Alumni Gatherings

[susan314]

In my personal experience, it is difficult to keep alumni who are scattered all over the country in touch in one cohesive group dedicated to one chapter.

We tried to start a group with alumnae from our specific chapter. However, we found it was difficult to get people to participate in events being so scattered geographically. There has been much more success with encouraging alumnae members to get involved with the local alumnae chapter for their geographic region. Ultimately, having alumnae from our chapter being involved with the regional groups affiliated with our IHQ still benefits the organization as a whole and hopefully future efforts to recolonize our chapter. (Our chapter is currently closed, but hoping to recolonize within the next few years - that's why we initially tried to get a group going for alumnae specific to the chapter.) And we found that sisters were more likely to be able to commit to events and activities on a local level.

Does your National organization have existing alumni groups across the country, or are you trying to start from scratch?

[rom12398]

there are alumni groups, but their usage is as spotty as our prograrms are, so it is not much help at this time. We have been trying though, as a chapter, to hold regional events hosted by alumni who have volunteered to organize the event. We have not yet hosted any such events, but have received feedback from several alumni who seem interested in organizing the event. We do not expect turnout to be large at first, but here's hoping over time these events will attract more alumni (and maybe even alums from other chapters).