Getting Alums Involved

[boz130]

Hey, guys: As you may know, I’m doing a workshop this month @ the Leadership Seminar in College Park, MD. The title is, “Alumni Associations & Housing Corps. 101”. This is a variation on one of the workshops held @ GA 2004 (“So Ya Wanna Start an Alumni Association…How Do Ya Do It?”).

I’ve got some ideas about why members do/don’t come back to campus once they’ve graduated, but I thought I’d pick your brains and use some of the replies on this thread in the new program. With that thought, let me share a perplexing conundrum w/you (I suppose I could've put this into the "Alumni Involvement" thread in General Forums, but I just want to hear from fellow LCAers).

Earlier this year my home chapter held its annual Founders Day weekend. We had to shift the date from late March (closest weekend to 3/22) because the university was on Spring Break. The new date was a weekend in mid-April.

As part of the official festivities, we always include the usual stuff (Saturday meetings for HC & AA w/a dinner that night for alums and actives @ a “grill it yourself” steakhouse). In addition, our association president (who serves on the university’s alumni board) invited the university president to speak about our relationship w/the school. This was the first time we’d ever had someone of that stature visit the chapter, so it was a big deal.

On the previous evening there was an “unofficial gathering” of somewhere between 20-30 alums for a pub crawl @ various establishments…I say 20-30 because I’ve heard varying reports from people on the actual attendance, and some probably dropped out after a time.

Concurrently, the chapter members had done a remarkable job of getting the house cleaned up (possibly even better than for Parents Weekend, I heard). New landscaping had been done outside, the floors were shiny…it was a great sight to behold.

When Saturday arrived, we only had 6 alums on hand for the scheduled meetings, including the reception for the university president. There would’ve been more, but once springtime hits in this part of the Midwest, our homes need attention & the kids have baseball/soccer/etc.

We had to scramble through the house to get UG’s to come downstairs & fill seats for the reception. Only 1 or 2 of the people who’d cruised the tavern district showed up for the meetings & other activities. Other actives that helped do the cleanup in the AM mysteriously disappeared after lunch (that’s another subject for another rant…).

This leads to my questions for you loyal GC readers…

Why is it so hard to get alumni to come back for the activities that need the most effort (Housing Corp., Alumni Assn., Alumni Advisory Board, help w/NAFD, etc.)? I’d wager that most of us are involved in these “heavy lifting aspects” and are in the vast minority @ our respective alma maters.

Are many people joining just for the “pleasurable aspects” (e.g. drinking, parties, etc.)? If that’s the case, they could’ve just stayed in the dorms…but the dorms don’t lend themselves to partying.

If we’re supposed to be holding ourselves to a “higher standard” by becoming members, why do we continually give the public shovels to bury our brotherhood by acting like “stereotypical frat boys”? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved “Animal House” since it came out (BTW, we actually DID have a member ride his motorcycle around our AM class during I-Week), but that doesn’t mean we should all emulate Bluto.

These are some thoughts that have been rattling around in my brain since the rather embarrassing showing for the presidential reception. I’d like to find out what you guys think. Thanks for your time…

Yours in ZAX,
BF