alumni futures

Profile: Brant Ust and USA Baseball

Alumni communities serve critical roles in many kinds of organizations – not only in schools, colleges or universities. This article is the second in a series of short interviews with professionals from non-traditional alumni programs. Read the first profile here: Dean Dwigans of the Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Profile: Brant Ust
Director of Alumni Relations and 18U National Baseball Team 
USA Baseball
(Durham, NC)

For much of the last year, I've had the pleasure of advising USA Baseball (the National Governing Body for the sport) on alumni relations. Below, Alumni Futures readers can learn about the organization's efforts under its first alumni director, Brant Ust.

A Notre Dame alumnus and two-time USA National Team player, Brant's career highlights include his selection as a 6th round draft pick of the Detroit Tigers, nine years of pro ball, including time in the Red Sox, Pirates and Mariners organizations, and a stint as assistant coach for the University of Michigan.  

¶¶¶

Alumni Futures: Brant, how does the concept of "alumni relations" fit into the strategy of a sports-focused organization like USA Baseball?

Brant Ust: Alumni Relations for USAB is focused on being a part of our athletes', coaches' and staff members' lives beyond the time they wear the Red, White and Blue. In other words, establishing a connection that starts from the first day they're a part of a USAB National Team experience, and that continues throughout their collegiate, professional and post-baseball lives.

AF: Before taking up alumni responsibilities, you were a professional ball player and a college coach. Did any of that prepare you for a role in alumni relations, and if so, in what ways? 

BU: Absolutely. My experiences as a player and coach have been key to establishing what we believe are useful ways to serve our alumni at various stages of their careers. I draw on experiences from my playing career when envisioning what we can do, and how we should be serving our alumni.

[The USA Baseball experience is powerful...
It creates a special, long lasting connection...]

AF: What are some of the obstacles you face in establishing your alumni program, and how do you plan to overcome them? 

BU: We have a broad spectrum of alumni, from our 14U National Team through our World Baseball Classic (Major League Baseball) alumni, and everything in between. It requires a lot of support from within the organization, following and updating our alums’ accomplishments and current ‘locations’ in baseball and in life.

We don't have the years of relationship that a university has with alumni, but the uniqueness of the USA Baseball experience – representing one’s country, playing in the Olympics – is powerful, and is often experienced at a crucial time during their overall baseball development. So it creates a special, lasting connection between USAB and the individual. 

Celebrating World Cup Gold, 2009. Photo courtesy of USA Baseball. Click to enlarge.

AF: You have more than 2,500 alumni, including players, coaches and staff. What resources do you have for serving this audience? 

BU: In 2011 we've been getting out to ‘reconnect’ with our alumni; Major League Baseball Spring Training visits, email correspondence, the creation of a USAB alumni–specific logo, an Alumni Edition of our USAB Magazine, reconnecting with our young alumni via the Minor Leagues, and a USAB Alumni presence on Twitter and Facebook. 

We also integrate our alumni into current USAB events, camps, and National Team schedules. For example, on our coaching staff we have Brooks Badeaux (Pro National Team, Baseball World Cup ’05). This coaching experience will connect him as an alumnus, as well as provide our players with quality instruction from someone who has been where they are, and where they are striving to be. 

We use input from a myriad of alumni relations sources, from traditional university examples to athletic groups to professional associations. We share the same challenges and goals while having a distinct alumni profile. We're proud that the bookends of our alumni database are prominent Major League players: Jim Abbott ’87–’88 and Ryan Zimmerman ‘05.

AF: One last question. Can you get me World Series tickets?

BU: Low man on the totem pole here……

¶¶¶

 Photo of pitcher Lindsay Horwitz, USA Women's National Baseball Team.
By Karl Fisher via Creative Commons.

