alumni futures

Social Media Round Table: New York City

The Alumni Futures Social Media Round Table is coming to New York City, Thursday, July 22, 2010.

What is it? Who is it for?
The Social Media Round Table is a day-long discussion (a kind of mini-conference), open to no more than 15 professionals from schools, colleges and universities, or from other organizations whose work relates to education. Fundraisers, communications professionals, and alumni officers are all welcome, but other disciplines are welcome too: student affairs, athletics, career services, admissions and more – anyone who needs to get up to speed quickly on the promise of social technologies in education and related sectors.

Up to three spots are available for representatives from the private sector – consultants, vendors or others whose work connects them to education or non-profits.

The Round Table is designed for individuals with low to moderate exposure to social media, not for complete beginners or for experienced "power users." You will get the most from the Round Table if you: 

- have basic familiarity with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and
- are interested in mid-level strategy and tactics for engaging constituents with social technology. 

Key Features
- Mixes presentations, guided discussions, and free-wheeling idea-sharing
- Incorporates participants' topics and questions to guarantee relevance
- Touches on key themes in social media and online community
- Connects participants to a network of fellow professionals who share their interests
- Is moderated and hosted by Andy Shaindlin (of Alumni Futures) and Elizabeth Allen (of Adaptivate)
 

Preliminary Program (exact timing & topics subject to change)

8:30 to 9:00 am - Registration
Continental breakfast (included)

9:00 am to 10:00 am - Presentation
Debunking the Myths of Social Media 
(presented by Andy Shaindlin and Liz Allen, following self-introductions)

10:00 am to 10:45 am - Group Discussion
ROI: How Will You Know If You're Succeeding?

10:45 to 11:00 am - Break

11:00 am to Noon – Group Discussion
Community Management (and Your Online Reputation)

Noon to 1:00 pm - Lunch
Deli-style lunch on site (included)

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm - Discussion
Participants' Hot Topics 
(submitted in advance)

3:00 pm to 3:30 pm - Wrap up and closing thoughts 

We guarantee thought-provoking new ideas for you to take away, and a fun day of valuable professional network-building as well.
 

Location
The Alumni Futures Social Media Round Table takes place in mid-town Manhattan, New York City, on Thursday, July 22, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. until approximately 3:30 p.m. 

Your registration fee includes Round Table discussion and feedback, Social Media Resource Packet, and continental breakfast plus deli-style lunch on site.

Registration & Fees

• $229 for non-profit participants
• $299 for commercial attendees (limit 3 attendees in this category)

Click here to register

Registered participants will receive additional details about the Round Table, including the opportunity to submit individual topics of interest to attendees, which can be included in the day's program.

• Registration is on a first-come basis. Only 15 spaces available.

Questions?

Send an email to [email protected].

See you there!

Three Models for Alumni Membership: Pros and Cons

Paul Prewitt asked recently whether the membership dues-based association model is hurting alumni organizations, instead of helping them. Having recently stepped down from the leadership of a membership association, I exchanged some ideas with him via email. I've boiled down my thoughts to some simple pros and cons of the various association membership models.

The two alumni-centric models I mention here are 

1. The Membership Dues Model: Alumni choose to pay annual or life member dues, in exchange for a set of benefits and privileges not available to non-members.
2. The Inclusive Model: All alumni have equal access to the same set of programs and services provided by alma mater via the alumni office.
   
   There is also a fundraising-focused offshoot of this:
    
3. The Donor Benefits Model: Individuals (including non-alumni) who donate at least a specified amount of money to the institution receive exclusive benefits for their contribution.

Some Advantages of the Membership Dues Model    

• Generates revenue in the form of dues. 
• Life dues can be placed into endowment for 1) growth and 2) long-term higher return (life members pass away and no longer use benefits, but the association retains and reinvests their dues). 
• Helps you identify who really is a more active than passive supporter (ie, they bothered to join, which is a form of engagement). 
• Members feel privileged to some extent ("first class citizen").
• Places the school in front of constituents through cyclical marketing and renewal process.

