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  #1  
Old 07-28-2003, 04:08 PM
peeps1852 peeps1852 is offline
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Question Advice please.......any Alumni of a womens org.

I am writting to get the advice of all you brilliant Alum out there. Our chapters Alumni relations have a strange history. This could be a long story but I am going to do my best to keep it simple......

-about 5 years ago we had poor alum relations

-most of our advicers resigned and come to find out now where bitter about things

-we have been steadily working on improving things. We had a big 150 party in their honor. (not many made it dur to a horrible snow storm but they all got the invite)

-we sent out a letter anoucing homecoming and formal recruitment last year

-we recentely sent a very detailed newsletter.

-only 2-3 of them contact us or donate things.....and we always thank them and award them.....

So, we final have a new advicer now but she seems to be caring a lot of the past resentment. It is hard to adjust because we have not had a real advicer for over two years. She asked us what we wanted from her and we asked for her helping getting Alumni to come to formal recruitment (we need help due to a big turn over numberwise). She confess that basically they are all mad at us....
Still??? we are not even the ones that mad them mad. Anyways, I just need to know what we can do to make it up to these women. We really want and need there support

Any advice.........
Thanks,
Rachael
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  #2  
Old 07-28-2003, 04:15 PM
33girl 33girl is offline
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Is your advisor from your chapter and the same age as these women? If so, she may be the one they're mad at, not the actives. If the advisor is someone that the majority of the alums do not like and won't get behind, you might need to take actions to relieve her of her position. An advisor is supposed to be support not something else to stress over.

If I've totally misinterpreted the situation please correct me!
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  #3  
Old 07-28-2003, 07:33 PM
pinkyphimu pinkyphimu is offline
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hi rachael!

here are some things that i can think of off the top of my head.
-don't only write to the alums when you need something

-set up a listserve (you can do this on yahoogroups) to send out info faster and more frequently. plus it gives the alums an opportunity to send out little updates about themselves

-plan things in advance. don't send out an invite the week before homecoming to a bbq.

-when alums come to events, be sure that all chapter members talk to them. sometimes it seems like you are at a 6th grade dance...lol...where the collegiates are on one side and the alums on the other! maybe plan some sort of mixer game just so that people will start mingling.

in terms of your advisors...make sure you contact them regularly. for example, i am an advisor for my collegiate chapter and i have had to chase down my advisee sometimes. it is not amusing for advisors to have to call you three times before they get a response. we definately understand being busy, etc., however, it is frustrating when you haven't had contact for a month and you just need a date or something.

this relationship is definately a two way street, so your advisors and alums need to give you a break. if the current members of the chapter weren't there when all the "bad" stuff happened, then they need to cut you some slack! see if you can find out what the problems were, so that you can be sure not to repeat their mistakes!

good luck!
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  #4  
Old 07-28-2003, 09:41 PM
peeps1852 peeps1852 is offline
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Thank you

Thanks for the reply ladies. Good Advie. I am currently the oldest member of my chapter. there for being the only on who even remembers the "bad" times HOwever, the current Presidents sister was in the chapter at the time so she knows what is going on also. As a past president I feel a need to make sure things stay on track ( a whole other issue . THe ladie that is our advicer now was a little older then these girls who are mad but you are right that it is the same era. However, I don't think they are mad at her.......they seem to all be friends.

I just need to know how to make it up to them so everyone can get over the past. Should we just agree that we where jerks and move on...maybe if we don't talk about it it will go away

Pinky, that is a great point that we should do more then mailings. I admit that snail mail has historically been our only contact. So where do we go from here? We are trying to start over but they seem skeptical......
Thanks again.
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  #5  
Old 07-28-2003, 10:22 PM
33girl 33girl is offline
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We had a couple years where our alum relations were absolutely shitty. Even I (the huge supporter) was fed up with the current sisters and their attitude.

Then (after a lot of the dead weight in the sorority left) the president sent a PERSONAL letter to us, letting us know what all was going on with the chapter - not sugar coating or making it sound canned, just a sweet letter from her to us as the alums, letting us know we were valued and wanted. That really turned things around as far as alum-collegiate relations were concerned.

If your turnover is bad enough to make you worry about the chapter's future, say that - don't try to put on a brave front. These are your sisters. If they know it's crunch time, they're more likely to put aside whatever grudges they might have.
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  #6  
Old 07-28-2003, 10:31 PM
Tom Earp Tom Earp is offline
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Thumbs up

peeps, being the typo King on GC, I did pick up: advicer, it is advisor!

First off, if your Chapter is doing well, then I would sit down with the Exec. Board and Advisor and just put it on the table!

What is the problem? We did not do anything or have anything to do with what may have happened in the pst. Maybe it is time for the ALums to get over THEIR PROBLEMS and not foist them on the current Chapter.

Let them grow up a little and find out "What They Are Missing"

Any and all Chapters go through this so hang in there!
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  #7  
Old 07-29-2003, 08:49 PM
dakareng dakareng is offline
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Tom hit it on the head. Meet the one advisor out for coffee and a one-on-one chat. You don't want to intimidate her by having all of exec there. Put it on the table and ask "why? what did the chapter do?". If your regional officer has been in office for any length of time, she might know as well. Before you can fix the problem, you need to know what it is. If you DO know what the problem is, apologize (hey, even if the chapter was not solely at fault, someone has to be the 'big' person and start mending the fences) and ask how the chapter can fix it. If you don't talk about it, it will NEVER go away... so bite the bullet and see if you can move past whatever drama took place 5 years ago.

Your other option of course, is to get names of local alums (contact your regional alumnae officer or headquarters) and help recruit new advisors. If the same women had been advising for years, they might have gotten too involved in some of the drama and are carrying wounds that would best be fixed by being kitchen help during recruitment, not by advising the chapter.

A yahoogroups list might seem great to us GC-ers who love to do things online but is not as readily translated to alums who'd rather pick up the phone. When you get a core group of advisors, ask them how they would like to be contacted!
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