I am Division Vice President for two local chapters.
Some great ideas above.
We have an interesting situation in that one of our local chapters was chartered in 1996, and so has no "older" alums.
That makes it a struggle to put together a house corporation or any other kind of alumni involvement.
The other problem is that the chapter didn't (still doesn't to some extent) really know how to relate to alumni. That is hard on the chapter AND their young alums.
During the last school year, they (the chapter) appointed an alumni liason who sent a couple of E-mails to alums each month. That was a great help, and much more timely (and easier and cheaper) than the typical newsletter.
Another thing I urged them to do (and they did it), was to invite alumni of other Delt chapters to initiation. They now have a formal dinner before the Ritual (which they do very well). After the first time, several of the older alumni were deeply moved. One said he hadn't seen the Ritual in over 40 years.
There are a lot of Delts in the area, including many older brothers from a huge chapter which has been closed for several years. Many of those men are eager to help.
Finally, we organized a local "Founder's Day" with both of our active local chapters and were surprized and pleased to have over 70 alumni from 23 chapters, as well as 30 undergraduates attend.
Being the father of a recent college graduate, I know that there are a million other things on their minds -- and they aren't always the most organized folks on the planet, but I'm convinced that you can't really be an outstanding chapter without strong alumni support.
Fraternally,
DeltAlum
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