Related resources

• USA Baseball website (usabaseball.com)
• Ust named Director of Alumni Relations (usabaseball.com)
• 198 Team USA alums on Opening Day rosters (joshfitzgerald.wordpress.com)
• USA Baseball Alumni – Complete list since 1984 (usabaseball.com)

Alumni + Photos = Social Currency: Travis Warren

This article is written by Travis Warren, CEO and Founder of WhippleHill Communications.

When I first read about the Library of Congress’s Flickr project, I couldn’t wait to check it out. It made me think about how schools could benefit from digitizing their photographic archives. I spoke with others at my alma mater, Proctor Academy, about putting our archives online for public viewing. Scanning the collection would make it more much widely available but I thought that the impact could be even greater. Could we turn these assets into a form of social currency?  

I hoped that pushing photos from Flickr out to our Facebook and Twitter networks would start conversations and increase the sense of community online. The photos would serve as conversation starters, or ‘icebreakers,’ putting people at ease and creating a reason for them to engage.  

Before we could begin we needed to get organized. We set up a Flickr account, and started scanning and posting photos one hundred at a time. Initially, rather than focusing on ‘conversations’ (currency), we set out to simply build our collection (assets). After we had about two thousand pictures posted, we began publishing links to the photos on Facebook. 

Early on we learned a number of valuable lessons. Many photos failed to generate interest because they were from too far in the past, or because they had uninteresting captions. Relying heavily on the ‘Insights’ from our Facebook page, we refined our photo selection process and overall approach. The gender, age, and location of our audience helped us better determine which photos to post.  

Before long we felt comfortable taking risks with our images and captions, trying hard not to take ourselves too seriously. Humor through photo or comment was often the best icebreaker. We realized humility was also key to starting conversations. Mistakes happen –occasionally we misidentified people, places or dates, and sometimes found that our mistakes led to the best conversations of all. We also selected photos from upcoming reunion years and focused on programs we knew our alumni were invested in and would love to respond to.  

It might sound a bit illogical not to announce what we were doing. In fact, we just started and let whatever would happen, happen (read Seth Godin’s latest book, Poke the Box, if you’re looking for inspiration). Once a week or so we posted links to archive photos on our Facebook page or tweeted about a photo. It was great to realize our initial hunch was correct – that there was endless opportunity in digitizing archives. And as we found out soon enough, the rest takes care of itself.


Photos: 
Ski Hill Men – engaging Reunion years. 
The Bird in front of Morton House – inviting humor. 
Caution Boy’s School – inviting humility.

Related articles

• What's in it for you? Why should social media be a priority on your campus? (case.org)

The Key to Online Relevance: Alumni Groups

To understand as professionals what networks really are, we must go deeper than just asking ‘How does Facebook work?’ We need to understand what networks are and how they influence and enable specific behaviors.

Private online alumni networks are sometimes called “walled gardens” because they are closed to non-alumni, whereas anyone can join "open" public sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Walled garden communities intentionally trade size in exchange for exclusivity.

This was a viable trade-off when social interaction was limited by socio-economic status, geographical location and professional identity. Today, however, near-frictionless online interaction means that alumni can have both kinds of experience: private, "branded" connections with schoolmates, and open-ended networks of co-workers, neighbors, family, and friends.

[The vast majority of alumni interactions from now on
will take place online, not face to face.]

For organizations, creating value within these networks depends on the existence of groups. Metcalfe’s Law shows that the utility of the network is proportional to the square of the number of members. This would be all we need to know, if alumni only connected with others one at a time, forming pairs. But they don't just form pairs. Alumni congregate to form groups. 

This is where another insight, Reed's Law, comes into play.

David Reed pointed out that within social networks, groups form. Subgroups within the larger network become critical parts of the network, and their value's growth can be exponential – proportional to the number of potential groups. The larger the network, the faster its value increases. 

[The larger the network, the faster its value increases.]

