For a session scheduled for the CASE Summit in a couple of weeks, three presenters have created a blog to gather input on their topic and provide information about their ideas.
The presenters are
- Susan Anderson, Director of Alumni and Parent Relations at the California State University, Chico
- Peter Smits, Vice President for University Advancement, California State University, Fresno and Executive Director, Fresno State Foundation, and
- Robert Shoss, Founder and President of Performance Enhancement Group, Ltd.
Their session (at 10:45 a.m. on Friday, July 10) is about "strategic trends in alumni engagement," a topic they say
is particularly relevant today because institutional leaders are more concerned than ever about how to connect with and better engage their alumni.
As of this writing, there were 28 comments on their blog, showing a wide variety of approaches to alumni engagement, and (for better or worse) a wide variation in perceptions of what social media might accomplish, and how. The presenters are to be commended for replying to every comment so far; they now have the opportunity to challenge some of the conventional wisdom about the tools we're all trying to learn to deploy.
You too can provide input and add relevance to the discussion: simply follow the link below and leave some feedback. Note that you don't need to attend the Summit to participate in the discussion. That's one of the important features of a blog – the discussion will ultimately continue independent of the conference, which will soon be history, after all.
Visit the blog and tell them what you think:
Sue, Peter and Rob suggest some questions you can respond to:
- Are you engaging your alumni
differently today than you were a year ago?
- How are you using social media to engage your alumni?
- Are dues-paying association members more engaged than
non-dues-paying members?
- Do you use alumni opinions as a key part of your
strategies? If so, how?
The presenters promise to provide a summary of the session's highlights after the conference, and with your input the discussion can continue.
Twitter users:
The hashtag for the conference is: #casesummit
The presenters are on Twitter as @alumengagement
