Adjusting Alumnae Relationships

[AST384]

Hi everyone! I graduated in 2012 and became an alumna of my chapter. I recently accepted a position on the advisory board. Our chapter has been hit with allegations by our national organization the last two semesters. So, I joined the advisory board along with another woman and we're trying to make some positive changes. Before the two of us joined there was only one advisory board member. Now there are three of us but I am the only one who was a collegiate in this chapter.

The problem we are having is our alumnae. When I was a collegiate we had an issue with alumnae relations. The alumnae were angry they were not informed of events on campus and essentially they were "out of the loop." So, we started inviting them to things and getting them more involved with us. Some of their interactions are very positive but some are also excessively negative. Some of the alumnae (especially the older alumnae) like to bully and essentially haze members. It's like they come back just to talk down to new members, especially at homecoming. It's really embarrassing.

The woman who was originally the only person on the advisory board finds it completely bizarre that we even invite alumnae back. She thinks the best approach is to stop telling them when things are going on. Now, this may seem like a fine idea but the alumnae are going to ask what is going on so surely if the active girls don't tell them it's not going to make them very happy.

I don't think it's appropriate to completely cut ties with them but I realize that there needs to be a change. We'd like to start asking our alumnae for donations to the chapter and we'd like to eventually have enough support that a scholarship fund could be generated. So I don't think we should burn any bridges. We just need ways to shift the alumnae's focus from coming back to party, haze, and be ridiculous to coming back to be helpful and supportive and have a positive impact. Any ideas? We really need to fix this.