Alumni organizations should help alumni share knowledge and expertise to solve each others' problems. Groups are the most effective way to achieve this. Connecting with individual alumni isn't going to help a graduate use LinkedIn very effectively. Participating in groups of alumni who share common needs or interests will help individuals who have goals for networking.

Understanding the structure, the potential, and the limitations of alumni networks allows you to serve your audience more effectively. Creating value for members can keep alumni organizations relevant to their community, because the vast majority of alumni interactions from now on will take place online, not face to face.

How are you making online tools relevant to your mission?

How are you measuring your success?

Image: Visualization of my LinkedIn network via LinkedIn Labs

Related articles

• 7 Tips For Leveraging Your Professional Profile On LinkedIn (krishnade.com)
• A Recent Grad's Perspective on LinkedIn (thesnarkoleptic.wordpress.com)

Profile: Dean Dwigans and the Marshall European Center for Security Studies

New in 2011: Profiles
Alumni communities serve critical roles in many kinds of organizations – not only in schools, colleges or universities. This year I'll post short interviews with professionals from some non-traditional alumni programs.

Profile: Dean Dwigans
Director of Alumni Relations, and
Chief of Graduate & Stakeholder Support,
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
(Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany)

Last year, while teaching a workshop for the European Association for International Education in Paris, I met Capt. Dean Dwigans, U.S. Navy. In addition to his career as a military Judge Advocate, Dean (now retired from the Navy after a 25 year career) took on the role of alumni executive at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

I interviewed Dean to learn more about how his work at the Marshall Center compares with traditional alumni programs.

¶¶¶

Alumni Futures: Dean, you spent your career in the U.S. Navy, focused on legal practice and more recently, teaching international law. How have you managed the transition to alumni relations work?

Dean Dwigans: I really enjoy the alumni business, especially in the international environment. I get to apply creativity and energy to developing meaningful and lasting relationships with, and among our 8,000 graduates from more than 100 nations. I'm in the government end of it, but I hope to stay engaged in general alumni relations discussions and training, which I find very useful. I brought back many ideas from the EAIE workshop in Paris, for example.

AF: You and I exchanged some thoughts about the "magic formula" for successful alumni work. I said, "Relevance + Access = Engagement." Do you think that's true in your organization?

DD: As long as the definition of "relevance" includes being meaningful and responsive to alumni needs, I think it's a valid short-hand for success.

The Marshall Center has unique focus: building a network of security professionals to create a more stable security environment. We advance democratic institutions, promote active and peaceful security cooperation, and enhance partnerships among nations in North America, Europe, and Eurasia. This is instead of, say, fundraising, marketing our programs, or other more traditional alumni association roles.

But I also see how we're similar to traditional programs. When I look at communications from some civilian alma maters, I'm sometimes put off by the emphasis on fundraising in almost every contact. At the Marshall Center, we have to offer our graduates something useful that applies directly to them or they'll tune us out, and I think civilian institutions should do the same. We promise our graduates that we'll stay in contact, continue to help them grow professionally, and provide a forum for their ideas.

AF: What kinds of activities and programs do you have in place?

DD: We get to know each student while they're in residence. We then work hard to stay in contact from the moment they leave, offer programs "in country" at least once a year, and invite some alumni back each year for professional training, and for contact with other alumni and with faculty. We have a new, improved web presence coming online this year to make collaboration and distance education easier – helping us stay in contact with alumni worldwide.

Our magazine, per Concordiam, is devoted to alumni research and writing. Our "communities of interest" track the subject matter of our resident programs, and we have conferences several times a year for small groups of distinguished alumni. They serve in important, visible roles – ambassadors, defense ministers, and parliamentarians. Our goal is to have contact with each of our 8,000 alumni twice a year, even if it's just to update their contact information. 

I'm now trying to put this all into a strategic plan, to focus and coordinate our efforts, and help me explain our program to senior leadership. 

AF: What resources do you have to deliver on these goals?