Some Disadvantages of the Membership Dues Model

• Members may think that they are donating to the institution when they join an autonomous ("independent") alumni association. 
• There's overhead associated with maintaining dues programs (benefits administration, renewals, payment processing, marketing) so, generally, only larger organizations can justify the relative opportunity cost. Most small shops will do better to allocate their membership management position to events or programs instead.
• Non-members resent the paying for things they think should be free (e.g., library access, publications, discounts, merchandise...).
• Marketing can leave non-joiners with a negative feeling toward the institution.

The primary alternative to due-based associations are so-called "inclusive associations," where all alumni automatically are welcome to participate in activities without regard to having actively joined an association or other alumni organization.

Some Advantages of the Inclusive Model

• Saves on overhead of marketing and administering a separate membership and benefits program. 
• Reduced marketing and sales aspect to alumni relations.
• Helps creates the impression that the association has something of relevance to all alumni.

Some Disadvantages of the Inclusive Model

• Alumni are not aware of the alumni association (or, they're not aware of their "membership" in it).
• All benefits potentially accrue to all alumni, which is a cost ineffective way to model service and product delivery. 
• Removes a potentially significant revenue stream from the balance sheet.

In our brief exchange, Paul also mentioned an off-shoot of the dues model, the Donor Benefits Model. This is a system where benefits accrue to individuals who contribute to the institution above a specified financial threshold. 

Some Advantages of the Donor Benefits Model

• Allows you to identify, cultivate, steward and reward those who support the institution financially. 
• Helps identify prospects for future giving, increased giving, and more diversified giving.
• Can generate attention and gifts from people who otherwise wouldn't bother (for example, they like having access to the institution's president or senior administrators and professors).
• Creates a framework for "more equal than others" outreach, which reinforces the culture of giving at higher levels (e.g., travel programs for President's Circle).

Some Disadvantages of the Donor Benefits Model

• Alienates people who feel their non-financial contributions (e.g., career expertise, volunteer time at events, service on boards) is not valued at same level or in the same way as financial donations.
• Reinforces stereotype that only people who give money are "important" to the school.
• Distracts people from seeing relative value of volunteerism, and may discourage people from engaging non-financially. 

Additional Thoughts

I think that many alumni offices tend to program for a mythical average alumnus who, all things being equal, is 1) interested in alma mater, 2) prepared to engage or join, and 3) willing to donate. 

But there is no such thing as the "average alumnus." The fact is that the vast majority of alumni 1) don't have an active interest in the school, 2) don't join local or comprehensive alumni groups, and 3) don't contribute financially. 

Some associations are already programming more for the minority of alumni who are predisposed toward engagement, while largely ignoring the rest of the constituents. Of course, there will be periodic efforts to attract newly-interested or available alumni as volunteers and donors as well, but alumni who have exhibited low or no engagement over some length of time will be dropped from mailing and invitation lists. 

Bottom Line

Dues-based associations are not "bad" for alumni relations. So long as an association has the scale to justify the overhead cost, dues structures are still justified. But to thrive, membership associations must deliver real benefits that people truly need or want, and that they cannot get elsewhere.

Photo of a members only chair at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, St. Andrews, Scotland, from Flickr member Son of Groucho via Creative Commons.

Alumni Affinity Credit Card Update

Last week the popular Huffington Post initiated a campaign urging readers to have their college and university alumni associations disclose their affinity credit card agreements. HuffPo, as it is known, mentioned that the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 requires these groups to explain certain aspects of their card contracts.

Huffington also provided a sample letter, and instructions for how to be "polite but persistent" in your query to the university or its alumni group.

As a follow up, CASE's Director of Government Relations & Institutionally Related Foundations, Brian Flahaven, circulated some information highlighting key aspects of the legislation (which is known by its clever acronym: the Credit CARD Act...get it? Credit Card? Credit CARD?).

According to Flahaven, disclosure obligations vary, depending on the kind of "alumni group" involved. 

I'll quote Brian's note at length, since his explanation is detailed and clear:

Alumni Associations Not Separate From Institution
The law requires institutions of higher education to "publicly disclose any contract or other agreement made with a card issuer or creditor for the purpose of marketing a credit card." This means that alumni associations that are not separate from their colleges and universities will now have to disclose all affinity credit card marketing agreements. Final regulations released by the Federal Reserve Board indicate that institutions can meet this requirement by posting the contract or agreement on [their] Web site or by making it available upon request.

