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Educate
In order to begin a successful alumni
program, you must first bring your entire chapter on board. Until the
chapter realizes the need and benefits of having an effective program,
you will not achieve your goals.
Start early! Educate your Probationary
Members about the importance of alumni involvement. Explain the object
to them in terms of alumni continuing the mission they began learning
about in college. By repeated education in your probationary process,
you will re-teach your current collegiate brotherhood.
Educate your alumni about their continuing
responsibility to support the fraternity. This can easily be done in
conversation. Also, please ask them for their new addresses and contact
numbers on a regular basis.
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Communicate
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Is the
Alumni Newsletter still valid? When you send your alumni newsletter,
send it both electronically and physically. We must make things as
easy as possible for those wishing to reconnect with the brotherhood.
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Sign them up
for your chapter list serve. This is the best way to give out
up-to-the minute communication.
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Begin laying
the groundwork for an Area Alumni Association. Resources are readily
available. Consult your PAC, or contact Lyrecrest for additional
information.
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Website –
keep it up to date. Make your websites simple, so anyone can update
them. Fancy websites are nice if your chapter has a real commitment to
its upkeep. For most chapters though, a simple site is recommended.
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Phone call
chain.
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Address
/Phone/Email updates!! If you know of an Alumni moving, get their
information and update it with MyDesktop at
www.sinfonia.org. Also,
encourage the alumni to do this on their own.
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Relate
Once you’ve opened the lines of
communication, make sure you are always friendly and fraternal to your
alumni. Treat them no differently than you would a collegiate chapter
brother. Remember, many alumni when they return are looking to reminisce
about their past experiences. Show interest in what they have to say and
make them feel like they are a part of the chapter, which of course they
still are. We want our alumni to feel as though they still belong to
Sinfonia, and not the old guy standing in the corner nobody knows.
One more note: Your chapter attitude towards
your alumni will say a lot about its program. If you treat your alumni
as “exiled” members, or as deadbeats with no direction in life, then you
will assume this position upon your own graduation. Do your best to stop
this feeling, it is poison for developing a positive alumni experience.
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Facilitate
Create situations for your alumni to
reconnect with the chapter. Picnics, Mills Missions, etc. Communication
is the most basic element, but this step is the actual physical
manifestation of that relationship. Talk to your alumni and figure out
what they want from your events. Your event success will depend on many
factors, but its efficiency will make or break it. If your campus is
offering a seminar on event planning, take it! Running smooth events
will keep people coming back again and again.
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Graduate
Do what you say you will! When you graduate,
become the alumni Sinfonian you’ve promised to be. Some day in the not
so distant future, you will be the alumnus your chapter is searching
for, the alumnus who has changed his address three times in one year and
not updated it with the Fraternity. Or, you may be the alumnus who
promised to support the fraternity when he was in college but now
forgets to. This could be you! Yes, chapter alumni programs begin with
the Probationary Member process, but they end at death!
Remember to do the Ceremony for Graduating
Seniors. This event will mark their transition to the area of membership
in which they will remain for the rest of their lives. Do this ceremony
with as much reverence as you would the Initiation Ritual.
Another note: Make sure your brothers
actually graduate. Universities will not count as alumni those who fail
out of school. Many of our data gathering for alumni relies upon lists
generated from the sheltering institutions. Besides the fact that the
point of going to school is to get a degree that will prepare you for
life, you may be lost by the fraternity if your chapter is careless
about the academic futures of its members.
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