DD: I have a staff of eight, with five devoted to specific regions where they're responsible for maintaining the relationship and knowing the graduates' needs. Three staff members are devoted to alumni events. The Marshall Center is a U.S.–German partnership, and we teach in three languages – English, Russian and German. So our regional representatives speak multiple languages to communicate with alumni. We also benefit from very supportive and involved leadership, which is vital to any alumni program.

AF: What are your biggest challenges, and where do you see the greatest opportunity?

DD: We have a relatively narrow educational mission, compared with a liberal arts college for example. But the challenges that governments face now are so varied and complex that we have to expand our educational efforts. Cybersecurity, crime and corruption, immigration, disaster relief, negotiation and mediation, border security, the environment, religion, trade issues, international law – the list is endless. We keep alumni up to date with lectures, resident courses, and conferences on these topics. The quarterly alumni magazine focuses 80% of its content on one of these topics, and a mix of the other topics for the remaining 20%. We also try to maximize the use of technology and virtual interaction.

We get our students involved very early. I'm one of the first people they hear from. I welcome them before they arrive, and ask them to join the Alumni Knowledge Portal. On the Portal we provide travel information, area info, class schedules and other information they need for settling in. We meet with them when they arrive, introduce them more thoroughly to the Portal, invite them for private or country meetings, host field trips, and talk to them all again before they depart. We see many of them every day while they're here, and they become not only alumni, but our good friends as well. But I learn more from them than they do from me, especially when I visit them after they've returned home. They've opened my mind to new perspectives, and they reinforce how we're all committed to the same goal – a peaceful, productive existence for our families and nations. 

After all this interaction, they know who we are, and we in turn have a very good idea of their needs. That's one of the keys to our ultimate success.

¶¶¶

Photos by Karlheinz Wedhorn. Top: Woerner Hall at the Marshall European Center. Below: Interior of the large plenary at the Marshall Center.

Related resources

• George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (marshallcenter.org)
• Marshall Center Alumni Home Page (marshallcenter.org)
• Marshall Center on Twitter (twitter.com)
• Marshall Center on Facebook (facebook.com)

Public School Districts and Alumni Funding

Many American public school districts are searching high and low for additional funding. It seems inevitable that they will ask alumni for donations, as private institutions do. This practice isn't new, but it doesn't garner much attention in the public eye – at least, not compared to the high-profile capital campaigns of private institutions of higher education.

I am guessing we'll hear more about it soon. A recent blog posting from Newark (New Jersey) Star-Ledger columnist Mark Di Ionno highlighted one example of local public school fundraising:

N.J. school districts begin seeking alumni donations to plug holes left by state aid cuts

And this isn't a bake sale or a car wash. The district is talking about raising funds for endowment, as a private institution would do – and they are doing it campaign-style, with a quiet phase that has generated US$3.5 million of a planned US$5 million goal by school-year end, according to Di Ionno's article.

The readers' comments in response to the story raise a number of good questions (in classic Internet flame-bait and trolling fashion).

• Is private fundraising warranted if local tax-payers think administrators are overpaid?
• Will this practice widen the gap between wealthy towns and lower-income areas? 
• Can public elementary and secondary education "compete" with colleges and universities for scarce private support from overlapping populations?

Public school systems can certainly increase individual giving by launching strategies (and training and assigning staff) to pursue it. But many questions remain, such as how much money is out there for savvy, assertive districts, and is endowment the right form of support to pursue? And what are the districts prepared to stop doing to free up resources for development?

Share what you know and think, in the Comments.

Photo of (mostly) smiling students at the Globe, Arizona Public School about 100 years ago, via Flickr user freeparking and Creative Commons.

