[Updated 6 October, 2008 with listing of upcoming CASE Europe Alumni Relations conferences - see bottom of this posting]
According to the September, 2008 CASE BriefCASE e-newsletter,
CASE Europe has received a program grant from the European Commission to exchange and promote best practices among alumni organizations based in Spain, Italy, Austria and Germany.
The Alumni Go Europe program was awarded an €18,000 grant (US$25,000) from the EC in support of lifelong learning through the Grundtvig program. The initiative is designed to strengthen European involvement in adult education and lifelong learning. Programs include partnerships and training opportunities for adult education organizations, teachers and learners.
The Grundtvig program, by the way, is part of the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme, which "supports education and training across Europe [and] provides funding for all stages of lifelong learning; for activities at school, at college, at university, in the workplace and in the community."
The CASE item concludes,
Alumni Go Europe will bring together colleagues to "explore and compare the landscape of alumni organizations and develop new ideas about the services these organizations can offer," says Kate Hunter, executive director for CASE Europe. "It's also an excellent opportunity for us at CASE to help extend professional networks across the continent."
This is pretty vague, but the e-newsletter item was just meant to be a quick notice, not a detailed program description.
It's good for CASE to be on the European Commission's radar screen, even though that also means there's bound to be red-tape, panels of experts, and lots of "consensus building."
As for "extending professional networks," that's not the same as offering workshops and conferences. CASE should not only educate professionals and connect them to one another, but continue to reach out to national governments and to individual institutions. And to other organizations. For example the European Association for International Education (EAIE) is quietly but consistently exploring alumni relations programming and training as well and might benefit from a Continental connection with CASE Europe.
Meanwhile, to learn more about global issues in higher education policy and management, be sure to read two excellent blogs: GlobalHigherEd and Eric Beerkens' blog.
[Updated 6 October, 2008: Here are three upcoming alumni relations conferences presented by CASE Europe]
An Introduction to Alumni Relations
27 January, 2009CASE Europe Schools Conference
8-10 March, 2009Alumni Relations Master Class
20 March, 2009