Alumni Associations Organized as Separate 501(c)3 Organizations
The law requires credit card companies to disclose any marketing agreements with institutions of higher education, alumni associations and affiliated foundations under which credit cards are issued to college students. This means that any card agreement where a student has been issued a card would be subject to disclosure by the credit card company, not the alumni association. Final regulations released by the Federal Reserve Board...

...Clarify that "an agreement may qualify as a college credit card agreement even if marketing of cards under the agreement is targeted at alumni, faculty, staff and other non-student consumers, as long as cards may also be issued to students in connection with the agreement."

...Define college student broadly. The definition includes students of any age attending an institution of higher education and applies to students enrolled in graduate or joint degree programs.

Finally, Flahaven provides additional links as resources:

• The section of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 affecting alumni association affinity credit card programs [may require CASE member log in]
  

and

• Section of the Federal Reserve Board's final regulations on the Credit CARD Act of 2009 affecting alumni association affinity credit card programs. [333kb PDF]

Brian closes with this advice: "If you receive a request for a copy of your association's affinity credit card agreement, we encourage you to review the law with your legal counsel to determine your disclosure requirements." 

I would say, even if you don't receive a request for a copy of the agreement, go ahead and review the law with general counsel. You should know your legal obligations.

Contact Brian Flahaven at CASE directly with your questions:

telephone: 202/478-5617 or 

email: [email protected] .

Photo of credit card by Ed Ivanushkin via Creative Commons. 

Alumni Magazines: Online Questions, Part II

In the last post, I listed three key issues that alumni publications would have to address while exploring online options: 

1. the delivery format selected, 
2. the accessibility of popular content (which raises privacy issues), and 
3. cost.

These are not the only issues they face, and the comments to my last post contain excellent points for all to consider. But I'll use the three points I made originally as a starting point for discussing some ways to move forward.

Delivery Format
For now, to go portable, alumni magazine publishers must choose between 

• a standalone program (an "app") and
• a mobile-optimized web site (although some may choose both). 

Some apps are certainly popular, but for this use they may not be effective. Before an alumnus sees content via your app, he must visit the online app store, download the app, and launch it to read your content. These are far from insurmountable barriers, but they are barriers to participation nonetheless. 

Meanwhile, mobile-optimized web sites will face the same challenges as traditional web sites: generating traffic, and then generating repeat visits (ideally by inducing alumni to subscribe to updates, as one does with podcasts, for example). Mobile sites that simply load standard versions of web page frustrate their readers with tiny print, links that are too small to "click" with your finger, and microscopic images. For these sites, "optimized" is not a good description. 

Furthermore, web developers who hitched their wagon to Adobe Flash will have to unhitch it and pair up with a different protocol (such as HTML5) if they want to be seen on the iPad. Apple's new device doesn't support the Flash format (which Apple CEO Steve Jobs called a "waning" technology).

Access to Popular Content (and related privacy questions)
Brown University is the alma mater of Brent Grinna, whose blog I quoted last week – and it's my alma mater too. Brown recently put class notes and obituaries behind a log in on its alumni magazine web site. I do read these items in the printed publication every time it arrives (it's an outstanding magazine, by the way). But personally, I wouldn't log in to read class notes and obits online unless the print version went away completely. Even then I would probably not click through; a log in, though critical from a privacy viewpoint, is an one obstacle too many for readers like me; I consume alumni content when it's relevant and convenient – not merely because it's relevant. 

For comparison purposes, the majority of the Ivy Plus Group's ten schools' web sites seem to require a log in to read class notes. Dartmouth's, Penn's, and some of Columbia's alumni notes (e.g., the School of Social Work) are unprotected. But Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Stanford, MIT, and some of Columbia's schools (e.g., Law) require registration and a log in to read notes. Yale's online class notes, oddly, are temporarily "out of service." 

Class notes are among the most popular items in alumni magazines, in part because class notes' content is most clearly unique to the institution itself. If you believe the feature articles in alumni magazines, every school has earnest students and alumni out to change the world, top-rank researchers pushing the frontiers of science, and bold, visionary leadership ensuring the future of the institution with the latest capital campaign. But only one college or university has your classmates' and school friends' personal updates. 

