Alumnae Associations

ADPi-Jen · #1 06-17-2003, 10:21 AM

Hello All,

I'm looking for some insight on how to increase participation and excitement in a newly formed Alumnae Association for Adpi in my area.

We have had several meetings and it seems like only "older" alumnae are interested, rather than recent college grads. Being a very recent college grad myself, and new to the area I was hoping that there would be a group of ladies closer to my own age?

I know that after my college time I was a little burned out on sorority stuff, but you could say that my collegiate days with the chapter could have been a little more turbulent than most. Anyone think that this could be the case?

There are plenty of women in the area both new and veteran alumnae and countless others I'm sure.

ANY thoughts, advice, inspiration would be GREATLY appreciated.

Fraternally,
Jen

ees125 · #2 06-17-2003, 04:46 PM

I don't think I have terribly much helpful info, but take what you will from it...

Our Jr. Circle (or younger alumnae) group is very small considering the number of sisters we know are in the area, but we just keep plugging away. Our International Headquarters supplies us with a list each year of alumnae in the area, so for most events we sent out email invites to everyone and hope for the best. The few of us that do take part, get together for dinners, movies, shopping trips, beach trips, renting movies and just plain old hanging out. Hopefully your headquarters can provide some info, if nothing else some names of people you can attempt to contact...just keep at it! It's worth it no matter how few people attend.

texas*princess · #3 06-17-2003, 04:51 PM

Are there any collegiate chapters close to your alumnae association?

Maybe you could have a couple of events with them to get the older members of the chapter interested if you spend some time with the chapter members, or help them out

KappaKittyCat · #4 06-17-2003, 05:20 PM

Alumnae chapters of Kappa often have groups of younger alumnae who call themselves "Night Owls" and meet at a club or something once per month to do fun social stuff. This is a good way to get women initially involved with the group and draw them into other activities, like philanthropy and advisory roles.

ADPi-Jen · #5 06-17-2003, 05:30 PM

Unfortunately, No there are no close collegiate chapters of Adpi. I believe the closest would be several hours south at Iowa and Iowa State or HH chapter over in South Dakota. Alpha Rho, the fomer chapter at U of M, closed several years ago (80's I think).

We have lists of 100's - 1000's of Adpi's in the area but its difficult to get people motivated to be involved. Personally, I worked very hard in a very small (15-20 members max) chapter in college and I am sort of burned out on being an officer. My personal ideal at this point would be to finally get to sit back and enjoy just being a member and just showing up to events, rather than planning them. I would very much enjoy "just hanging out" with sisters (or other GLO Alumnae in the area).

Its more difficult than I thought to make friends in a new area as an adult....

Thanks for the advice tho....any other thoughts???

Tom Earp · #6 06-17-2003, 10:24 PM

Jen, wish I could come up with something for you!!

Guy and Girl thing can be tuff as what to do for each one.

There was a Greater KC LXA Alum thing that did not work out so we did our own Chapter thing!

Finding thing for women to do to show up, well I am a little out of practice on that

How about a Victoria Secret Party

It is tuff to get the line broken to get a few certain people to attend and to let others know what you as an Alum Group are doing

A line of Coummunication such as a email address book just to let Alums know what if Happening might be a start! Mention Names and Chapters of members who are with you!

Bullshit can go a long way as if not there, who is to say it did not turn out so good!

SmartBlondeGPhB · #7 06-17-2003, 10:50 PM

This probably won't be what you want to hear.

Our alumnae chapter is only about 4 years and we are a younger aged chapter (sometimes I feel old at 33). But we started with a small group of women who were all younger, so we actually have the problem of attracting older women. A few of us find it really funny when other alumnae talk about "young alum clubs". That would be most of our group!

You will find that a lot of younger women feel as you do. They want to just come out and enjoy the events and it will be like pulling teeth to get anyone to help out. For the first 1.5 years, our chapter was run by two people, myself and the Treasurer.

I would recommend trying to attract women in their 30's, they will be more settled and possibly more interested in helping get the chapter started. We have found that happy hours are a great way to get women to come out to a very casual event. We also had a very successful "meet and greet" at a local bar where women could just show up during a 2 hour time period and hang out.

What type of city are you in? For example, Seattle is a mecca for people relocating so we use that as a great way to get new women who are moving to the area. Also, we have a couple of chapters in Eastern WA where women go to school there, and then move to Seattle. We have gotten a number of the graduates of one of the chapters pretty much by word of mouth since some of our charter members went there.

If you want some more help, PM me. I did it for 4 years.

Good Luck and don't get discouraged by the lack of interest. It will take a long time to build it up.

Melanie

Peaches-n-Cream · #8 06-18-2003, 02:00 PM

We're just starting up our Metro NY Alumnae Association. For some reason all of the women are in their twenties and early thirties which is fine by me. We meet once a month. I found out about the group by an announcement on the International website. We keep in touch via e-mail and phone.

Maybe you can make an announcement on your website that you are looking to start a young alumnae association. This might attract the age group that you are looking for. Especially at this time of the year when there are new college grads.