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Hi Philippa,
I know Loreto Normanhurst actively engage past parents with a decent base/volume of people they are in contact with. You could speak to Liane (let me know if you need an introduction) about how this has historically been managed and the formal structures around it. They rebranded their community of Alumnae and Past Parents to the Normo Network when they launched their online community. Most schools I speak to very happy to include past parents with Alumni especially if they are keen on mentoring programs as it adds depth of experience / talent in the pool of mentors. Separately, I know The Kings School are wrestling with this like you based on soon to be ‘past parents’ wanting to remain connected after their (youngest) son completes their studies.
All the best working out the right solve for PLC Sydney
Merryn
merryn@toucantech.comHI Ralf, truly the expert in this space is @David Miles from Churchie in QLD check out their merch listing https://churchieoldboys.com.au/shop I reckon he can also put you in touch with the best suppliers. David is an EP Member should you should be able find him or oba@churchie.com.au will make its way to him as well. Best of luck developing your offering. Regards
Merryn Parks | ToucanTech
http://www.toucantech.comHi Beth,
I previously worked at oxford falls grammar and now work for ToucanTech. We speak to 100’s of schools each month so have a few experiences to share. At oxford falls we like you cancelled our 2020 events and planned to host physical in 2021. However, i felt we needed the back up plan. Our plan was to run a zoom session at same time and date as the original physical event if the worst happened. Virtual is not as ideal as physical but some engagement better than none. Plus should be cost savings! I wrote down my thoughts on this blog post about creating a virtual event here https://toucantech.com/news/building-your-community/69/69-Be-brave-start-planning-a-virtual-reunion We also have seen a lot of our international schools who are locked down harder and longer than us run a host of different virtual events. Some recommend doing a trivia set of questions for the event so you have something to do, others ran smaller events for people with something in common ie industry / career link. Drop me an email if you want more examples? Good luck and hoping you and the community around you stay safe.
Merryn Parks
Head of Australia & New Zealand Region, ToucanTech
MOB: +61 402 423 573 SUPPORT: +61 7 3186 8774 | Website: http://www.toucantech.com
Email: merryn@toucantech.com
HI Ralf, when I was at Oxford Falls Grammar we could prompt update your details via our Alumni website which would automatically correct / overwrite old data in our Alumni database. See half way down home page here https://alumni.ofg.nsw.edu.au/ which has a link to the form. Also since that website had an online community / log in people could update their profiles once logged in. However, we know the truth is most people don’t update unless they see the need. Again through our system (toucantech) we could send an email campaign out and insert merge fields from our database to ask an Alum if that info is still correct. ie “Our records show you live in postcode XXXX” is that still correct? If not visit this link to update your details. We could also easily filter a list of people who had no physical address details in the system and send them a separate campaign to add that info. Now these campaigns relied on us having an email address! Do let me know if you’d like more info on a ‘lost alumni’ campaign we ran. We added 10% more people to our Alumni online community and a few extras just updated their details. Plus I think reunion time is another good timing / opportunity to have people update their details before invitations go out.
Thanks Paul that is really helpful information, thanks for taking the time to respond. I am having a few direct conversations with others so will compare notes!
ohh this is top of mind for me too, school had a failed attempt at doing it before I stared in the role and I only work limited hours so think I need some people power to push the Alumni program forward. I am thinking I will recruit an Alumni digital champion group who will support our key efforts on our Alumni portal by actively encouraging others on the site, contributing to stories (hopefully write some or generate story leads) etc. And in future become my first set of key mentors when we launch that program in the future!
Look forward to others responding on the thread!
Merryn Parks merrynp@ofg.nsw.edu.au
Hi Pip,
At Oxford Falls Grammar we only launched our Alumni program a few years back. I got the luxury of building out our reunion strategy from scratch. I work a little at both ends the focus of graduating years is to provide a 1 year (school pays, Alum pay for drinks offsite) 5, year same as 1 year and plan will be to do usual from there ie 10, 15 etc. I work only part-time so we need to figure out resourcing if school plans to manage all the events into the future. I am planning on charging to cover costs for events 10 years onwards and optional donation. As my key focus is connecting ‘lost alumni’ so as I come across older cohorts with interest in a reunion I am helping facilitate these if I get a critical mass interested in the event. We garner that initial interest by sign up to a ‘holding event’ on our Alumni & Community site/portal. Plus we also invite Alum to volunteer for events related to careers and speak to students returning to the school (hopefully we can run these again on school grounds this year) For covid this year the Principal is keen to try and hold physical events. My proposed plan is to do this but switch to virtual (zoom) if we have a covid restriction that way we don’t cancel and still hold the event as planned. I need to prepare some more video based content to be ready for these events. I ruled out hosting an all-in reunion event mostly because the bigger the numbers the more complex the event. Most are happy with low key opportunities to get back together.
Happy to chat further if you need.
Merryn Parks, Oxford Falls Grammar merrynp@ofg.nsw.edu.auHi Paul,
Discussion at Oxford Falls Grammar is opt in in order to provide tax deductibility. We keep it simple one amount requested all goes to building fund. Let me know if you have more questions when we next chat.
Cheers Merryn
Hi All
Yes this has been on my agenda at school for a while! I have tried a number of methods for content generation of the capsule with a view to opening at 10 or 15 year reunion some learnings there! But the real issue is what to put / hold the content in to preserve them for a decade or so! Especially, we seem to change our buildings every few years so burying doesn’t seem like a great option for us but Victoria I would be keen to know what kind of capsule unit you use …?
Thanks
Merryn (Oxford Falls Grammar School)HI Beth,
We just updated our LinkedIN content for the school, ensuring the page is set up as school/education institution NOT a company. The benefit is your Alumni get pulled through on an Alumni tab when they add the school in their education profile history. I am on the fence about a private group … I have an online networking platform https://alumni.ofgs.nsw.edu.au/ which has a lot of flexibility for different kinds of groups (location, career/industry, year) so I would be interested in other peoples responses.
Cheers Merryn (Oxford Falls Grammar School)
