Alumnae Associations

AOX81 · #1 08-14-2002, 10:31 AM

Do any of you locals out there have alumnae associations? We have been around for 13 years and I think it is time to start one.

Any suggestions?

DHgirl · #2 08-14-2002, 01:27 PM

We're in the same boat, I guess. My sorority cleaned house, so to speak in 1997, and the one remaining active dissociated us from our brother fraternity Tau Delta Phi--they were our Adam's rib--and though we kept the same name, most everything old was wiped out. That being the case, there really were no known alumni, but now we have two years worth and I've been trying to figure out a way to keep in contact with them.

I have a couple ideas for this, one of them I've already implemented.

The first is I set up a message board site for the sorority so they can keep in touch with the current memebers, whether they are on the other side of the globe or not (and they have gone that far.) This has been nice because the alumni HAVE signed up to the board, and they have given imput. I just did this this summer, so I haven't figured out everything, but a physical page for the alumni to keep in touch seems to be helpful.

The second thing I really want to do is a ceremony put together to mark the graduation of our alumni and pass them from actives to alumni--a physical ceremony so that it isn't that they just stop showing up, but a way of observing the change while reminding them of that no matter how far they go, they will always be a part of us.

And the last would be to have an alumni event/s throughout the year or semester, depending on ability.

From there, I don't know--I'm not sure what else the sorority can do to set up an alumni assoc.--the alumni themselves might have to take things from here. I guess I'm in the same spot as you, but that's where I'm at at the moment. I'd be inerested in everyone else's ideas as well.

IBRSki · #3 08-15-2002, 08:19 AM

As one of the founding members of my local sorority and seeing that I'm a senior who's going to graduate this spring (AHHHHH!

) I am definitely thinking of getting an alumnae group going on. We have several other seniors this year and we've all worked so hard and so long on this group that i can't even think about graduating and not being involved anymore. Myself and my other senior sister have begun tentative plans for alumnae gatherings, but i'm not sure just how to go about getting an official group going or exactly what is involved in such an association, any ideas would be great! keep the info coming!

honeybee77 · #4 08-30-2002, 12:04 PM

Recently I have also started the quest to start an alumni association for my local sorority. This is what I have done so far

First I called the alumni office, luckly they had a list of all sisters, or well almost all.

Next I went on a phone campaign calling all the sisters that I knew. Basicly I just got all the information I could. Mostly email addresses.

Meanwhile, I have compiled a list of all the information I have in an excel worksheet.

Currently, I wrote an e-mail to all the sisters telling them my idea and asking them to add any goals they would like to see happen in the association.

After I get some responses and some volunteers Hopefully we will plan an organizational meeting during homecoming.

If anyone has any advice please advise.

Thankyou

honeybee77 · #5 09-25-2002, 11:35 AM

Im still contacting people, by phone first. I have found this is the best way to hook them.

We have sent our two newsletters, by email of course. Right now I have a group of about 5 girls that are making this work. But I think slowly as older sisters see this isn't a joke. We will grow.

How is everyone else doing?

Milissa
Delta Rho Delta

AOX81 · #6 09-25-2002, 11:43 AM

Well I don't have as much work to do locating people. Out of 159 sisters I am only missing addresses for 9 of them. I am going to contact the school to see if they can help me out with the rest.

I'm still trying to get some of the more recent alumnae involved to get this thing going!!

honeybee77 · #7 10-07-2002, 01:12 PM

How do I get people involved at a leadership level. Granted it has only been about 4 months I have been on this Alumni Association quest. I think part of the problem that everyone has been out of the loop for so long, they have forgotten what our sorority was and is all about.

I am sending out newsletters. and being a central hub for all communications. Can anyone think of anything else I can do to.

Milissa
"Girlfriend"

Delta 1917 · #8 10-07-2002, 03:15 PM

I find that the key to sucess is finding out who those key alums are from each generation. Go through and try to identify people from about every 4 years who you want engage. Get them on board first-- teach them about the group today, call them, make them an insider-- and then ask for their assistance in starting an alumni association.

The most sucessful groups--and easiest for chapters/ groups to manage-- are those that are started and run by the alumni themselves.

Good luck!

AOX81 · #9 10-08-2002, 12:26 PM

Well I tossed the idea to a couple of other recent alumnae and we are starting our alumnae association TODAY!!

We are still working out a lot of the details...

Here are some of the positions that we have come up with:
President, Vice President, Treasurer/Secretary, Chapter Advisor, and Rush Consultant.

We have an alumnae association website and have contact information for every single one of our Alumnae.

Can anyone think of any good events that will attract a lot of people and can you think of any other chairs/positions that you think would be vital for our new association?

Thanks!!

AOX81 · #10 10-24-2002, 09:35 AM

Well it's been two weeks since we started our alumnae association and we currently have 13 members.

TKESweetheart · #11 10-25-2002, 03:27 PM

We assigned each active sister an alumni (hopefully one she knew/liked/already kept in touch with) and they were responsible for letting them know what the chapter was doing etc. They invited them to things-rush, formal, greek week, date night etc. It was a great way to not lose track of them. Another way to do it is to make it a position in the sosority-alumni chairman. That person has the job of updating all records-phone #, email, etc. That way if the alumni want to get together, there is an easy way to get in contact with everyone. We also planned activities like-active vs. alumni softball/bowling/etc. to let the new girls get to know the alumni. ALso, we did a parent/alumni preveiw at RUSH. All our parents & alumni were invited (formally) to come watch us practice our rush skit and we sang all our songs and stuff and it was a great dress rehearsal for us.

Our alumni meet once a month at a restaurant/bar. They plan one or two philanthropy projects a year or they join ours. They make announcements like-so and so got married, is getting married, had a baby, is having a shower, is sick, mother died, moved away-here's the new address, lost their job.........
Its a great way to keep in touch. We send one active to the meetings-usually alumni chairman or our president goes-and they update the alumni on our chapter andwhat we are doing. That way we all can get the events into our calenders and we still see each other and still know whats going on. It works really well andthere's really very little effort put into it.

AOX81 · #12 10-30-2002, 11:55 AM

Well we are up to 20 members and it looks like I'm going to be the first Alumnae Association President

AOX81 · #13 11-04-2002, 03:28 PM

We are now up to 23 members and I am the President

zchi2 · #14 11-04-2002, 04:03 PM

Are you charging to be apart of the alumnae association for your sorority? If so how much?

AOX81 · #15 11-05-2002, 08:14 AM

We haven't completely decided yet. We were thinking of either having dues be $10-$20 a year or just asking for donations.