Trends in Engagement: An Alumni Relations Roundtable with Andy Shaindlin

Alumni communities around the world face an engagement landscape that is changing ever more rapidly. This means understanding and responding to trends within their institutions, and in society at large.  At Switchboard, we wrestle with the same issues, and are curious about how alumni communities are responding to a number of key changes happening around them.

To explore some of these topics, we’ve invited Andy Shaindlin, founder of Alumni Futures, Vice President at the international consulting firm Grenzebach Glier & Associates, and recently Associate Vice President at Carnegie Mellon University, to lead a roundtable discussion with our partner schools tomorrow (Tuesday, May 10) at our Portland offices. 

Key topics Andy will discuss with participants include:

  •  The impact of consolidation of alumni and development programs under the "integrated advancement model”;
  •  The effect of changing digital engagement on alumni relations – not just social media, but all electronic interactions; and
  • Trends in data collection, analysis and reporting: are we drowning in data? Do we have the skill set and personnel to learn from it and to use it for improving alumni outreach?

We’re excited about the discussion and will share some takeaways in blog post later this week.

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The 6 Most Common Complaints about Alumni Relations and Career Services Platforms

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There are dozens of platforms that cater to the needs of alumni relations and career services offices. In talking with schools who use these platforms, I’ve learned that most of them share the same set of flaws. If you’re considering signing on with a company that sells one of these platforms, make sure that they don’t receive these six common complaints.

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Marlene Scheel of the University of Guelph-Humber on Planning Beyond Young Alumni

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"Young alumni" is a buzzphrase in higher ed right now, and for good reason. Young alumni represent the future of their alma maters, and reaching and engaging them requires new programming and new strategies.

But what happens when our young alumni aren't so young anymore? What kind of programming and strategy do we have then?

At the University of Guelph-Humber, Marlene Scheel is already looking ahead to the transition from young to established alumna. We asked her to share how she and her team think about the issue.

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Chaim Shapiro of Touro College on Networking, LinkedIn, and the Future of Career Services

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Chaim Shapiro is a lot of things. Assistant Director of Career Services at Touro College. An award-winning speaker and writer. Highly regarded consultant.

We had the good fortune to get to interview him about networking online, recent changes to LinkedIn, and the future of career services.

Switchboard Helps Antioch College Students and Alumni Connect Across Generations

Antioch College is a small liberal arts school in Yellow Springs, Ohio. They're a member of the Colleges that Change Lives, and the lives of their students aren't the only ones that they change. Just look at their motto: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." That determination to serve sets the Antioch community apart.

You can imagine why we're so thrilled to work with them.

For the past six months, the Antioch Switchboard has been helping students and alumni connect with one another and their alma mater. Antiochians have used Switchboard to connect about everything from Co-op opportunities to having breakfast together.

We talked to Matt Desjardins, former Director of Communications; Jonina Kelley, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations; and Tanya Couch, Career Communications Coordinator - Cooperative Education about how the Antioch community is using Switchboard. They love the Antioch Switchboard because it creates connections and opportunities that weren't possible before, and because it strengthens the relationship of students and alumni with Antioch itself.

Switchboard Becomes Partner of Alumni Career Services Network

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We're thrilled to announce that Switchboard is now an official corporate partner of the Alumni Career Services Network.

Since its formal founding in 2008, ACSN has connected and empowered alumni career services professionals across the country. As the changing higher ed landscape has placed increasing pressure on colleges and universities to generate positive career outcomes for their students and alumni, ACSN has been there to help make those outcomes possible.

We at Switchboard believe that integrating career services and alumni relations is not only an excellent way for higher ed institutions to build community, but also the best way to secure economic mobility for college graduates. ACSN has been at the forefront of this work for nearly a decade, and we're excited to be a part of that effort.

Members of Team Switchboard will be attending the annual ACSN conference this July in Forth Worth, Texas. If you're going to be there, shoot me an email to say hi! We'd love to catch up with you there.

 

Learn more about Switchboard's alumni networking platform.

"It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are." —Wendell Berry