Related resources

• N.J. school districts turn to local foundations to support imperiled programs (nj.com)
• Facebook founder Zuckerberg establishes foundation to help Newark schools (online.wsj.com) 
• Cash-strapped L.A. schools seeking corporate sponsors (latimes.com)
• First Chevy Volt auctioned for Detroit Public Schools (volt.charitybuzz.org)
• Fund for Public Schools – New York City (schools.nyc.gov)
• Public school fundraiser? Try alumni (the.honoluluadverstiser.com)

What Not to Wear, and When Not to Have an Event

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, a national holiday in the United States. Many U.S. readers will be taking the week off, so instead of a long, philosophical treatise, this week I'll just post a couple of instructive or cautionary posts that I noticed on Twitter.

The first one is a comment from a "Seasoned Alumni Girl" who has advice for undergraduate students attending a networking event:

Sound advice.

The second is a comment from an engaged alumnus who would rather have this week off from alma mater's activities:

Regardless of what you're wearing or when you prefer your alumni events to happen, enjoy Thanksgiving if you're in the U.S.

Alumni Futures will return next week with some thoughts about LinkedIn, and the vulnerability of professional networks.

Who Qualifies as an Alumnus?

In a recent online discussion, Ivan Low of Singapore Management University asked fellow alumni professionals the following question: Do graduates of short-duration executive education programs qualify as alumni?

The definition of "alumni" is arbitrary and varies among institutions. It's not unheard of for people who have completed, say, a six-week executive education program to be included as "alumni" of a business school.

I recently discussed this with some advancement professionals who expressed concern that treating executive education participants as alumni somehow cheapens the MBA or PhD degree from the business school.

Does treating certificate students as alumni detract from the value of the graduate degree?

Not necessarily. Resources allocated to supporting the activities and services provided to the six-week folks should be proportional to

• the scale of the students' academic effort;
• the fraction of the overall alumni population they comprise; and
• their overall importance to the institution.

This last point is tricky, as it carries clear implications for fundraising. If a Fortune 100 CEO dropped in for a 6-week refresher on your campus, he or she would be a legitimate target for relationship-building, cultivation, and ultimately, fundraising.

Do you agree or disagree? What's missing from this brief analysis?

 

Photo of lecture hall at the Sorbonne by Pierre Metivier, via Creative Commons. It has nothing to do with executive education alumni, but I thought it was a good photo. Click it to see full size.

The Alumni Organization Social Network Matrix: 18 Use Cases

[Updated: There is a newer version of the matrix, featuring two additional use cases, for a total of 20. See:

http://www.alumnifutures.com/2010/11/matrix-more-uses.html]

 

Back in February we saw the first version of web strategist Jeremiah Owyang's useful chart, Impacts to Alumni Organizations in a World of Social Networks. A month later, I posted a revised version of the chart, which I had updated by incorporating more specific aspects of alumni relations.

Now, with help from Cornell's Andrew Gossen and Liz Allen of Adaptivate, I've built out the matrix to incorporate almost every possible use case I can think of for social technology in alumni and donor outreach. 

The chart is detailed and lengthy, and so it is hard to read within the Alumni Futures web page (although to get an idea of the content you can click the image above for a snap shot of one section). 

Download a PDF of the full chart here:

Social Networks' Impacts to Alumni Organizations: 18 Use Cases  [90kb PDF]

Here are some ways you might use the chart:

• As a management checklist to see how you are doing in engaging constituents with interactive tools;
• For brainstorming new ways to engage your audience, in partnership with other campus units (such as student affairs, career services, community relations, development or communications);
• To create a strategy roadmap that guides your inquiries and planning as you allocate resources to new initiatives.

Finally, I hope others will update and add to the matrix in the way that Jeremiah has encouraged me to do with his version. As the technology changes, advancement professionals need to update their vision and plans, and incorporate new ideas to expand the range of possible futures.

Leave a comment telling me what you think about this resource, and feel free to share your own additions in the comments or via email: [email protected].

Note: The matrix is designed to print on US legal size paper, 8.5 x 14 inches. If you are reading this message via email or RSS and cannot download the 18 Use Cases, 1) click through to the blog post on the web page: http://www.alumnifutures.com/2010/07/expanded-matrix.html, then 2) right click the link to the PDF and 3) select "Save As..." or "Save Link As..."

