Contents:

• Greenville College Alumni Chapter Mission Statement

• How Will the Alumni Office Help Me?

• How do I Organize a Chapter Committee?

• How does my Chapter Committee Organize an Event in my Area?

• How do I Contact Faculty or Staff to Feature at a Chapter Event?

• A Final Word About Chapter Events

• Chapter Event Checklist

First let us share the Greenville College Alumni Chapter Mission Statement with you.

Mission Statement
Greenville College Alumni Chapters are designed to meet two objectives. First and foremost is the objective of reconnecting alums with Greenville and maintaining that relationship. Keeping alums educated, informed, and interested in what is happening on Greenville's campus is one of the best ways to reconnect alums to the College. As Greenville continues to grow and change, it is important that we communicate to our alumni the mission and needs of the College. An informed and supportive constituency is also vital in carrying out the mission of the College.

Second, the Greenville College Alumni Chapters are a great way of connecting (or reconnecting) alums with each other. Through a variety of planned Chapter events, alumni have the opportunity to meet new friends and reconnect with old friends. As alums continuously move to new areas, Alumni Chapters become a great way to network and find new churches, job opportunities and social groups. (top )

How Will the Alumni Office Help Me?
The Alumni Office encourages Chapter organization, provides information about how to begin and organize a Chapter, and provides assistance in planning and implementing Chapter events.

The Alumni Office will:

• Provide address and phone lists. We will send you a list that tells you all you need to know about alumni and friends in your area. These lists are especially helpful in organizing a Chapter committee and making follow-up calls.
• Suggest speakers (i.e., faculty, staff, alumni) and assist in securing them for events.
• Send meeting supplies and materials. We will provide you with a Greenville banner, Greenville name tags, napkins, sign-in sheets, and other helpful materials.
• Create and mail invitations. We will prepare, mail, and pay the cost of postage for mailings for planned Chapter events. (top )

How Do I Organize a Chapter Committee?
Committing to be a Chapter Leader for your area or state can appear to be a daunting task. We encourage you to form a committee to help plan events rather than planning and executing Chapter events on your own. We also encourage you to use the staff in the Alumni Office as resources for questions and planning. The following pages will help answer questions you may have about forming a committee and planning Chapter events.

Use the lists supplied by the Alumni Office to identify others in your area who might be potential volunteers. Hold a "non-committal committee meeting" for those who may be interested in being involved. Your committee may include five to fifteen people depending on your area and Chapter needs. Be sure to explain the level of commitment and possible duties involved. Some criteria to think about in choosing a core Chapter committee member would be:

Location: Do they live close enough to meet once or twice a year?
Vocation: Will their occupation allow them to commit?
Age: Look for diversity in ages.
Relationship: Do you personally know someone in your area who would be willing to serve on your Chapter committee and make phone calls, help plan, provide food, etc.?
Commitment: Choose committee members who you are confident will get the job done. (top )

How Does my Chapter Committee Organize an Event in my Area?
Choose a date. Actually, think of several potential dates and contact the Alumni Office with these dates and your idea of what type of event you want to plan. Plan at least 16 weeks in advance so that the Alumni Office can work around the schedules of staff, faculty, and campus departments such as Graphic Design and Printing and the Post Office.

Decide what type of event you want to plan. Keep in mind the diversity of ages and interests of the alumni in your area. Three sporting events in a year do not appeal to everyone. We ask that you work to produce one Greenville-centered event each year. A Greenville-centered event features current or former Greenville faculty or staff as the major draw for your event. While a Greenville basketball game certainly is a "Greenville" event, it does not have the same broad appeal that a faculty member or President Mannoia has as the focus of an event. Greenville Parents are also included on the mailing list for events that spotlight a faculty or staff speaker.

The Alumni Office is committed to bring Greenville faculty to Chapter events and will work with the Office of the Vice President to coordinate travel schedules. You are encouraged to be as creative as you would like in your planning. For instance, host a summer barbecue with the President, tour an art gallery with art faculty or see a Shakespearian play with English faculty. A Greenville centered event is your best bet for a successful event. The following are some other suggestions for Chapter events:

Greenville-centered events:

• Current faculty
• Retired faculty
• President or other staff speaker
• Prominent alum speaker/entertainer

Other types of events:

• Greenville athletic event in your area
• Choir tour/reception
• Seasonal activity (Christmas music, summer BBQ)
• Theater production
• Professional athletic event (i.e. baseball game with tailgate party)

Decide on location for your event. For some events, the location is obvious. Greenville athletic or choir events will already be planned at a school or church; a theater production will be at its respective theater location, etc. An event hosted in a home is popular and inviting. Use the lists provided of alumni and parents in your area to seek out potential hosts. You may also use the Alumni Office as a resource for identifying potential hosts for your event.

Location suggestions:

• Home of an alum or friend
• Local church
• Local college campus
• Conference center

Delegate responsibility. Closer to your planned event, you will need your Chapter committee to help you in several areas:

Follow-up phone calls really make a difference getting people to attend an event. They provide a personal connection between the mailed invitation and the event itself.

