Re-Connecting with the Local Alumnae Chapter

[Phi_Mu_Belle]

I realize there are other threads on this subject, but I have several specific questions that are related to one another that I wanted to get your opinions on.

At the beginning of this semester, I was named Alumnae Chairwoman. We recently held our annual Founder’s Day celebration, and only one alumnae attended who was not an advisor. She is a recent alumna and still knows many people in the chapter. Part of the reason for the poor turn out is that I was not able to invite most of the older alumnaes. I had been asking for about five weeks prior to Founder’s Day for the contact info for the alumnae’s and didn’t receive it until six days before Founder’s Day (after I had already bought all of the food). Thankfully, there is a new member directory scheduled to ship this month with the most current alumnae and active information in it. Our chapter advisor announced the brunch we had planned at the alumnae meeting before Founder’s Day, but none of them showed up.

I also think part of the reason the alumnae didn’t show up is that the contact between the alumnae and actives has been broken. This is my fourth semester and have only had good alumnae turn out at one event, and even then it was an event that was very low-key and hosted by our advisor. I have finished my first newsletter catered specifically to the alumnae and am planning to meet with the executive board to see if I can snail mail the first copy to everyone listed in the new directory. Our chapter website has also been renovated after over a year of no updates and I will also be putting the newsletter on the website.

I was wondering if there was anything special the alumnae’s here do with their colligate chapters that they would mind sharing to get us more familiar with each other. We do not have a house on campus and are currently meeting in our school’s Alumni Center (our chapter advisor is the Alumni President at our school and the building’s free). The Alumni Center is going to be torn down this summer to build a new one, so we are looking for meeting places. We have found one that we will probably end up getting, although we aren’t 100% sure yet. If we do get it, I would like to have some sort of a dedication ceremony with the Alumnae being our “special guests.”

Basically what I was wondering is what do you as colligate members do with your Alumnae? What do you as Alumnae like doing with your chapter, and what would you like to do? I’m open to any and all suggestions, so please send them! I’d also like to know what you all think the best way of getting re-connected with our Alumnae is. As I said, the relations between the colligate chapter and Alumnae chapter are very thin and I would LOVE to change that! Thanks for your help!

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

First, I want to say good job!

Second, it's not going to change over night if you haven't had contact for a number of years. It will take continuous communication from you before the alumnae will start showing up.

Did your Founders Day conflict with the Founders Day event that the alumnae chapter had (I assume they had one)? That would have been the first problem.

How close to the college do the alumnae live? Are the alumnae from your University or mostly from other colleges? Our alumnae chapter is about an hour away from my collegiate chapter and most of our members didn't go there. So the interest in helping them is small.

A couple of cautions. If you live a good distance from the alumnae, don't expect them to get to anything you have at 5:30 on a weeknight. If they have jobs, they won't make it. And if they work, they may not really want to drive in traffic or after a full day of work. You are most likely to get the advisors and other alumnea of your chapter. They are the ones who will be most committed.

Take into consideration the fact that the alumnae may have families and need a larger amount of lead time to plan to be at an event. They need to find babysitters and those sort of things.

I probably have some more ideas but that's it for now.

[Phi_Mu_Belle]

Thanks for the tips! The Alumnae chapter didn't have a Founder's Day banquet. Our advisor is very active in the Alumnae chapter as well, and we've always done things "together" for Founder's Day. Since Founder's Day was on a Sunday this year, we held a brunch (which was very successful, might I add ) at 12:30 so people could get back from church and whatnot.

That being said, I don't think there are very many Alumnaes who live in this general area (the Alumnae chapter is averaging 11 to 12 I think), but those who do live in about a 20-30 minute vicinity.

As far as the issue of getting babysitters and such, I am meeting with my committee this week to discuss having a family picnic (there's a beautiful park with a really nice recreation area in our town) where spouses, boyfriends, parents, siblings...and children can attend. It would be something where everyone could come and spend a nice Saturday afternoon together and get re-acquainted with other Alumnaes.

Thanks again for your suggestions. Keep 'em coming!

[polarpi]

Phi Mu Belle, I wanted to first of all say congratulations on your position, and how interested you are in ramping up the support for your chapter! It's a tough position, but alumnae LOVE to hear about what the collegians are up to when they can't always get there to see for themselves!