Harvard on the Map: An Example of Alumni Service in Action

I recently noted a tweet from Altimeter Group's Christine Tran, mentioning an interesting page at Harvard University. Her tweet said: 

Harvard site has cool way for alumni to share and find service opportunities all over the world.

And she linked to a site that I found surprisingly engaging. I'm blogging about it today to encourage other organizations to think about how they promote existing service opportunities.

The homepage for Harvard Public Service on the Map is well thought-out, pleasantly designed, and packed with interesting, useful links about its core purpose. The screenshot here is just a section of the home page – click it to view a larger version of the image.

Here are just a few of the highlights from the site that I thought were worth noting:

• Interactive map shows Harvard-related public service opportunities worldwide, color coded by affiliation (alumni, students, faculty, staff).
• Basic search lets visitors find service activities by location or keyword; The advanced search function adds activity type, timeframe, and Harvard affiliation (house, school, or class year).
• Separate sorted lists show most popular or newest service programs.
• Opportunities are listed by type of commitment – volunteer, internship or regular employment.

There are a few simple Web 2.0 features to Harvard Public Service on the Map as well. For example, registered site users can "like" or comment on the more than 460 service efforts currently listed, which are tagged with sortable labels such as "public health," "prevention," "nutrition," "sustainability" and more.

As for the personal aspect, profiles show basic background and contact information about the groups and individuals posting the activities. Click here for one example.

I don't know how much traction or engagement this site is generating, nor do I know the budget or staff effort that went into programming it. There are probably other, more effective and heavily-used sites that do the same thing better in similar contexts (if you know of one, please leave a comment about it). 

But I believe the approach and execution are worth considering for any organization's audience. Every institution has links to alumni, faculty, students and to other organizations that serve the public. These organizations' activities improve people's lives, but they also reflect positively on the sponsoring institutions. In other words, links to such efforts benefit many, and this site shows one way to do that.

It would be easy to find negatives about Harvard Public Service on the Map, the interface or the content, but to do so would be to miss the point. Encouraging, promoting and enhancing service offerings around the world is a deserving effort. This site may provide a service in its own right – namely, motivating other associations and organizations to activate their networks on behalf of worthwhile causes.

What is your organization doing to get the word out to your network about opportunities to serve the public?

Click here to visit the Harvard Public Service on the Map web site.

Global Citizenship: What Role for Alumni?

I spent a very educational day this week in Ottawa, Canada as an invitee of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). The occasion was a workshop on "Global Citizenship" and ways to encourage public diplomacy among a number of groups with ties to Canada. Among those audiences are foreign alumni of Canadian institutions, foreign alumni of Canadian international youth programs, and of course, Canadian alumni of Canadian institutions, now living overseas. The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada estimates there are some 2.8 million Canadian citizens living outside the country's borders. 

In this context, "global citizenship" refers not to ethical or moral standards of behavior, but to the practical question of citizens advancing their nation's interests internationally. For example, advocacy for Canadian entrepreneurship, as seen in the C100 group. 

The day included presentations by academics as well as more than half a dozen Canadian diplomats, and discussion among outside experts from a number of non-governmental organizations (including Alumni Futures). I have to give credit to the Department for not drafting policy behind closed doors and then trying to "sell" it to external audiences. It appears they are starting out by collecting external ideas and viewpoints before even considering what a policy might ultimately look like.

While this meeting was just the start of a process to generate practical ideas for DFAIT to explore, it was eye-opening and thought-provoking. I have no doubt that university alumni organizations can partner with national governments to advance their respective interests, without appearing to take sides on potentially divisive political issues. If such a partnership takes clearer shape in the future, I'll write about it here on Alumni Futures. 

HDR Photo of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa by Daniel Santana via Creative Commons.