nathalie walker
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
10 June 2011
Tending the FlockGetting started with international alumni relations
a few questions
What percentage of your alumni live outside your home country?
How many staff are working in alumni relations?
Do you travel to meet alumni?
Do other colleagues do alumni relations for you when they travel?
TODAY
✤ WHY are you engaging your international alumni?
✤ WHAT are you going to do to engage them?
✤ WHAT ELSE MATTERS once you have
decided why and what?
3 key things
WHY
Why engage your international alumni
Why do you engage with any of your alumni at all?
The mission of Cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest levels of
international excellence.
The Goals of the Cambridge Alumni Relations Office
✤ Educate and engage alumni
✤ Connect alumni with one another and with the University
✤ To be relevant to alumni, wherever they are and however long ago they graduated
✤ To facilitate alumni relations in conjunction with Collegiate Cambridge
A global community of advocates and ambassadors
But what does that mean?
✤ To support our international reputation
✤ To enable us to recruit the best students globally
✤ To help with recruitment of graduating students
✤ To support and sustain a global community of alumni and academics
✤ To ensure that we remain globally relevant
✤ Financial support
You might have different reasons
But those reasons shouldn’t be...
✤ Someone has a couple of hours to kill on a business trip and wants you to arrange an event to fill their time
✤ Your boss tells you that everyone else is doing it an even though you are over-stretched already you feel like you should say yes
✤ Your alumni keep telling you how much Harvard/ Oxford/ Completely Random University You Have Never Heard Of * is doing, but they don’t offer to help to organise something
(*delete as appropriate)
WHAT
So, where do you start?
And then what?
✤ Global events programme?
✤ Face to face visits?
✤ An international network of volunteer run groups?
✤ International benefits/ services programme?
✤ Fundraising?
Practical tips for major strategies
International volunteer network
✤ Do not underestimate how long it will take you to manage!
✤ Don’t be afraid of being very clear about what you want your volunteers to do!
✤ Decide how much control you want to have, and then work out how to achieve that
✤ Don’t expect your volunteers to be psychic, or even all that engaged!
✤ Give them the tools that they need
Face-to-face visits
✤ Decide how many visits you can manage in one day:
✤ Preparation time
✤ Travel time
✤ Follow up time
✤ Having a drink in the evening to unwind time!
✤ Try to meet alumni who may be connected to one another, or who might appreciate being connected to one another
✤ Follow up is key - immediately and in the long term
Global events programme
✤ Make sure you drive it
✤ Ensure it is achievable and affordable
✤ Consider the long term strategy
✤ Make sure each event has a purpose
✤ GET FEEDBACK AND FOLLOW UP
Global benefits programme
✤ Tricky!!!
✤ Discounts
✤ Travel
✤ Online services
✤ Cambridge certainly hasn’t got this one right yet!
Fundraising
✤ There are cultural differences
✤ ways of asking
✤ expectations of being asked
✤ BUT
✤ affinity is often strongest further away
✤ they might be expecting the ask
WHAT ELSE
Be aware...
✤ Different cultures have different norms!
...but don’t be afraid!
And always try to be relevant...
and finally
It should be fun - don’t apologise for it!