Now, I can relate to where you're coming from, as I'm the liaison between the alumnae chapter and the collegiate chapter that I advise (yes, it's a little different than what you're talking about! ) I try to get collegiate members in contact with the alumnae officer that pertains to the position (for example, our philanthropy chair for the alumnae was interested in co-hosting a dinner with the collegians at the Ronald McDonald House - so I put the two in contact with one another). Another activity that I actually helped organize was the alumnae association provided lunch for the collegiates one day of the week during their preparation for recruitment in January - not a lot of alumnae were able to make it, but the chapter enjoyed getting to meet other alumnae and having a "outside" view (other than their advisors) of how they were looking for recruitment. We also do a joint Founders' Day celebration in May, where the alumnae Founder's Day chair invites members of the chapter, and then we have a ceremony for the graduating seniors after the luncheon where the alumnae are able to stay and help out.

Keeping in contact is definitely key - especially with your chapter's alumnae (the ones who are likely to be the MOST invested in your chapter's future!) Sending a newsletter, setting up an "private group" for discussion - these are just some ways to find out what's been going on with your chapter's alumnae (or you could even include local alumnae in the distribution group, as well).

Hope this helps a little, and keep up the great work!

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by polarpi

Phi Mu Belle, I wanted to first of all say congratulations on your position, and how interested you are in ramping up the support for your chapter! It's a tough position, but alumnae LOVE to hear about what the collegians are up to when they can't always get there to see for themselves!

Now, I can relate to where you're coming from, as I'm the liaison between the alumnae chapter and the collegiate chapter that I advise (yes, it's a little different than what you're talking about! ) I try to get collegiate members in contact with the alumnae officer that pertains to the position (for example, our philanthropy chair for the alumnae was interested in co-hosting a dinner with the collegians at the Ronald McDonald House - so I put the two in contact with one another). Another activity that I actually helped organize was the alumnae association provided lunch for the collegiates one day of the week during their preparation for recruitment in January - not a lot of alumnae were able to make it, but the chapter enjoyed getting to meet other alumnae and having a "outside" view (other than their advisors) of how they were looking for recruitment. We also do a joint Founders' Day celebration in May, where the alumnae Founder's Day chair invites members of the chapter, and then we have a ceremony for the graduating seniors after the luncheon where the alumnae are able to stay and help out.

Keeping in contact is definitely key - especially with your chapter's alumnae (the ones who are likely to be the MOST invested in your chapter's future!) Sending a newsletter, setting up an "private group" for discussion - these are just some ways to find out what's been going on with your chapter's alumnae (or you could even include local alumnae in the distribution group, as well).

Hope this helps a little, and keep up the great work!

polarpi, welcome back to GC, has been along time!

You give some excellent advice!

Keeping in contact is defenitly the key. It is and has to be a two way function of Alums and Chapter.

If the chapter does not keep the Alums informed then they lose interest. If the Chapter feels the Alums do not care, then they too quit caring about the Alums until they need help!

So Belle.. what did you finally decide to do?

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by BlueAngell

Belle, what did you decide to do?

Me too would like to find out!

Phi_Mu_Belle, I am passing along good vibes as starting anything is never easy!


Keeping Sister/Brothers together is always fun as it should be!

[steelmagnolia]

Perhaps you need a "heart -to-heart" meeting with the alumnae president to discuss your concerns and together devise a way to jointly communicate.
As president of the houston alumnae chapter, i get an alumnae "strip list" from the national office every year which lists the most current contact info on all alums in our area (you have to tell HQ the zip codes in your area so they know which to send you).

We do all of our communications to all alumnae in the area via email. Then we mail "follow-up" printed invitations for special events such as Founders Day luncheon and philanthropy summer lunch to dues paying alumnae only because of the cost and time to print and mail invites. At our three main events, our attendance averages at 56 per event - but our most recent Founders Day event with collegian and alumnae had 90 guests.

The downside to this is that many older alums dont have email addresses or dont think to include email addresses when updating their contact info with the national office.

We have created a VP of Alumnae/collegiate relations just to improve our communications with the collegian. But basically - it all boils down to advance notification and continuous notification. Another key is to make sure you get new emails of all collegians that graduate - like at Third Dimension ceremony to make sure you maintain their contact info.