Reunion

For many of us the single largest annual party that we are responsible for is the university reunion event. I am right there with you in that and have seen dramatic changes over the past decade in how we communicate about these programs. Let me start by saying that it is and will always be my firm opinion that folks attend reunions and make reunion gifts because of their relationships with classmates and the memory of what once was. Thus, it is our job to help rekindle those memories and reconnect those classmates such that the opportunities to create access to substantial resources for the organization exist.

I have seen any number of approaches and will say that there is no "right" approach but certain elements dramatically increase the potential for positive results. Those are: imagery - faces of "when", Names - who do you recall and the opportunity to connect. Social networking tools provide us with the opportunities to do all of these things. In fact, for those of us in the "facebook" generation, we do these on a daily basis.

I advocate starting with a 10th reunion program and building out how you plan to utilize the tools - blogging, photoblogs, facebook, and twitter can be connected into a structure that provides the connections and the opportunities that we need. Once you have that basic structure in place, start to expand it to the older classes - don't assume that because folks are older that they can't or won't learn to use these tools. Much like email in the 90s, we found that many retirees were highly fluent - it was how they stayed connected to grandchildren. As those grandchildren have moved into social media, we can and should expect the grandparents to follow.

I would advocate a mailing strategy that encourages the creation of a committee that you host and teach how to use these tools. Then using a postcard driven reunion mailing effort, once a month for 6 months or so the year prior to the reunion, start to push the existence of the tools by highlighting conversations and communications that are going on (you may need to jump start this with committee members talking to each other) and then offer a monthly "setup" conference call where you talk alumni through how to create a facebook account and connect it to your reunion page.

While time consumptive at the front, this approach provides alumni access to the information that you want to share through one another - exactly what and why we are using the reunion opportunity to gather them. That additional effort and connection, will pay off down the line with larger and more participatory reunion gifts.