What if anything do Alums want?
Yesterday I sat in on my first meeting of the first national advisory board for the alumni relations department of my university. There are about 20 people on the board and to start the meeting we went around the group introducing ourselves and telling how we are involved with the university. I was one of the last to go and after telling them when I attended and what I now do, I politely said that I wasn't sure why I had been asked to be on the board since I have not actually been involved with the university since I graduated 25 years ago. Apparently I am the only one who really has no involvement aside from financial donations that was asked to participate.
As the meeting went on I was struck by two things: first, oh yes, I had attended a Catholic University and second, I was the only one who seemed to think that perhaps there were alums who really didn't want to be involved.
On the first, it wasn't as if I had really forgotten that it was a catholic school, it was more that I forgot that for some people, that was THE most important aspect of it both during school and since they graduated. For me, it was important at the time, but over time has become a non-event in my perspective. Yet for the others, figuring out how to continue to 'bring Christ' to the alums was an important aspect of what they thought we should do.
On the second, I had listened to the discourse on low attendance levels at sponsored events for the alums and the ways we could improve their involvement. My head kept spinning around the idea of why we felt we needed more of them to come to these things (I myself do not attend them). The group discussed the idea that the University didn't just teach students it helped develop a community, a lifelong community. I agree with that. It's just that the community that I developed while in college, my friends, are with whom I would want to gather, not a bunch of random strangers from 80+ years of graduates.
Why then does the university feel so strongly that we need to increase involvment? What they really should want is for the alums to feel passionate, positive about the school and to want to take one of 2 steps from there. Either feel compelled to support the university through financial donations OR feel compelled to support the university by promoting it vocally to their networks The idea of financial support is well known to most alums...it is probably the biggest complaint they have, that the university is constantly hounding them for money. There are some, like me, who have no problem contributing the university financially. But for others, it is simply not an option for them at this time in their lives. So they avoid contact with the university.
It seems to me that trying to get us to show up at events is only one tactic to increase alum involvement. Perhaps we should be spending less time with events and more time sharing the message that one of the best ways they can help the university is by being viral: by sharing the experiences THEY had at the school, with parents and potential students of the university. The university thrives on new student enrollments and getting the school to be a first choice for potential freshmen is critical. I suspect that most alums have good feelings about the university and would be willing to be part of the viral communication paths even if they can't be part of the traditional financial contribution path. By being an 'apostle' of the university, spreading the word about what it is doing, why it is a good school, what the student can learn there DIFFERENT from what they can learn at another institution, the alum is in fact helping the financial needs of the school.
Perhaps the message to the alums needs to be different.
As the meeting went on I was struck by two things: first, oh yes, I had attended a Catholic University and second, I was the only one who seemed to think that perhaps there were alums who really didn't want to be involved.
On the first, it wasn't as if I had really forgotten that it was a catholic school, it was more that I forgot that for some people, that was THE most important aspect of it both during school and since they graduated. For me, it was important at the time, but over time has become a non-event in my perspective. Yet for the others, figuring out how to continue to 'bring Christ' to the alums was an important aspect of what they thought we should do.
On the second, I had listened to the discourse on low attendance levels at sponsored events for the alums and the ways we could improve their involvement. My head kept spinning around the idea of why we felt we needed more of them to come to these things (I myself do not attend them). The group discussed the idea that the University didn't just teach students it helped develop a community, a lifelong community. I agree with that. It's just that the community that I developed while in college, my friends, are with whom I would want to gather, not a bunch of random strangers from 80+ years of graduates.
Why then does the university feel so strongly that we need to increase involvment? What they really should want is for the alums to feel passionate, positive about the school and to want to take one of 2 steps from there. Either feel compelled to support the university through financial donations OR feel compelled to support the university by promoting it vocally to their networks The idea of financial support is well known to most alums...it is probably the biggest complaint they have, that the university is constantly hounding them for money. There are some, like me, who have no problem contributing the university financially. But for others, it is simply not an option for them at this time in their lives. So they avoid contact with the university.
It seems to me that trying to get us to show up at events is only one tactic to increase alum involvement. Perhaps we should be spending less time with events and more time sharing the message that one of the best ways they can help the university is by being viral: by sharing the experiences THEY had at the school, with parents and potential students of the university. The university thrives on new student enrollments and getting the school to be a first choice for potential freshmen is critical. I suspect that most alums have good feelings about the university and would be willing to be part of the viral communication paths even if they can't be part of the traditional financial contribution path. By being an 'apostle' of the university, spreading the word about what it is doing, why it is a good school, what the student can learn there DIFFERENT from what they can learn at another institution, the alum is in fact helping the financial needs of the school.
Perhaps the message to the alums needs to be different.
posted by shrunken girl at 9:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home