Alumnae Retention
 

So you go to college, pledge a sorority and have 4 wonderful years.... then you graduate and POOF! We never hear from you again!

Anyone on the GC board knows that alumni/alumnae life is amazingly rewarding, that graduation from college is the beginning, and not the end of your Greek Membership.

So how do we retain our alum? I have my theories and I am willing to share why people don't stay, and what we could do to keep them. But I am interested in hearing what you have to say first :)

All of our sororities have 1000s of wonderful and very active alum. We make huge efforts to keep in touch with the 100s of thousands who don't do anything with the GLO after college..... how can we change this?

I had nothing to do with my chapter for several years after graduation.

Why?

I came back to help out with rush the year after I graduated. (I was a grad student at the same school.) The rush chair specifically asked me to wear something different from the actives (she asked me to wear letters whereas the actives were wearing white shirts and (I think) jeans). So I show up in my letters, and the chapter president nastily says, "Where's your white shirt?" I tried to explain to her that the rush chair had asked me to wear letters, but she would have none of it, and demanded that I call my then-fiance and have him drive down with a white shirt for me to wear. :rolleyes: Needless to say, I did no such thing!

Active members of any GLO have to show respect to the alums. Otherwise, why should alums volunteer their time and/or money?

Re: Alumnae Retention
 

Part of it is that many people never kept in touch-- moving home, getting five apartments within five years-- it all means that people are hard to contact. It's easier now with email mailing lists, since all a sister has to do is set one up, and other sisters can find the list and join it for discussions.

In other cases, people move to places where there isn't a local alumnae chapter, or isn't a local collegiate chapter, or the people there are just a very different "fit" than where one went to school. As an alumna initiate from a local in the Chicago area, I might be intimidated if I moved Down South and was living near a very traditional chapter. (Not that I'd have any need to be, per se, but meeting new people can feel like recruitment all over again, ya know?) Not to mention the age difference-- some alumnae chapters are average age forty-five, which will feel different than those with average age of twenty-eight.

I think marketing, advertising, and having an online presence will help people know that there's a chapter out there. Keeping updated with your magazine and private side will help the (I)NHQ of your org get your info to local alumnae chapters, and help them market their sisterhood to new (or new-to-area) alumnae.

survey
 

I've put together a survey to address this very issue. It is impossible to know why alumnae aren't returning without asking them. And it doesn't hurt to run this year's planned activities by them for input. Maybe the reason is that the programs you offer aren't interesting, or that you are holding them at times or locations that don't work. Any number of reasons.

Zeta has started something new called Loyalty Link which is aimed at brand new alumnae. I believe that they are expected to pay their dues to the local alumnae chapter but most of their activities are among themselves. After a specific time, they will join the regular alumnae. I'm not sure if I agree with this but time will tell.

As for our Charlotte, NC alumnae chapter, we have reduced dues for a girl who joins her first year out of school. Our ages range from early 20's to ladies over 60 (me included). There doesn't seem to be a problem with the age difference. We all have something to offer and are more than willing to listen to other opinions. We do seem to be having trouble getting the newer graduates to come to meetings but I think that is a problem with their alumnae advisors. When I was an advisor, I taught them that the "alumnae world" was simply the next step in their Zeta life and a great many of them affiliated with alumnae chapters and went on to hold state and national offices.

We have what we call the "SOF's" (Same Old Faces) who do the lion's share of work but others come and help as they can. The biggest problem we seem to have is that as soon as an alumna has a baby, she seems to think that she must drop out of circulation. I know that is not true!!

We are there for each other through thick and thin and I only wish that all young women would see that alumnae chapter membership can only enhance their lives. Regardless of age, we all have something in common and many of my closest friends are Zetas many years younger than I.

Forgive my rambling. I don't have an answer for retaining membership except to be a friend and sister when you are needed and to give your alumnae chapter a purpose besides just socializing. We do include lots of social activities but we also try to give a purpose (philanthropic) to our being.

Good luck to all of you.

adpiucf,

I think you are wrong for the 4 year college years!:D Most or closer to 5 years! Mine was 7 and a summer school!!:cool:

Hopefully in the collegiat years all are gungho.

As a New Grad. you still ahve the close ties.

As time goes by, your life gets more complicated, Wife/husband, Kid/s, oh and the Job thing!:(

Then one day, you get an e-m/phone call from an Alum, asking how you are doing. You get to talking about the times and Brother/Sisters who were in school at the time you were there.

Intrest is once again peaked. You get involved again no matter how little.

Like Fishing, throw a line out and see what you reel in!

So far when I re-envolved 10 years ago, there is a group of men who range fro # 1, 6, 54, 61, 101, all the way to 599!

Your initial life in a Greek Organization, good or bad still brings back so many memories about people and events.

It was to me one of the most important periods of my life. Of course, mine is a little different, I started the Local, but, it has taken every Member since then to still be here!:cool: :)

Re: survey
 

That's a really good idea! I may have to steal that...although I think it will also be a challenge to get alumnae to fill out the survey.

