Inside Alumni Attitudes:Alumni Attitude Study Updates, Issues, and Benchmarks | |
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AAS Alumni Engagement Webinar – 9/24/09, 1pm CSTOn Thursday, September 24, 2009 the AAS Alumni Engagement Webinar Series kicks off a series of free webinars based on our nationwide survey findings with the presentation titled “How to turn around the disengaged alumnus/a”. With the current economy adding to an always challenging alumni market, alumni professionals are finding it more important than ever to keep, and most importantly, grow alumni engagement at their respective institutions. This will be the first in the series of webinars that will address current trends of alumni engagement nationwide relating to areas such as communication, loyalty, giving, etc. Each presentation is derived from our national database of alumni research from 120+ institutions and over 180,000 alums nationwide. Please contact Aaron Osborn at 713-527-0078 or by email at aosborn@alumniattitudestudy.org to register for a presentation. Limited participation available. Best Practices – Successfully Surveying AlumniA successful alumni survey of their attitudes and opinions of the institution can be an intimidating proposition. One of the things we (The Alumni Attitude Study) do at the beginning of each project is work with our clients to establish and maintain some key principles top-of-mind throughout the entire survey process. These principles need to be the foundation of the survey project, from designing the questions to taking action on the findings. On the Metrics of the AASWe recently completed a project with a client whose staff and board asked some great questions about reliability and usefulness of the data from their AAS project. In addition to specific answers to their questions we composed the discussion below. We thought it might be interesting to others and so have reproduced it for this newsletter. TeambuildingNow there’s an oft-maligned term. In our OD work we run across a lot of people who question the value of “teambuilding” and teambuilding exercises. We think the skepticism is warranted. Why is it that teambuilding so often shows up as a “flash-in-the-pan” experience? There is no question that we need to recognize the wisdom and value of focusing more on team productivity, and to structure our organizations to support team-based performance. Frequently, however, and as a natural part of that recognition and focusing effort, we rush to put teams through a teambuilding process in the hope that the team will somehow be different after the experience. Sometimes our hopes are realized; but most of the time our expectations go the way of the flash. |
In this issue:AAS Alumni Engagement Webinar – 9/24/09, 1pm CST Best Practices – Successfully Surveying Alumni Alumni Attitude Study Findings Popular at CASE ConferencesMany of our past participants first learned about the Alumni Attitude Study at one of their local CASE and/or District Conferences. It was there they experienced the level of research and analysis that is applied when implementing the AAS on campus. From presenting topics based on our national database of alumni participants such as “National Trends in Alumni Attitudes”, to partnering with advancement professionals to present recent alumni engagement techniques, the AAS has seen great success in its partnership with CASE. As we move forward towards the upcoming CASE District Conferences (2009-2010), the AAS will continue to provide advancement professionals with unparalleled alumni attitude and engagement research findings. It is those findings that provide insight into the areas that alumni value most from their alma mater. We hope to see you at one of the upcoming conferences. Upcoming AAS Featured CASE Conferences |
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For more information about the Alumni Attitude Study, contact Aaron Osborn, Director of Sales and Marketing, or Rob Shoss, Managing Consultant, at 866-471-8600. | |