Running an Alumni Programme

Toby Emmerson

Sports’ Administrator

ULU

Show of hands

• Who has an Alumni division at their University?

• Who runs an alumni/old boys event within their Sports Department/AU?

• Who has a member within their AU/SU/Sports Department with responsibility for Sports Alumni?

History at Birmingham (1)

• 1997/1998 DoS persuades University to set up a ‘Fundraising Team’ specifically for sport.

• Unfortunately, due to a disagreement between key players, this shortly fell apart.

• 2000/2001 Information gathered from a number of Clubs regarding their membership for fundraising purposes.

• October 2001 Information gathered from members of AU clubs with their agreement, to be passed on to Alumni Office.

History at Birmingham (2)

• 2001 Ex-Rugby Club Captain taken on, on a PT basis, to organise a tournament for June 2002. This will only be Rugby (7s), Hockey and Football.

• June 2002 Success. More than just the participants return, lots descending on the Guild.

• October 2002 An Alumni athlete takes on the role and develops swimming and Athletics into the programme

History at Birmingham (3)

• August 2003, a FT Alumni Relations and Fundraising officer is appointed.

• Although there is a database, this needs a lot of tidying up. Work is started with the Alumni and Development Division. The Database is registered to adhere to the Data Protection act 1998.

• Preliminary work is undertaken on setting up an Alumni Club and donation scheme.

History at Birmingham (4)

• Due to worries about the age profile of the first two reunions, a Golf day is organised for June 2004, it is a success.

• For similar reasons, a dinner is organised; rather than anyone just ‘ending up at the Guild’.

• June 2005 sees the number of sports now at 13, with much more student involvement.

What else has happened?

• With a new Director of Sport arriving in October 2003, a number of activities were re-evaluated.

• Marketing Department re-structured over a period.• Alumni Officer took responsibility for Sponsors and

other fundraising as well.• Alumni Club (see later) delayed in its launch.

Basics of the Alumni Programme

• Maintenance of Sports Alumni Database. (Currently has c10,000 names on it)

• Run Alumni Weekend in mid June• Run one-off Alumni Competitions• Liaise with University Alumni and Development

Division• Deal with one-off donations• Set-up and Launch Alumni Club

Alumni Weekend

• Most visible part of the programme.• Gives Alumni a chance to come back and compete

against each other and against current students• Teams reform eg BUSA Winners 2002 etc.• Part ‘Festival of Sport’ in June, which includes

multiple IMS tournaments, an AU Superstars and the AU Awards Dinner

Keeping in Contact

• Via Database– Written especially for us– Not particularly easy to manipulate– Early entries still quite sketchy

• Work with main University Alumni department to fill gaps

• …but still struggle with anything before 2000• Now take all details as people join AU…

AU Membership Form

• Changed details on Au Form to enable it to act as an Alumni form as well.– New/returning (helps to cut down on admin time when

maintaining the database)– Today’s Date (this means we can track when database

is last updated – was suggested by Alumni Office)– Email caveat (university emails only work while people

are at Uni!)

AU Form Cont’d

• Data Protection statement (with help from Alumni department).– All data is held securely by University Sport

Birmingham and will be treated confidentially. Data will not be disclosed to external organisations. It will be used for a full range of alumni activities, including sending University publications, promotion of benefits and services available to alumni and notification of alumni events. Unless you tell us otherwise, the data may be made available to your relevant club officials.

Data Protection

• Misunderstandings?

• Do most Unions follow Data Protection guidelines correctly?

Marketing the event

• Email to students on database • Word of mouth through current students• Advert in Birmingham Alumni magazine

All directing students/alumni to:

www.sport.bham.ac.uk/alumni

AU Club Alumni Officers

• 1st point of contact for Alumni Relations and Fundraising Officer to AU Clubs

• Responsible for coordinating summer tournament for relevant sport

• Provide information for newsletters• Responsible for the promotion of the

importance of sustained contact with alumni

AU Club Alumni Officers (cont’d)

• Responsible for assisting with collecting data on all existing club members

• Where possible/relevant responsible for collecting data on alumni

• Responsible for communicating details of club social/fundraising events to Alumni Relations and Fundraising Officer and for promotion of event to alumni .

Sport Times Venue Brief Description Likely Attendance

Hockey (m) 11am - 4pm Bournbrook (123) 7-a-side tournament. 2 half-pitches played simultaneously. Group games followed by crossover classification matches. Tournament run by AU Hockey volunteers. Umpired by Midlands officials (HC organising). Teams paying in advance to enter tournament.

70 - 80

Hockey (w) 11am - 4pm Bournbrook (456) 7-a-side tournament. 2 half-pitches played simultaneously. Group games followed by crossover classification matches. Tournament run by AU Hockey volunteers. Umpired by Midlands officials (HC organising). Teams paying in advance to enter tournament.

