Alumni Leadership Masterclass now in New Delhi and Noida

Saviance Technologies, an IT Software and Services company partners with Delhi Management Association (DMA) for India’s first ever masterclass on alumni relations ‘Alumni Leadership Masterclass’. This masterclass is scheduled to be held on 7th and 8th December 2011, in New Delhi and Noida respectively.

This masterclass is an initiative by Saviance to enable educational institutes to understand the importance of engaging the alumni groups across the globe for mutual benefits. This partnership ensures that Saviance reaches out to its target audience effectively and works together with DMA, to empower institutes establish their alumni office in an organized and pro-active manner.
The Alumni Leadership Masterclass programme will begin with a session on the Basics of Alumni Relations by Mr. Joseph John, Advisor – South India & Sri Lanka, Saviance Technologies and Graduate of CASE Alumni Relations, Institute, INSEAD, Singapore will focus predominantly on the importance of alumni relations and what should be considered by an institute to reach out to their alumni network.

He will also emphasize on effective ways to plan future engagement with alumni by maintaining an updated database. Furthermore, sessions by Mr. Subhashish Bharuka, Manager – Corporate Communications & Graduate of CASE Alumni Relations Institute, INSEAD, Singapore will help the participants understand that Alumni engagement involves more than just database management and fund raising; it is a lifelong process for an institute to grow its brand over many years by engaging with its alumni. Besides, there will also be discussions on bridging the gaps between the alumni, current students and staff in order to strengthen ties among each other and channelizing the alumni interaction efficiently.

Alumni Association – 4 steps to start!

Alumni Associations are formed with certain goals to cater to, many times the goals are similar for various associations: To support the achievement of the University’s goals by providing leadership and backing to alumni association that demonstrates the mutually-beneficial engagement for Alumni, the alma mater and the association. In this blog we share some tips with these associations as to how they can build relationships with their alumni.

There are four basic steps to building an alumni association strategy to achieve the goal:

1. Reach Out. To get alumni to reconnect with university, first you have to find them.

2. Reconnect. To get alumni to become involved with the association, you must offer them easy ways and mediums for doing so. For some alumni, the ability to learn the latest about their alma mater in their communities will be enough to interest them to reconnect.

3. Manage Information. From a purely logistical standpoint, you have to track alumni who reconnect. Data management will be a key for long-term success.

4. Build and Sustain Relationships. It is really important to keep alumni involved and engaged once they have reconnected. There should be continuous dialog between the alumni and the alma mater or between alumni and alumni.

After these steps what next? Sky is the limit! There are number of creative ways to empower alumni, whether it is making them mentors, asking them for career advice or inviting them for events. These are couple of strategies that can be useful for start-up associations.

Alumni Relationship Development Program

Saviance Technologies focuses on all aspects of international alumni relations. We aim to assist Alumni Offices setting up a new Alumni Association / Alumni Office, as well as those who wish to develop an existing Programme, by sharing the ideas and knowledge of University members with experience and interest in this field. Keeping in mind alumni development, Saviance has come up with its own alumni software – Viburnix.

Designed specifically to manage alumni development and advancement activity, Viburnix – Alumni Software can help you nurture and control important relationships, reinforce alumni communications, and broaden your constituent reach. This software allows alumni associations to network with alumni more efficiently; identify and generate lists of their relationships; generate and track personalized communication; and follow through with prospects to turn pledges into donations.

Generate the best possible platform for exchange of business strategies, allowing members to network with their peers. Gain insight into your fund-raising progress with in-depth reporting that lets you analyse your results. And, because the module of event organization is part of Saviance’s proprietary web event management software, organizing of events becomes seamless activity. From managing constituent relationships to processing gifts, Viburnix – alumni association system gives you the tools you need to achieve all of your University’s advancement goals.

Alumni Leadership Masterclass in December 2011!

Third Alumni Leadership Masterclass by Saviance Technologies is in association with Delhi Management Association. This masterclass is scheduled for Wednesday 7^th December, 2011 @ DMA – DLF Conference Hall, India Habitat Center, Lodi Road, New Delhi. The fees for this event is Rs. 1,000/- only per delegate. This unique masterclass aims at providing alumni associations with descriptive sessions on managing the alumni, engaging with alumnus, planning alumni engagement activities and benefiting from technology in communicating with global alumni of an institute. The focus of this masterclass is to effectively highlight the benefits of leveraging & engaging with an institute’s alumnus on a day-to-day basis.

