Start Your Own Alumni Chapter!
Any individual or group may organize an alumni chapter or affinity group! Simply follow these steps to success!
Get the Ball Rolling
Contact WLU Alumni Affairs at alumni@westliberty.edu to inquire about starting an alumni chapter or affinity group in your interest area.
Consider your target audience. Your Liaison can help you determine how many alumni live in your area and/or share your common bond.
Host Your First Event
Select a date, time and location for an initial event to gauge interest in the chapter or affinity group. Keep the first event simple and inexpensive, such as a post-work social at a local establishment.
Determine how you will track RSVPs for your event. You can set up an event page through Facebook. (The bonus of Facebook is that others will be able to see who else is attending, which may encourage additional attendance.) WL Alumni Affairs can also track RSVPs through online registration.
Draft text for an email blast advertising the first event and submit it to your Liaison. The text should include information about the prospective chapter or affinity group, why the recipient is being invited to attend, the event’s date, time and location, and a link to your online RSVP site.
Use your initial event to identify whether there is enough interest to form a chapter or affinity group. Who might the influential people be that can bring others on board? Who might be potential leaders of the group? You may want to create and bring an interest form for attendees to fill out and leave behind.
Hammer Out the Details
Once you have interested alumni, follow up with a planning meeting to organize the new chapter or affinity group. Agenda items might include: organization (bylaws, leadership structure), mission (overall purpose of the chapter – social, scholarship, etc.), potential upcoming activities (mixer, fundraiser, speaker, etc.), election of officers, financing the chapter (annual dues).
Make it Official
Complete and submit the WLU Alumni Affairs Chapter/Affinity Group Application.
An Alumni staff member will reach out to let you know they received the application. Alumni Affairs then votes on all new applications.
New Chapter / Affinity Application
- The interested person or group should contact the Office of Institutional Advancement (304.336.8888) and ask to speak with the Director of Alumni Relations.
- A general area for which to pull addresses should be defined. Perhaps pick a central city/town and request addresses for a 25 to 50 mile radius of this location.
- To be considered for a chapter charter, a minimum of 100 alumni and friends with good addresses must live in the geographical county or area petitioning for active chapter status. If there are less than 100 good addresses, the alumni staff will assist with the formation of an Alumni Club. An Alumni Club will be able to have email blasts sent out from the Office of Institutional Advancement, and we will assist in helping the alumni and friends in the area get connected with one another.
- If there are at least 100 good addresses in the area, an interest survey will be created and sent out to all alumni and friends in the area. The survey will be emailed to everyone who has a good email address and will be mailed to everyone who does not have a good email address. At least 50 surveys must be returned to the Office of Institutional Advancement to proceed.
- Once 50 surveys are returned, an organizational meeting will be planned. The Director of Alumni Relations will attend this meeting to go over the requirements of becoming and remaining an active alumni chapter, as well as answer any questions. This meeting will usually be attended by a core group of supporters who will be the driving force behind the chapter’s organization. This meeting can be held at someone’s office, home or any area that is suitable for a business meeting.
- Following the organizational meeting, the core group should nominate a slate of officers and hold a follow up meeting to accept further nominations and vote on the officers. Committees can also be formed at this meeting.
- The elected officers will begin planning a ‘kick-‐off’ type event, which will be the first official chapter meeting.
- After the ‘kick-‐off’ event is held, the chapter will be eligible to nominate its representative(s) to the Alumni Board of Directors.
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