Food is important to your event. Make arrangements with your Chapter committee (or others) to bring food and drinks to divide up the labor and expense. You may be reimbursed up to $300 (total) for food and drinks. Finger foods, desserts or hors d'oeuvres and coffee, punch, soda or water are served at most events. If your event is in another person's home (host home), be sure to work out details with your host. If a local restaurant, business or bakery donates food for your event, be sure to recognize their contribution at the event.

There may be a few miscellaneous details to delegate. Signs to direct people to a location, flowers or balloons to perk up your event, or planning a mixer or Greenville trivia game are responsibilities you can delegate.

Factor in your cost. Although you can be reimbursed up to $300 for food and other expenses, some events may cost more while others may not need to cost anything. We do not expect Chapter Leaders to cover the cost of event expenses. If you plan a barbecue or baseball game with tailgate party or dinner event, you will need to figure a price for each person and charge accordingly. The Alumni Office will print that information on the invitation for your event.

We respectfully request that you do not exceed the $300 per event limit. The College does not have a large budget for Chapter events and spends a significant amount of money on printing, postage, and additional travel expenses related to sending faculty to your event.

Host your event. You will need to act as a host in several ways at your Chapter event. You may handle these yourself or choose to delegate them to one of our committee members or a friend:

• Greet guests as they arrive.
• Open the event with a "welcome."
• Pray to open or close the event or to bless a meal.
• Introduce your guest speaker, host and hostess, members of your planning committee, Greenville Trustees who may be at your event.
• Vocalize your thank yous to the guest speaker, committee that helped with the event, and the host and hostess who may have opened their home or secured a facility for you.
• Announce upcoming Chapter events and Greenville alumni events (i.e. Homecoming, Summer Reunion, etc.).
• Close the event - don't leave your guests hanging! Again, you can do that with a prayer, a "thank you for coming" or another appropriate closing.

Write your Thank You's! The Alumni Office would be happy to provide Greenville thank you notes so you can write to participating faculty, the alum or parent who hosted the event, and committee members who made phone calls, brought food or helped in some way. Thank you notes not only let those people know how much you appreciate them but also reflect well on the College. (top )

• Choose two or three faculty members as potential speakers for your event.
• Contact the Alumni Office as soon as you have decided - at least 12 weeks in advance.
• The Alumni Office may have first-hand knowledge of that person's availability, travel schedule, current projects or another condition that would determine the appropriateness of your request. The Alumni Office also needs to know the proposed dates to get your event on the calendar and begin the planning process.
• The Alumni Office (Alex or Heather) will consult with you about your faculty choices and make the initial contact with the faculty member to let him or her know that you will be calling them about your event.
• From that point we suggest that you contact faculty/staff directly (unless otherwise directed).
• The Alumni Office will cover airfare, hotel, and meals for the faculty member and will even pay for you to take them out for lunch or dinner. You do not have to arrange for their airfare or hotel. (top )

A Final Word About Chapter Events
Chapter Events as Fundraisers. Because of the support and commitment you and many others offer to Greenville, often the question arises whether fundraising should occur at a Chapter event. Chapter events are not fundraising events. The main purpose of a Chapter event is to reconnect alums with the College. It is our hope that as they learn about Greenville, its changes, needs, and vision for the future, they will be inclined to support it financially when asked through other venues.

Give-aways. Many Chapters like the idea of giving away Greenville memorabilia, T-shirts, posters, etc., at more informal events (i.e. sporting events) as prizes for "Greenville trivia" games. Upon request, the Alumni Office will try to provide inexpensive Greenville items to give away at an event.

Staff Attendance. Whenever possible, an Alumni Office staff member (Alex Schmidt or Heather Caddell) or another staff member from the Office of College Advancement will attend your event. In general, you can expect that a staff member will accompany a faculty member or President Mannoia to a Chapter event.

Chapter Event Checklist. Included in the handbook is a Chapter event checklist to assist you in handling the details for your events. Make several copies for yourself and if you think of anything that needs to be added to the checklist, please let the Alumni Office know.

Many Thanks...
Your service to Greenville is more than just organizing a couple of Chapter events a year. You are communicating to your fellow alums your commitment and support of the character and mission of Greenville College and your desire to see it succeed in years to come. We greatly appreciate your volunteer efforts and we value any input you may have to improve and refine the Chapter program.

Don't Lose These Numbers!
Please call for any reason at all!
Office of Alumni Relations
(618)664-6514
Fax (618)664-9649

Alex Schmidt '96 – Director of Alumni and Church Relations
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Heather Caddell ’04 – Administrative Assistant to the Director of Alumni and Church Relations*
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*Heather will assist you with many of your requests, finding names and addresses, printing up lists of alums and parents in your area, and gathering materials you may need for your event.

Our Chapter Event Checklist will serve as a helpful tool in your planning. (top)