Alumnae Associations

Peaches-n-Cream · #1 09-21-2003, 05:43 PM

Hi sisters and alumnae,

I am looking for ideas and suggestions regarding what things your alumnae associations do to recruit and involve alumnae. MetroDPhiE is looking for some fun activities to encourage more people to get and stay involved. So far, we have a monthly meeting where we go out to dinner. We have about a dozen people attend. The problem I have noticed is that a new person will attend, and we won't see her again. How do we keep them interested and return? How do we get new people to attend? You can PM or email me if you want. Thanks in advance.

bcdphie · #2 09-21-2003, 08:08 PM

One thing the Vancouver Association does is hold a monthly bookclub. We also use it as a opportunity to raise funds for the education foundation - Loonies for Literacy. Everyone brings a loonie (1 canadian dollar) to book club.

shadokat · #3 09-21-2003, 10:06 PM

we do happy hours, which are very successful in getting younger women out there. Also, to attract older ladies, we are planning to do one of those make your own pottery things.

Peaches-n-Cream · #4 09-29-2003, 08:00 PM

OK Happy Hours and monthly bookclub. I'll suggest those events to the group. Thanks.

We have monthly dinner meetings. We also get together to celebrate birthdays. Someone suggested bowling which I haven't done in a while, but it could be fun.

How about ideas for getting new younger alumnae involved?

LPIDelta · #5 09-29-2003, 08:20 PM

How about something with food-- preferably free food. I know this is stereotypical but a nice potluck might be just the ticket for the young alumna who is tired of eating out or doesn't like to cook.

Other alumnae meeting ideas:
Bowling is cool but alot of bigger cities are starting "playground game" leagues-- you could have the DPhiE Alum Kick Ball Team or Ultimate Frisbee Team. This might be something you could include local collegians in as well.

Mixing with other groups--Maybe host a mixer with another fraternity or sorority alum group.

Invite Speakers to your Meetings--Want everyone to get the skinny on what's going on in DPhiE? Invite a local collegian to talk about their experience or an involved volunteer. Maybe invite someone interesting--like the dean at a local college, or a local woman business owner--to talk about a topic of interest.

Peaches-n-Cream · #6 09-29-2003, 08:57 PM

Thanks Heather for some good ideas. We've been looking into having a mixer with a fraternity alumni group. That could be interesting.

Plus a few of us have gotten involved with the NYC Panhellenic alumnae group which has recently formed. Our president has gotten in touch with the Alpha chapter. We hope to get involved with the local chapters and assist them with their philanthropic events.

It's hard to have anything in people's homes since all of us live in apartments that are too small to accomodate a dozen people. Unfortunately, there are very few free or inexpensive things in NYC. We went camping in August. We hope to have a winter ball or formal. The problem is money is tight for many people. I don't want to leave anyone out because of finances.

Forming sports teams is a great idea. I'll definitely bring that up.

I just wish that I had a list of ideas that are really successful for other alumnae groups in large cities.

LPIDelta · #7 09-29-2003, 09:38 PM

Meeting Places

If I could make a suggestion about meeting places: Try to find free space at the local libraries, local universities or someone's office building. The non-profit I work for allows community groups to use our space. The local Alumnae Panhellenic here has their meetings at the library for free. NYU, because there is a DPhiE chapter there, may allow you to use space there. Check those places out!

Heather

shadokat · #8 09-30-2003, 02:11 PM

Cream--

We did a mixer with a fraternity alumni association and it turned out really well. We had a good time (and I got a date, but it was a dud!) and it had great turnout. It's DEFINITELY worth a look!

Heather

Peaches-n-Cream · #9 10-02-2003, 07:10 PM

Thank you so much for all of your great suggestions. We are going out to dinner on Friday night at an Italian restaurant on Mulberry Street. I will bring up these suggestions then. I am sure that we can figure out ways to incorporate them into our future events.

Thanks again.

winneythepooh7 · #10 10-30-2003, 12:58 PM

Hey All, this is Allison, Prez of MetroDPhiE Alumnae Association in NYC. I was also wondering if anyone has any suggestions on dealing with everyone's diverse schedules. Right now we are having our monthly meeting the first Monday of every month, which seems to be working out fine. However, there are a couple of sisters who appear to be turned off because the day can't be switched right now. We have planned social events throughout the month as well to attempt to accomodate everyone, but that doesn't seem to help "the problem" either. I know that accomodating everyone is always going to be an issue, even with planning months in advance. Just curious if anyone has any ideas that have helped. I have encouraged these women to schedule their own events as well through our listserv. We have talked about having the meeting on a different day every month as well, but I still forsee "issues". Allison

pinkyphimu · #11 12-26-2003, 12:15 PM

bringing up an old subject....

i am involved with the boston alum panhel and we use evites to schedule our meetings. the president creates an evite for the following month's meeting with lots of choices for dates. people respond by ranking each date as to whether or not it works for them...and we choose the date that the most people can attend. evites does the work for you!