The faculties for the sessions are experienced professionals, who are graduates of an Alumni Relations Institute organized in Singapore. They have an in-depth understanding of handling alumni office as well as supporting the technological needs of the office. The sessions of the class provide a holistic view on building a strong and influential alumni network by running a fully functional alumni office in an institute.

The Alumni masterclass is for anyone involved with alumni relationship activities, whether Alumni officers / faculty facing challenges in engaging their alumni on a routine basis; or university / College / School faculty planning an Alumni Association in the near future; alumni relations staff who would like to maximize their relationship with the alumnus but are facing challenges in engaging them actively.

For registrations, & details please contact:

Tanya Bhatnagar, Programme Executive

Delhi Management Association, dmadelhi@sify.com / +91-11-2646-9552

Aditi Sharma, Business Development Executive

Saviance Technologies, aditi@saviance.com / +91-98-7147-6971

NOTE: Registration fee can be paid through online payment gateway available on the registration page on http://www.saviance.com/events  or a cheque in favour of Delhi Management Association.

Benefits of alumni engagement

In today’s global scenario, development and alumni relations activities are a very important part in the life and future of universities. An alumni association draws the strategy to seek, ‘To establish, build and maintain positive relationships between alumni and the university, and within the alumni association, in order to generate good will, develop institute’s repute, and encourage all alumni to give in whatever way they can to reinforce the future well-being of their alma mater. Reinforcing the growth of an active alumni association proves to be mutually-beneficial, both to the University and to alumni.

Alumni have the capacity to:

• Highlight the strengths of the university and reflect its commitment to excellence in education, research and lifelong learning;
• Be brand ambassadors, thereby inspiring and counseling others who wish to be a part of the university.
• Help each other and current students through networking, organizing guest lectures, mentoring and friendship;
• Assist each other and current students by sharing with them Job Opportunities / Career options.
• Foster global relationships to help promote networking opportunities.
• Contribute significant financial support to their alma mater.

 

It is important to understand that a successful alumni engagement strategy depends critically on having a strong body of alumni engaged with and committed to their alma mater.

Alumni involvement in Alumni Association

Alumni are one of the most vital stake holders of a university. They are a part of it for life. Hence, it is important for the universities to maintain an ongoing relationship with alumni, and seek their participation in achieving excellence. Alumnus are often interested to play their role of assisting alumni association not just because the improved brand name of the university helps them in their career, but also because they have memories and feel emotionally connected to the place. One reason for non-involvement or non-engagement of alumni is that they not aware of the ways in which they can be of help to their alma mater. There are many ways alumni can provide meaningful service and active involvement in the Alumni Association.

So here are a couple of strategies and ways in which alumni can get involved with alumni associations, to build mutually beneficial relationship. Alumni are the best brand ambassadors of a university; they can share their experiences with prospective students. They can provide career guidance and share opportunities with alumni associations to help career development and management of existing students and other alumnus. Alumni network helps entrepreneurial alumni build their businesses while strengthening alumni involvement with the University. Alumni can also get involved with events and activities on-campus.

Alumni Masterclass 2011 - Pune

Second Alumni Leadership Masterclass by Saviance Technologies was organized at Le Meridien, Pune; on 12th October 2011. Some of the key participant institutes of the event included Dr. D.Y.Patil Institute of Management Studies, Pune; Armed Forces Medical College, Pune; Fergusson College, Pune; Indira Group of Institutes; Indira School of Business Studies; Institute of Management Development & Research; Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource Development & Vishwakarma Institute of Management.

The focus of this Masterclass was to effectively highlight the benefits of leveraging & engaging with their institute’s alumnus on a day-to-day basis. The objectives of this masterclass comprised of providing descriptive sessions on managing the alumni, engaging with alumnus, planning alumni engagement activities and benefiting from technology in communicating with global alumni of an institute. Interactive sessions by faculties who are graduates of an Alumni Relations Institute organized in Singapore and who have an in-depth understanding of handling alumni office as well as supporting the technological needs of the office. The faculty tried to explicate on how to better utilize the existing relationship with alumnus and how to engage them actively on a regular basis. The sessions also helped participants gain a holistic view on building a strong and influential alumni network by running a fully functional alumni office in an institute. 

We would give details about the session details in our next blog posting.