The Alumni Association

[WestUCajun]

Jay’s assertion was that you probably weren’t getting updates on what the Association is doing if you aren’t a member. My theory is that strategy wouldn’t garner you much in the way of new interest. Not sure how what you just posted disproves that.

Actually, I misspoke. I used the term member instead of donor. A few years back the association changed from a dues membership organization to a philanthropy driven donor supported organization. Technically, anyone who attended the university, even if they did not graduate, is considered an alumnus and is a general member of the organization. Those who donate are loyalty members. I believe everyone who is a current member gets some form of communication from the Alumni Association. Loyalty donors have more opportunity to insure their email addresses with the university are current. You can update your email address without being an loyalty donor by going to the membership section of the Alumni Association website and click on update profile. Here is the link to the membership section of the Alumni Association
https://alumni.louisiana.edu/membership
Back to your point that being a member , more accurately, a donor, to receive updates is not a good strategy to expand interest is valid but that isn't the only strategy being used by the association to develop more interest. I mentioned other ways the Alumni Association engages with alumni and that do do more requires more money. However, updating your profile with the association doesn't cost anything extra, so if you and others are interested in getting more information from the university, I encourage you and everyone else on RP who would like more information to update your profile. Also, consider becoming a loyalty donor. There are different types of donors listed, traditional, affiliate (formerly friends of the alumni association), collegiate (where half of you donation goes to the college of your choice) and corporate membership. When you click on the type of membership you would like to participate in the perks for your donation level are listed. You will also see how much money has been donated to the association this fiscal year. BTW, not much!!. You can click on one of the donation types to find out how much has been donated. To implement other strategies, more money is needed.

[HOUCajun]

There was a modest Alumni event before the Tx St game. They had beer, brats, and some trinkets.
If that game were on a Saturday I’m sure there would have been a LOT more Cajuns fans there.

[60swerethebest]

I’m in three membership organizations. It’s up to the members to let the organization know how contact is to be made. It is impossible to keep track of changing phone numbers & email addresses of large groups. Hence social media. Even that requires a member to follow the group. Lots of our alumni aren’t interested. So be it. Info is readily available. We are fortunate so many of our alumni do keep up. About 10%. About average.
Now, my two licensing boards take another approach. By law we have to notify state/province regulators of contact changes. Makes it easier. May J Landry could work on this for alumni groups in the state

[Turbine]

Pretty sure the ULumni Association did something for every home game

[moorecajun]

There was a modest Alumni event before the Tx St game. They had beer, brats, and some trinkets.
If that game were on a Saturday I’m sure there would have been a LOT more Cajuns fans there.

I hope the brats were from Tx State?

[Swamp]

If you are a member of the Alumni Association, then you get regular updates on what's going on.

If you aren't, then you probably don't. You have the power to change whether you're regularly informed or not.

Here's a hint. The Alumni Association is about much more than athletics.

Only thing that matters is Cajuns Football. To a lesser extent, all things not Cajuns Football.

LFG.

[ZoomZoom]

“Examples - RE-ESTABLISHING the region Ragin Cajun Clubs”…

This should have never been needed.

[WestUCajun]

“Examples - RE-ESTABLISHING the region Ragin Cajun Clubs”…

This should have never been needed.

It shouldn't have but it was. One of the reason is that these are all volunteer run and requires a lot of time and effort. One solution would be to have Alumni employees running the clubs but that takes something that's currently unavailable - money. The association has been fortunate to find some younger alumni to run some of the clubs but who knows how long it will be before they are burnt out. When I was in Houston, the Ragin Cajun club was very active. I takes a lot of work! Between Covid, volunteers getting older, volunteers having family, volunteers moving, and lack of support at events started a trend that needs to be changed and from my perspective is but is nowhere in a place that it needs to and should be.

[BabbForHeisman]

volunteers getting older

Hey hey hey hey HEY

[ZoomZoom]

volunteers getting older, volunteers having family, volunteers moving, and lack of support at events started a trend that needs to be changed

This I can agree with you on. The crowd last night…when the age demographic of your donors/fans is skewed as ours is, the majority is sitting home watching the game and aren’t going out in damp cold weather to protect their health. Some venture out, most won’t. No brainer, and name calling (clown and such) just pushes them away.

Once again it comes back to disconnecting with people thru the years due to lack of leadership and losing fans you’ll never get.