June Gudeman

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Mission Statement Development

Chris, Great job! I like it! June Gudeman

June Gudeman

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Challenges to Setting Up an Alumni Association Website

Angela, That's a really good question. In my situation, I believe part of the motivation is that we display our stories on the alumni site (with photos). Grads see those and, I believe, it causes them to think -- "hey, that could be me!" Also, we put together Alumni Success Story Posters in the lobby and hallways of each of our campuses. By the time they are graduates, they've seen those hanging around campus and they want to be one of those success stories. To get started, you may want to involved your staff/instructors to help you gather a bunch… >>>

June Gudeman

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Challenges to Setting Up an Alumni Association Website

Angela, You've hit the nail on the head -- keeping any website 'current' takes time. But, it is so important to keep it fresh and keep grads coming back to visit. I like your idea of having a collective effort. June

June Gudeman

Discussion Comment

Mission Statement Development

Angela, So, what would a rough draft of your mission statement look like? June

June Gudeman

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Benefits to Offer Your Grads

Daniela, You are absolutely correct. The MAIN reason alumni come back to their institution is for Career Services. The more broad your offering of placement assistance, resume writing, job board, etc.the more draw for your alumni. June

June Gudeman

Discussion Comment

Challenges to Setting Up an Alumni Association Website

Daniela, It sounds like you are thinking about incentives to bring your graduates to your alumni website. It's important to think about what things you could include that would provide that "buy-in"? You might consider components that alumni are looking for like a Job Board, an Alumni Directory (to connect with old classmates), or other helpful information they might be interested in - Career Services, Loan Info, Continuing Education. You may also want to consider some things that would, literally, force them to your site like Transcript Request Forms or Grad Surveys. June

June Gudeman

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Public Relations Opportunities

Daniela, I like your idea of using a career fair to match students with your employers in the community. Using your graduates to actually put faces to your institution is really important. We must constantly be thinking about how we can maximize our contact in the community via happy and successful alumni. June

June Gudeman

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Your First Event

Anna, Certainly, one of the main 'draws' for bringing graduates back into a connection with their school is career services. I think this would be a good first event. June

June Gudeman

Discussion Comment

Mission Statement Development

Hi Anna, So, my question to you would be - should the mission statement for your alumni association be the same or do you have different goals? What exactly do you want to accomplish with your alumni? Often Alumni Associations take a portion of their institution's mission statement, but then add to it with more specific direction toward their graduates. June

June Gudeman

Discussion Comment

Barriers to setting up an Alumni Association

Anna, It sounds like you've thought through some of your issues in setting up an Alumni Association. Let me comment on a couple of the ones you mentioned. Most institutions use an Alumni Website as their main method of building and maintaining a relationship with their graduates. If you think in those terms, then having students in other states is not an issue and, frankly, in today's world our students find us if we have a website for them to go to. We don't even need to spend a lot of time and money finding them, they actually come to… >>>