alum membership officers, a ?

[DGMarie]

I've been slated to run as the VP:membership for my alumnae chapter. I don't believe anyone else has been slated so I assume I will get the position (there were two other people running but both dropped out). I have never held a "membership" position. Does anyone have any experiences they can share if they've held such a position in their chapter? Our current active group is about 30 women. We have over ** 800 ** alumnae in our area. Obviously, one of my goals would be to figure out how to get more people to come out. Currently we have a newsletter, a website (which I run) and a full schedule of meetings. Here are some of the things I have in mind (opinions welcome!):

1. A survey of a random sample of the 800 alumns to identify their interest in activities and level of awareness of the a. chapter. Since I do market research for a living, I have tools which will allow me to do this via email, but for those without email addresses it is snail mail all the way.

2. The previous VP: Membership surveyed the current group informally for their interests etc but I don't believe this was shared with the group (i.e. susie and becky both like waterskiing etc). I thought this would be good to encourage interaction.

3. We have the website which is current to the day with out activitues. I also have begun taking digital photos to add interest

??? This is where I draw a blank. If this topic has been discussed to death, just post a link and I'll take it from there.

BTW: here is our (just revised last week) site. I think we are pretty active!
http://www.geocities.com/deltagammaalumnae

Thanks!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I know the alum group I plan to join in a few months has a "pink* light special," where new members get a dues break their first year.

*insert your sorority's color here

[navane]

Great website!! By the way, like 95% of my family is from Chicago - my sister and I are like two of 5 people who aren't! Anyway, my dad is from Deerfield. I know Deerfield is north, but is that near where your association meets? Just wondering!


I think it's awesome that you're diving right in, Marie! Go for it! I think you have some solid ideas so far.


Hrm...let's see. When I was pursuing alum membership with "sorority #1" they had a clever theme for the year. The theme was "XYZ Survivor" Everyone got a card with the XYZ Survivor logo and which had spaces with the dates of all the events and meetings on it. The idea was that you were to outlast your sisters by attending the most events. Of course, this is supposed to encourage participation in the association. Each meeting or event had some kind of activity to do. For example, for the meeting that was nearest to Thanksgiving, each sister had to bring a picture which depicted something in XYZ she is thankful for. The ladies who participated got their card punched. I think that, at the end of the year, the ladies who had at least 90% completed got a prize or something. Then the sister(s) who had all their spaces filled got a grand prize. Of course, the Survivor show is a bit old hat now, but maybe you could adapt this idea in a more up-to-date way. Just an idea!


PNAM,

.....Kelly

[Lil' Hannah]

I think another important thing you're going to have to look at is the demographics of the women in your alumnae association along with the demographics of the alumnae in the area. I know that in my area there are about 4 alumnae groups, but one is known for being the "young" alumnae chapter and the rest are "older" women. Is one group of alumnae being dissuaded from joining your chapter because of the current make up of the chapter or perhaps the activities being offered?

Maybe you could work with the vp: programming to plan a happy hour with recently graduated members a few weeks after graduation this May. I also like the "pink light special" idea...talk to the vp: finance and if it's feasible offer a discount on 1st year dues or perhaps only to newly graduated alumnae or something to that effect. I know that I want to join my local alumnae chapter, but as a recent grad who's only working part time but still paying rent and bills, I can't justify sending off my alumnae dues quite yet.

Another way to encourage membership is to send info about your chapter to the collegiate chapters in the area and invite/encourage them to join.

And finally, is your alumnae chapter active with the collegiate chapters in the area? The "young" alumnae chapter in my area is pretty active with my former collegiate chapter, coming to COB events, holiday parties, etc. so a lot of the collegiates get to know the alumnae and are more excited to join a group of women that they already know.

Good luck Marie...you already have a lot of great ideas!

ITB,
LH

[DGMarie]

Originally posted by Lil' Hannah
Is one group of alumnae being dissuaded from joining your chapter because of the current make up of the chapter or perhaps the activities being offered?


Another way to encourage membership is to send info about your chapter to the collegiate chapters in the area and invite/encourage them to join.

And finally, is your alumnae chapter active with the collegiate chapters in the area?

There are several alum chapters in our area. We have 10, in fact. We are a diverse group in age, but to your point one of the things I am investigating is age, location and interests. I plan to plot out on a map where alums are located versus where we have activities.

As for collegians, the problem is that we are an hour in any direction to our nearest chapters. There are chapters close to other alum chapters, so we are rarely (almost never) asked for assistance. This makes it hard.

[pinkyphimu]

marie, your website is great!!! i did alum membership, but i dont have any other exciting things to add. perhaps you could do a bring a friend night....probably some people know at least 1 dg alum in the area. having a "moms" club might be a good draw, too. somewhere in this forum there is a thread that lists some great ideas for events! good luck!

[DGMarie]

I will try your suggestions for themed nights and bring a friend.

thanks!
MArie

[GPhiBLtColonel]

...we are a new (3 yrs old) and smaller Gamma Phi alum chapter located in the "southern crescent" area of atlanta (5 county area that actually form a crescent around atlanta's southside) -- there is a bigger alum chapter in metro Atlanta -- we are not near our two chapters in GA --one is in metro Atlanta, the other is an hour and a half north of us in Athens -- we still do things for them from afar: we do not wait to be asked -- we let them know we are here and want to help in any way we can, given the time and distance, without getting into their nearby alum chapter's knickers (but can too much really be done for collegiate chapters? I think not!) Anyways, we asked each chapter for a wish list of things they as a chapter wanted and needed but could not buy for whatever reason and we used our convention boutique profits (we made and sold Gamma Phi business card magnets and cleared about $600!) to buy both chapters nearly everything on their wish lists (we could not find some of the stuff they wanted). They both LOVED it! We also often send pick carnations (our flower) to the chapters for initiations; we periodically meet a few collegians on their turf for dinners and currently we are making and repairing the ritual robes and other ritual "stuff" used by both chapters. Since we are in the suburbs, we are more domesticated, so to speak, then our alum chapter in metro Atlanta.
As far ways to get more members to your events, I find that writing a personal note to each alum who is not involved helps -- I know we have a smaller pool to work with than you have there in Chicago, but perhaps you can split up the target alums and have several active members write the notes...in my notes I try to chat about something we might have in common, besides the sorority, and then I mention something the alum chapter is doing or has done and then I say how great it would be if you could join us! Schmoozing basically! It did/does work!

By the way, my inlaws live in Wheaton -- my F-I-L is one of the pastors at St John Lutheran there! Love That area!!