Because of privacy concerns, the online version of this popular feature requires readers to do something they've never had to do with print: obtain, record, and enter a username and password when they want an update. This has serious implications for readership patterns in a post iPad era; will the rest of the content be compelling enough to bring readers back, time after time? 

See links to related blog posts at the bottom of this article.

Cost
Assuming that online versions will be add-ons to printed alumni magazines for some time to come, the cost question is long-term. The additional cost of content conversion or development is a high hurdle for publishers, if their online and printed "versions" of magazines are to exist side by side. Last week I talked about the rationale for sticking with a tried and true magazine identity online, but I personally don't get excited by the online version of a printed publication – even if I like the printed version. Having online content slavishly follow a printed magazine's focus and style can prevent the risk-taking needed to invent a new way of communicating with alumni, a way that takes full advantage of new platforms' capabilities.

The Internet is not where printed content becomes immortal. It is, however, an increasingly interactive medium which points to new forms of alumni engagement.

The Bottom Line
For decades (more than a century for many), alumni magazines have trained alumni to love their printed pages and their quirky, niche content. But this content by itself won't drive more than a tiny fraction of alumni to consume it online as well. For better or worse, it will have to assume the interactive, dynamic and fast-changing form that more well-funded publications are already pushing to readers on new platforms and new devices. And that will come at a high financial cost, which means that advancement shops will have to find support from outside the existing print publication budget. 

How is your institution supporting innovation and funding in the magazine business? 

Leave a comment.

***

In a future post I'll look at Brown University's foray into iPhone applications via EverTrue Mobile.

Previous Alumni Futures posts on related topics:

Alumni Magazines: "Be Read or Don't Bother"

Status Updates: The New Class Notes

A Few Mobile Format Alumni Magazines & Student Newspapers:

Harvard Magazine

BYU Universe

Rochester Review

Alumni Magazines: Online Questions, Part I

In a recent post titled iPads and Alumni Magazines, Brent Grinna (of EverTrue) points out that Apple's iPads are flying off the shelves, and adds,

I can't help but think about the medium-term implications for alumni magazines. According to CASE, alumni magazines are the primary way that alumni receive news about their alma mater. Unfortunately, it is extremely expensive for schools to produce the high quality publications alumni have come to expect...

It's not a stretch to imagine a world in which alumni relations and communications professionals can provide digitally-enhanced alumni magazine content via devices like the iPad while cutting out the high production and distribution costs.

I don't think we should assume that just because we have a magazine in print, we need to convert it, more or less as is, to an electronic format. Why produce a "digitally-enhanced" anything? Can we instead use the digital tools to create something that is completely new? 

Yes, we could. But there are legitimate obstacles to doing so, such as the following:

• It is hard to invent a product that doesn't fit into one of the existing categories: mobile app, digital magazine, or web site. 
• Existing frameworks can provide multimedia and interactive features that supplement existing publications, with only minor changes to written content. 

There are at least three important advantages of incremental change to existing formats, that help explain higher education's apparent hesitation to adapt to, and populate, new channels: 

• Minor changes, under the familiar magazine title and logotype, make it easier to bring along loyal readers. 
• Retaining the current personnel and staff structure means that senior administrators don't have to make radical changes to their organization. 
• Small risks are acceptable if the cost of failure is commensurately small. 

In higher education, systemic change often meets with resistance from entrenched parties, and it requires research, speculation, leadership, and the blessing of those still higher up (such as the campus CEO and the Trustees). And there are editorial or advisory boards to engage as well. These are daunting hurdles, so it's understandable (if unfortunate) that many communications managers prefer to avoid them. 

What's the other side of this argument? A potential disadvantage of taking baby steps, or following others, is that publishers miss an opportunity to lead through innovation, and may miss their best chance at keeping up with savvy readers' increased expectations of technology.

Perhaps the simplest and most common argument against embracing portable formats is this: "The field is changing too fast, and committing to a specific platform may cause problems later." 

