hour or going to the movies. People can pick and choose what they want to do. I find that having our monthly dinners the same day every month has been the most successful (ie. we plan dinners for the first Monday of every month). I have also used craigslist.com and hunted alums down thru that. I think many people once they graduate don't think about sorority so when they are doing an apartment search, or job search on cragislist and the AA pops up, they are pleasantly surprised Let me know too of creative ways all of you have used to get alumnae involved.

Allison D*Phi*E

[adpiucf]

How Collegians can Improve Alumnae Relations

COMMUNICATION
Work with your local alumnae to include chapter events and contact information in the alumnae association newsletter. If there is no alumnae association in your city, you can still work with an association that is miles and miles away.

Send out a yearly newsletter to your chapter's alum and area alumnae with chapter updates and key events/dates that alumnae can be involved with (always include contact information so the alum can call or email you!). The Microsoft Homepage has FREE newsletter templates. Incorporate the mailing cost into your budget. Talk to your chapter treasurer about the costs.

Send a delegate to your alumnae association's yearly planning meeting. Encourage your seniors to attend.

Give the alum president the names and contact info for your seniors so that the seniors can see what alumnae life is all about!

Start a FREE email distribution list, like Yahoo! Groups for chapter and area alumnae members.

www.evite.com is a FREE method to send email invitations. Remember, however, not all alumnae use email.

Create a chapter web site that is updated regularly and make sure your alumnae have the link to the site!

To search for alum in your area, or for alum of your chapter, contact your Executive Office.


WHEN PLANNING AN EVENT WITH ALUMNAE
1) Give 6-10 weeks notice prior to an event
2) No phone calls after 10 PM
3) While email is a great way to update the group, not all alumnae are on email, and although many do use email, they don't all check it daily. Do send emails, but also follow up with phone calls and direct mail.
4) Send handwritten thank you notes promptly after an alumnae event (mailed within 72 hours). Your corresponding secretary can coordinate this effort. Thank you notes ensure that the alum will come back to your next event!

IDEAS FOR ALUMNAE-COLLEGIATE EVENTS
1) Mock Recruitment Party (Conversation Workshop/Skit and Song Practice/Philanthropy Crafts and Light Refreshments)
2) Plan a Philanthropy Event/Fundraiser together
3) Founders Day
4) Invite alumnae to attend Initiation and your yearly all-chapter Ritual Workshop
5) Educational Workshops (Alum are great audience members AND Facilitators)
6) Holiday House Decorating at the chapter house (December Holidays, Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, etc.)
7) Homecoming and Greek Week
8) Parent's Weekend
9) Helping out at Recruitment
10) Sisterhood/Brotherhood Events
11) Participate in New Member Ed Sessions teaching history, songs, etc.
12) Chapter Dinner
13) Banquets and Special Celebrations
14) Career Night (Resume and Career Workshop, Internships, etc)
15) Co-Chapter and Alumnae Events (if there is another chapter nearby, pair up with them and host an event together with the alum)

Alum also make great advisers and house corporation members! (You can also help them out by providing them with a list of members who baby-sit, walk dogs, or offer special services like house painting, personal trainer, art, tutoring children, etc.)

[Measi]

adpiucf, thanks for these recs. As an alumna who is working to improve the active-alumni contact with the undergrad chapter, I think I'll talk this over casually with the Alumni Secretary for next year. I'm working with her as an alumni liason, and I think this would be most helpful!

~ Mel.

[adpiucf]

Great! Also, feel free to approach the chapter, saying "We want to do such and such with you."

For example, co-planning a fundraiser for your philanthropy meets many goals-- it gives you a chance to work together, you don't exhaust the local suport and funding that will ultimately benefit the same charity, and you have more hands in the pot-- since the alum are more "consistent" there can be a collegiate and alum counterpart to head each committee for the event, etc.

For example, ADPi in Memphis puts on a golf tourney each year. It's the association and the chapter. It's a huge undertaking, but they raised $10K this year and brought in a lot of community awareness for Ronald McDonald House as well as making one big donation.

The more the alum are involved with the collegians, the more collegians will be active alum. And this will ultimately help alumnae life grow beyond what it is right now.

[Measi]

I agree-- actives need to see alumni involvement to be interested in becoming involved alumni after graduation. When I was an undergrad, there was a strong alumni association, but that seems to have died off... more because of Boston-area housing prices that forced folks to move elsewhere than anything.

TBS is a very specfic professional sorority-- it's band-affliated and music service oriented. We don't have a specific philanthropy because we're geared specifically as a service organization to the collegiate bands, but perhaps finding a music-related organization (such as Save the Music) that relates to us on a grade school level would be a good way to do a fundraiser that could involve both actives and alumni.

We have an extremely limited alumni base due to our limited resources for membership, so any event that we have needs to be fairly small and reasonable for the size of the group involved.

Hmm... ideas are good... (wheels start turning!)

~ Mel.