hey, i have a topic now!

[SilverTurtle]

I'm working on reviving the alumni chapter in my area. (It dissolved about the early 1980's due to lack of membership). There's a large # of alumni in the area.

I've contacted several of these alumni, and each time they are all very excited about the prospects of an active alumni chapter. But whenever it comes time to meet or make anything official, I have a terrible time getting responses.

Could those of you w/ successful alumni chapters/groups give me some pointers? And as someone mentioned in the previous post, it would be helpful to hear things that didn't work, too!

Thanks in advance!

------------------
SilverTurtle@greekchat.com
Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

[BSUPhiSig'92]

Silver Turtle:

We basically reorganized our club about 5-6 years ago after several years of existing in name only. (all going back to the merger of our nationals, but I won't go into that now). What we did was form a solid base with recent alumni (the last 5 years or so)and work on bringing in older alumni. We have the advantage of having a pretty large chunk of our alumni in the metropolitan Indianapolis area. We started by having some informal gatherings (parties, barbecues, etc.) and invited all of the local alumni, their spouses, family, etc. People had such a great time, they were willing to "officially" be a part of the alumni organization. We re-incorporated and eventually took over the responsibilties of managing the chapter house.(the alumni had owned the house all along but hadn't done anything in ten years!) Everyone paid $25 a year in sutstaining member dues which gave us the funds to start doing a newsletter which we send to all of our alumni (getting good addresses took awhile). To make a long story short, we are now underway with the first major chapter house renovation in 30 years, and are planning a big banquet to commemorate our chapter's 75th anniversary in 20001. My advice? Start small with recent alumni, get everyone to make that re-connection to the brotherhood (it is amazing how quickly work, marriage and family can break that connection with each other), and when that connection is re-established... get organized. It won't happen overnight, so be prepared to be in it for the long haul. I'm beginning my second 2-year term as president. Good Luck!

[BFulton]

BSUPhiSig92,

Thanks for the ideas -- and the inspiration that comes from knowing such efforts can pay off!

How often does your chapter get together? (either formally or informally)

[BSUPhiSig'92]

BFulton:

The alumni chapter as a whole gets together probably 2-3 times a year. Our annual meeting (when members will actually listen to us talk about business)happens during Homecoming in the fall. We usually have a basketball outing during the winter (Ball State is a big basketball school!), and in the summer we usually have a day at a baseball game or a canoe trip or something like that. Now a big chunk of our chapter lives in Indianapolis (about 30+ brothers or so). Usually the Indy group gets together about once a month. Most of the time at least spouses are invited too, and a lot of times the rugrats as well. Usually people take turns hosting these gatherings. One thing that has become a tradition for us is to have a Thanksgiving pot-luck the weekend before the actual holiday. I don't get to make as many of these gatherings as I used to , since I moved to St. Louis last summer, but I still make them pretty often. Other brothers sometimes come from Ft. Wayne, Michigan, Ohio, etc. For the most part, these are guys that graduated in the 80s and 90s, but we make it a point to invite everyone, and we always try to get the recent graduates involved right away. Another big key for us is that most of the time we involve the families. It's funny seeing how some of the party animal types in college evolve into paranoid papas! As far as the business aspect of the group, we have an executive board of 8 and we meet monthly, either at our chapter house or at the national hq in Indy. In fact, I am going to a meeting to meet with the renovation contractors on Saturday, and then have to get back here on Sunday to start summer orientation!!!

[Lauralyn_94568]

Hi Silver Turtle.

I'm trying to find some of my sisters from the Alpha Eta chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon. I wish you luck... Any sister out there, please email me at : Lauralyn_Nelson@yahoo.com.
It's been too long!!!

[AXPAlum]

BSUPhiSig'92,

I was reading about how your chapter collects funds for creating a newsletter for a chapter's alumni and wanted to pass along some information that could be quite valuable, hopefully to everyone. There is a company out there called University Publishing Corporation ( http://www.uni-pub.com/ ) that makes the project of a newsletter or an alumni directory easy and free. They produce these things out of voluntary alumni contributions, not a penny of cost to the chapter even if the publishing company doesn't break even. Plus any profit they make on top of the donations, half of it goes to the chapter. Our fraternity has just finished its alumni directory and it's great. We are currently working on a newsletter for our alumni, which they will be formatting and sending out for us again without cost to the chapter. Saving a lot of money on postage as well as time that people like us don't have. I think this would be something to share with anyone who is trying to re-group with their alumni, I know I would like to hear about this if I didn't know already. Here's their information in case you wanted to check it out for yourself. Goodluck.

University Publishing Corporation
310 S. Washington St.
P.O. Box 1311
Bloomington, IN 47402
Tel (812)339-9033
Fax (812)339-8981
Toll (800)457-4435
info@uni-pub.com

- AXPAlum

[FreeBecky]

Had to bump this thread to see if there are any fresh ideas out there. I am trying to start an alumnae assoc in the Philadelphia area and I know that I can't do it alone, but trying to generate interest in alums who have work, children, homes, etc. and little time for anything else leaves me with quite a hurdle to overcome.

Any new advice?

[Rudey]

Russ had a good idea when I asked him. I'd try and find it for you but I can't remember the thread title. Anyway, just set a regular time, not too often, for people to meet at a place where people can come for free and when it picks up you can do fancier things like have a golf outing at Pebble Beach. Good luck!

-Rudey