Fair enough: when fickle consumers abandon the Kindle for the iPad or the iPhone for the Android, you need your content to migrate with their preferences. The technology is new and changing rapidly, but not choosing online options now will increase the likelihood that your shop falls behind readers' expectations later.

In the end, for all but the most entrepreneurial publishers, the marginal cost of repurposing existing content for a new platform (like the iPad) makes doing so the best opportunity for short-term change.

This raises a few questions...

• Can you innovate without alienating core readers, who know and enjoy the traditional magazine?
• Which direction will help you achieve your mission (and not just be "change for the sake of change")?
• What resources will you need to innovate? 

The keys to unraveling this involve, in part, 

1. the delivery format selected, 
2. the accessibility of popular content (which raises privacy issues), and 
3. cost.

I'll look briefly at these three issues in part two of this post, on Thursday. 

Are you with me so far?  Leave a comment.

June 11 Deadline to Apply for CASE Conference Scholarships

CASE is offering about 20 scholarships to cover conference registration fees for advancement professionals at selected CASE programs.

The Virginia Carter Smith Scholarship Program is for you if you have less than three years' experience in educational advancement, or if you've moved from one advancement discipline to another in the last three years (e.g., from alumni relations to development). Among the criteria for awarding the scholarships are "career potential," an applicant's statement about resources available through their institution, and the candidate's "ability to express him or herself."

If selected to receive a scholarship, you will have conference registration fees waived, but will still have to cover, travel, hotel and meal costs to attend. Conferences NOT covered by the Smith Scholarship are the Summer Institutes, the Summit, or the annual District conferences. But that still leaves you with many options from the CASE professional development calendar.

Get your application started, though: the deadline for scholarship applications is Friday, June 11, 2010.

Click this link to download the application packet from the CASE web site [180kb PDF]

And in case you're wondering, Virginia Carter Smith was a CASE president, and founder of CURRENTS Magazine. 

Other CASE scholarships:

International Scholarships Programme (for global access to advancement training)

SimpsonScarborough Scholars (for young communications and marketing professionals)

Peter Buchanan ASAP Scholarship Award (for student advancement programming)

Good luck!

New Notions of Community: Ten Years Out

I was inspired last week to revisit some remarks I delivered last year at a "Thought Leader Seminar" hosted by Illuminate Consulting Group. The impetus to review what I had said came from a comment left by Santa Clara University's Kathy Kale on the Alumni Futures posting last week. Kathy asked, 

What is the call to action for alumni organizations? What are we supposed to do to respond to or interact with loose social networks that include our alumni? We may not play a central role but what role do/can we play?

The word we have been hearing for years is "relevance." This is increasingly central to alumni organizations' missions and activities. It was the first bullet point I addressed when I wrote about "mattering" in my first posting of 2010. 

So here's an update to what I was saying about this a year ago. I had the perspective then of nine years in my role as executive director at one institution; now my perspective includes time as an independent consultant to education. My views overall haven't changed that much.

New Notions of Community: Ten Years Out
As the value of some traditional alumni relations activities fades steadily, and as new ways to self-identify, to communicate and to collaborate internationally continue to grow, advancement professionals must rethink their notion of what it means to “have a community” of alumni, friends, and donors. 

Alumni offices can become brokers of information that alumni need from one another (and from the institution): making potentially valuable connections discoverable should be among their strategic goals, and deploying helpful tools according to a structured, but flexible, framework will enable them to succeed.

Career and professional help, fundraising, communication and marketing (as well as alumni relations and admissions/recruiting) will overlap more and hybrid offices and job titles will appear on campus. I can imagine something like the following:

• Director of Alumni Relations and Career Services  
• Major Gifts Officer and Alumni Network Broker 
• Annual Giving Coordinator and Community Manager

How we measure our success will also change, moving toward outcomes and success stories, network value, and visibility online. Alumni organizations will measure success, in part, through alumni connections and influence in other organizations (government, education, and business).

Getting started in this direction may require only a modest reallocation of existing resources, and willingness by advancement professionals to stand up and point out a new direction. 

Leadership opportunities abound, and as with every truly new effort, for most that enter this field there will be no “wrong way” to go – but there will be many unexplored avenues to pursue.