There are some things that set certain fraternity chapters apart from others. We see it at OU all the time. Certain chapters have high alumni support, making them capable to many different things, while younger chapters, such as oursleves, sometimes struggle to build an alumni support base. Well I think here is an opporunity for that to change.
We all know our beloved Adam Wilson, he of course served as VP Alumni Relations for two terms and he did a lot of great things. I think the one thing he was missing was a way for all of the chapter to converse with alumni on a more frequent basis. One of the things Adam created, and now Jarod Thomas has taken over is creating a newsletter sent out theoretically once per quarter. I helped Adam one quarter, and believe me, the newsletter is no small task, but there is very small ROI (return on investment). Perhaps a more viable tool would be using this blog.
OK so let's talk about exactly how it works. Well first of all a newsletter is now obsolete, that cuts down on time and also fishing for information that isnt important. Secondly, a blog allows us to publish information as soon as we have it, therefore putting pertinent information in a space that is easy for alumni to check it out. Lastly, and probably most importantly, a blog creates a forum for alumni to converse with the chapter, not just one person who is sending out the newsletter. To me it is extremely important that more than the VP Alumni Relations deals with these alumni. By using this blog where everyone can converse we create a community atmostphere, not just a personal dialogue among a few individuals. I'm sure this whole idea works for a variety of other reasons, but I'll leave the door open because I'd really like feedback from everyone else on this.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Version 2.0 of Alumni Relations
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3 comments:
I am fully behind this new avenue of communication between Alumni and Active brothers, the newsletter will never be replaced or discarded, but having a constant dialog between brothers of old and new is just what this Fraternity needs. This blog could help to build on the base Adam has started and keep those who have become recent Alumni in the fold. In order to make this a viable method of communication between actives and Alum we need everyone to use this site. So brothers actually have someone to communicate with I will do my best to let those Alumni we have know about this site and hopefully have them use it.
I agree with what your saying, and I'd vote lets give it a shot and see if alumni will actually log on and start dialog on the site, its the way of the future. This would save us from newsletter costs, and hopefully still drive in an alumni support base. One thing I would recommend however, is putting the saved costs of sending out newsletters, and establish our own, OhioXI sigep website which has our own blog, not just this third party blog site. If we made it our own site, and had a brother who could help construct the site correctly, we could even put a page where alumni could make donations online through paypal. If it was a good website, and updated regularly, as I've seen other sigep chapters do, I think it would be a great success. I'd like to see some follow up on this and see what you guys think...
A while back we tried to set up some sort of website, I believe Hash and Calvin worked on that. It wasn't a success. To have our own site it would require an investment by the fraternity, because domain names and space require money. The only person who could come close to designing a website at this point would be Adam Wilson. I feel that this third-party site can work for now. Online donations through a paypal system is a good idea but that requires a lot of work and maintenance. As far as I'm concerned at this current time a third-party site is free, and it could result in donations no matter if they can be made online or not. I like where you're heads at, good foresight, but that step is a long time down the road I feel.
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