60 - 80

Rugby (m) 11am - 4pm Metchley 7-a-side tournament. 2 rugby pitches played simultaneously. Group games followed by crossover classification matches. Tournament run by AU Rugby volunteers. Refereed by qualified officials (Terry Malins organising). Teams paying in advance to enter tourna

70 - 80

Badminton 12pm - 3pm Sports Hall Format to be decided by AU club dependent on how many people sign up for the day. Competition run by AU Badminton club volunteers. Individuals are paying on the day to take part - money to be collected by the AU club; the AU club will be invoiced for the

20 - 40

Football (m) 12pm - 4pm Metchley 6-a-side tournament. 2 small pitches played simultaneously. Group games followed by crossover classification matches. Tournament run by AU Football volunteers. Refereed by club members. Teams paying in advance to enter tournament.

60 - 70

Football (w) 12pm - 3pm Metchley Depending on response from alumni (which currently looks strong), the format will be a 6-a-side tournament. This will most likely take the form of a round-robin tournament as there are 5 or 6 teams expected. Individuals are paying on the day - money to be

30 - 50

Lifesaving 12pm - 2pm Pool Fun competition organised by the Lifesaving club. Teams of two will compete. Competitors will pay the AU club on the day to take part. AU club to be invoiced in advance for the cost of the event.

15 - 30

Lacrosse 2pm - 4pm Metchley One-off match of students vs alumni. Same format as previous years. AU club organising. AU club officiating? Individuals to pay the AU club on the day. AU club invoiced in advance of the event.

30

Rugby (w) 2pm - 4pm Metchley Format to be decided by AU club depending on the number of responses in advance. Most likely to be a one-off 15-a-side match students vs alumni. Officiated by qualified referee (an alumnus). Individuals to pay AU club on the day. AU club invoiced in advan

30 - 40

Swimming 2pm - 4.30pm Pool Multi-event swimming gala organised and run by the AU Swimming club. Individuals to pay the AU club on the day. AU club invoiced in advance of the event.

40 - 70

Basketball 3pm - 6pm Sports Hall Format to be confirmed. Likely to be a men's match, a women's match and a mixed match. Officials to be organised by the AU club. Competition organised by AU club. Individuals to pay the AU club on the day. AU club invoiced in advance of the event.

20 - 50

Waterpolo 4.30pm - 6.30pm Pool Format to be confirmed. Likely to be a men's match followed by a women's match with the possibility of a mixed match. Competition organised by the AU club. Individuals to pay the AU club on the day. AU club invoiced in advance of the event.

15 - 30

Total 460 - 650

How well does the weekend work?

Certain sports very successful (hockey, men’s rugby and men’s football), but a number of sports struggle to get Alumni teams out. Is this a reflection on the Alumni, the current students, the marketing – or a combination of all three?

It is hoped that as the event goes on, the focus will be on a big Dinner, with sport as the add-on. Whereas at the moment the opposite is definitely true.

Pros of Weekend

• Fun• Able to catch up with friends the environment in

which one met them• Keeps competitive atmosphere of Uni Sport• Good showpiece• Annual event keeping people interested, for ‘big

push’ at a later date• Golf day brings in ‘older’ Alumni

Cons of Weekend

• Takes a lot of staff time for not too much return.• Mainly recent Alumni attending – not too much

disposable income (yet!)• Dinner not taken off (yet)• Varying degrees of take up from different sports• Very popular with current students – perhaps

putting off alumni(?)

Donating to University Sport Birmingham

• Sports Club Funds – one-off donation or direct debit– This option provides for someone who wishes to support a

club that they were formerly a member of, or that they have a specific interest in.

• Capital Projects and Developments – one-off donation– Birmingham publicise a number of projects that they are

seeking funding for. If an individual wished to specifically support a development, they could donate it to that fund.

Donating to University Sport Birmingham

• Director of Sport’s General Purpose Fund – one-off donation– This option is for anyone who doesn’t have a

specific direction they wish to see their support go, but wishes to financially support Sport at the University. This fund can then be directed by the Director of Sport to whichever fund needs it most.

– This is where any donations currently go.

• Alumni Sports Club – annual subscription – To be launched soon…

Potential Amounts of money raised

• Currently raising about 4-5k per year (at the moment from unstructured one off donations), with the Alumni weekend now breaking even as an event (first two years it was offered for free, so obviously made a loss)

• Costing 18-20k in salaries and on costs• With 10,000 names the programme has the

potential to easily make 50-100k per year, possibly more

Thoughts…

• An Alumni Programme needs time to bed in and create a ‘groundswell’ before it starts making money. Can you afford a loss-leader?

• Could spend too much time on ‘fun’ parts of the programme to the detriment of the more lucrative parts.

• The data base has proved a nightmare to update!• Comments…?