Do you mind posting some of the questions here to give us an idea of what you're doing? Thanks!

I want to bump this up because this is an area I am really frustrated about.

I love my sorority. Always will. I joined it with every intention of it being for life. And it always will be.

But I get damm frustrated when I cannot get other sisters/Greeks excited about their org.

I really do think that too many people join for the "privilege" of a greater social life in college and don't even care about their involvement after college.

We can have education programs up the arse, but I do notice a HUGE difference b/w NPC alumnae retention/involvement and NPHC alumnae retention/involvement...

WHY is there such a difference?

I think there's a difference between NPC and NPHC because it seems that NPC puts more of a focus on collegiate membership, whereas it seems that the NPHC emphasizes membership period. The collegiate membership focus makes sense when you consider that houses are (generally) part of the NPC tradition, but few NPHC chapters are housed. If you have multi-million dollar houses on college campuses, you have to keep them filled. In the NPC, it seems that you're tied to your specific house, whereas in the NPHC, your allegiance is to your entire organization. When you graduate and you leave that house, your ties are broken.

Still, I'm really gung-ho about alumnae initiation, and wish that those NPC groups that are open to the idea would promote it more.

I think burnout is a big thing too. We have only recently seen a lot of alumni start to turn out for events in larger numbers than say four or five. They have had time to get their professional lives going and are now wanting to get involved again. I am trying to get them to start running events outside the chapter, becuase we undergrads are doing good with one a semester right now, plus a quarterly newsletter. i think if alumni want to be invovled they should take it upon themselves to get it going. That way when people graduate they have somewhere to go when they want to continue being involved.

Sistermadly,
I think that's a good theory. However, there are many chapters without houses. I know that that could be a valid reason, but I don't know how much weight it holds....I really hope living in a "house" really doesn't have to do with anyone's decision as to what house they want....GACK!

Good thinking....let's keep braingstorming people!

THINK OF ALL THE LOST DUES REVENUE AND FOUNDATION DONATIONS WE ARE LOSING OUT ON DUE TO "LOST" ALUMNAE!!!!

I think this very important point bears repeating.


At our TLC this past February, our International VP of Alumnae made a very good observation: When you have an alumnae event, you have to, in essence, recruit your alums. By this, she meant that the chapter has to see it in the same way as they view a recruitment event. Collegiate members have to make sure they interact with the alumnae in the same way they would interact with a PNM. At a recruitment event, you would not leave all of the PNMs standing around talking amongst themselves, and you should not do that to your alums. Although alumnae do, for the most part, see alumnae events as a chance to see sisters they haven't seen for awhile and to catch up with one another, believe me, they will notice if the collegians don't bother talking to them and they may take offense to that. If the collegians take an interest in the alums, the alums will then, in turn, take more of an interest in the chapter, and not think "I don't even know these people anymore. Why should I help them?"

This point is so well taken being the longest and oldest Alum of My Chapter!

Many Alums because of burn out, Graduatets, family, kids, job or what ever, drift apart from the Chapter or the Org..

We all say it is not for 4/5 years but life.

We all have Bro/Sis that are scattered to all corners of the world.

Now, what is the solution?

Active Chapter keep Alums updated, a lot dont.

Alums start building a base to keep the Alums informed.

Alums start working with the Active Chapter.

As some of us get older, we remember what was there and the Friendships that we had and can still have.:cool:

Through GreekChat, I have found more Brothers that I did not know that I had or have never met! This also goes for members of Many Other Greek Orgs. Ones that I have become Friends with and hope some day to meet!

While I have talked via Ma Bell, I have only met a few. Hopefully Kitso and I can hook up this weekend! LXA/SN!

I have done the same thing but, remeber the Toms, Jans, Bobs, Leslies, and all of the others that your pledges with and went through out those 4/5 years werre Your Best Friends.

What ever happened to them! Are They wondering the same thing about you!:(

Time for Tom ta shut up!t:cool:

One way to re-interest alums is to specifically invite them to the initiation Ritual - sometimes this gets them all fired up all over again, reminding them what we are really about, and expected to do throughout our lives, plus it allows them to get to know the current group of brothers - they'll see the same things/faces/personalities that they saw when they were in school - and that might kindle the interest to participate.

I know that some GLOs have a "junior" alumnae group for the under 35-year-olds, and a "regular" one. Maybe that would work.

My current theory, not just for sorority, but for all activities, is that when you work, have a home & a family, you really only have the quality time for one or maybe two organizations. Needless to say, you pick that organization carefully, if you're a worker-bee like me. I'll pay dues to many groups that I have no intention of giving my time to, but there are groups to which I will gladly serve as an officer.

I agree with whomever said that alumnae need to be "rushed" also. It takes me almost an hour to get to the closest chapter, so when I do get to the chapter, I've already donated at least 3-4 hours of my (scant) time. Please let me know that my efforts are appreciated, and I'll be back more often!