November 2010 WAAAUB North American Regional Gathering Ann Arbor, MI

North American Chapter Roundtable Discussion

Chapter Representatives North American Gathering 2010

• Atlanta• Michigan (Abir, Manal, Karam)• New York (Roland)• Ohio Valley (Hala)• Toronto (Rana, Wahbi)• Greater Washington DC (Firas)

• On the phone: – Montreal (Walid, Bassam)– Philadelphia (Nasri)– Southern California (Charles)– Toronto (Tareq)

Knowing your constituency• Know only the “regulars”?• What percentage of your area’s alumni are they?

How well does your constituency know you?• How do you raise the chapter’s profile in your community?

– Links with other higher ed institutions, non-profits, businesses

Reaching out to your community

• Do you have a communication strategy in place?

• If so, what is it?

• Frequency?

• Do you keep track of how effective your strategy is? (Example: number of responses to an email blast or phonathon)

November 2010 WAAAUB North American Regional Gathering Ann Arbor, MI

Reaching out to your communityFrom the 2009 annual chapter report

100% of chapters use E-MAIL

80% of chapters use the PHONE

66% of chapters send EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

66% of chapters post on their own WEBSITES or CHAPTER PAGES

33% of chapters use FACEBOOK

33% of chapters send MAILINGS

13% of chapters have a NEWSLETTER

November 2010 WAAAUB North American Regional Gathering Ann Arbor, MI

Reaching out to your community (cont.’d)

LINKEDIN

EVITE

CONTACTING LOCAL MEDIA

FLYERS

CONTACTING PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

WORD OF MOUTH

Expanding your alumni network

• What would attract more alumni to be engaged in the chapter?– Business networking– Social networking– Exclusive benefits– Others?

Running a chapter

• Being part of the chapter leadership – Time constraints– Organizational issues: getting things done – TEAMWORK!– Reaching out to the community for help with events

– Managing Resources– -Quality events without breaking the bank.

IDEAS?

November 2010 WAAAUB North American Regional Gathering Ann Arbor, MI

Your suggestions how AUB/WAAAUB can help Information from the 2009 annual chapter report

•Hiring a call center to update database

•Expanding means of collecting data

•Helping to locate potential alumni to join a chapter

•Helping with outreach to new members

•Helping to come up with event ideas

•Providing branded gifts

•Assistance securing speakers

•OTHERS?

Communication with WAAAUB leadership

• Existing communications– Emails to Council members (meaning Chapter Presidents); Shared

with committee or alumni community?

• How do we develop better channels of communication from the chapters to the leadership?– Chapter annual report to Chapters Committee enough?– Other means?

• What do you want to hear from the WAAAUB leadership?– Updates of yearly strategies/reports?– Specific ideas for mandates in North America?

Communication with WAAAUB leadership

Board of

Directors

StandingCommittees

Council including alumni Chapters

presidents

Alumni at Large

AlwaysSometimes

Rarelynever

North American Regional Meeting 2010: Message to WAAAUB Chapters Committee

• Your conclusions