How to Start an Alpha Sigma Nu Alumni Club
The key is gathering a few enthusiastic local alumni! The bylaws of Alpha Sigma Nu give basic guidelines regarding establishing an Alumni Club, and give measures for legitimacy as you move through the process. Below, you will find a road map for starting a club, beginning with “Establishing an Alumni Club.” You may also click on any of the topics listed.
Establishing an Alumni Club
Purpose of an Alumni Club
Alpha Sigma Nu alumni clubs have as their purpose the encouragement of our alumni’s lifelong commitment to the ΑΣΝ values of scholarship, loyalty and service, and to the ideals of Jesuit education. Alumni clubs should provide concrete opportunities for expression of that commitment.
What an Alumni Club Can Provide
To Alumni Members
- Continued recognition of undergraduate and/or graduate achievement
- Programming designed to foster excellence in the intellectual arena and growth in the spiritual arena
- A catalyst for alumni involvement in service projects
- Networking with other alumni
- Opportunities to interact with present ΑΣΝ students
To Alpha Sigma Nu
- Meaning to the ΑΣΝ inductees’ lifelong membership
- Active promotion of the values of scholarship, loyalty and service
- Increase in alumni activity, thus solidifying alumni identification with ΑΣΝ, i.e. increasing alumni interest and support
To Alpha Sigma Nu Student Chapters
- Collaboration with and connection to ΑΣΝ alumni
- ΑΣΝ Alumni as a resource for the student Chapter
- Career/social contacts for graduating ΑΣΝ members
ΑΣΝ Bylaws Pertaining to Starting a Club
Section 9.11 Alumni Club
An alumni club may be established through a petition addressed to the Board Secretary of the Society and signed by a minimum of eight (8) alumni members residing in a geographic area where such a club does not exist. A favorable majority vote of the Board of Directors shall be required for approval.
Alumni club membership shall include all alumni and honorary members of the Society in its geographic area. Alumni clubs shall use a local name and will be independent but supportive of area student chapters. Alumni clubs are established independently from any local institution although a natural affinity can be expected to exist with a Jesuit institution in the same city or region. Alumni clubs should be separately incorporated and may engage in fundraising for club projects. Only the Central Office may fund raise for the Society as a whole.
Alumni clubs send a delegate to the Triennial Convention with full privileges.
The ΑΣΝ Board will foster the development of Alumni Clubs where there is sufficient interest.
Section 9.12 Active and Inactive Clubs
To be considered an active club the club shall: elect four (4) officers; have eight (8) active alumni members; have bylaws; send an annual report to the Central office; send a representative to the Triennial Convention; and maintain liaison with the ΑΣΝ Alumni Adviser. If a club does not meet these qualifications, the alumni adviser will consult with the club officers. If the club does not meet the qualification for two (2) years, the Board will place the club on inactive status. Inactive clubs may petition the Board for return to active status by demonstrating compliance in writing.
Initial Steps
Our emerging clubs have experienced success with the following formula:
- Contact Kate Gaertner, Executive Director, (414-288-7542) at the Central Office for assistance in contacting ΑΣΝ alumni in the area.
- Identify a group of interested alumni in your area.
- If there is a local Jesuit institution, cooperate to identify an event already planned by the institution, interesting to our alumni. The Central Office can assist here. Request that ΑΣΝ piggybacks on an event.
- Plan a reception for ΑΣΝ alumni immediately after the event.
- Invite area ΑΣΝ alumni via the Central Office. The Central Office will use the database to mail invitations and follow-up with email.
- Use the reception to enlist a group of alumni interested in forming the Club and in planning the next event.
- Establish a committee, plan the next event, and set goals for the new Club. The new officers of the Alumni Club emerge from, or can be recruited by, this group.
- Expect to take approximately six months to get a club up and running, depending on the commitment of the volunteers.
Guidelines and Suggestions
- Like most of us, our members are busy. By offering them something uniquely available and/or attractive to an ΑΣΝ alumni, we fulfill our purpose, and increase the likelihood of a successful event.
- When designing programming, remember the focus: scholarship, loyalty, and service.
- The Central Office can provide free, or at a small cost, ΑΣΝ nametags, stationery for invitations, small door prizes and/or speakers’ gifts.
- The Central Office has a minimal start up budget for alumni events, therefore, new clubs must become self-sustaining.
- The location of an event should be accessible, easy to find, of local interest, and have parking where possible.
Club Name
The Central Office generally refers to alumni clubs by their geographical locations, such as the Greater Kansas City area, the Greater Boston area, etc., with the emphasis on including all ΑΣΝ alumni who reside in a particular geographic area, not only those who were inducted at a particular local institution. The Father Danihy Club, the Greater Milwaukee area alumni club, is named for the founder of Alpha Sigma Nu. Clubs wishing to call themselves by a name of honor rather than a geographical descriptor should check with the Central Office.
Selection of Alumni Club Locations
The Board of Alpha Sigma Nu has made the establishment of alumni clubs a priority. By hiring a Director of Alumni Clubs, the Board has provided the support alumni clubs will require. The Alumni Committee of the Board has indicated that, at the outset, resources should go to those areas where we have the most alumni. However, the Central Office and the Board will encourage and support a group of ΑΣΝ alumni, in any area, who wish to form an alumni club.
Alumni Club Petition
You may download an Alumni Club Petition in one of two formats: Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Reader (.pdf). In order to open the file, you must have the Microsoft Word application or a copy of Adobe (formerly Acrobat) Reader. If you do not have Reader, you can download it for free here by clicking on the icon below. (Make sure you get the appropriate format Reader for your operating system.)
Generic Bylaws for an Alpha Sigma Nu Alumni Club
You may download the Alumni Club Generic Bylaws in one of two formats: Microsot Word (.doc) or Adobe Reader (.pdf). In order to open the file, you must have the Microsoft Word application or a copy of Adobe (formerly Acrobat) Reader. If you do not have Reader, you can download it for free here by clicking on the icon above. (Make sure you get the appropriate format Reader for your operating system.).
Potential Activities for an Alumni Club: Reaffirming Scholarship, Loyalty and Service
Many of our alumni have asked for activities spiritual in nature, activities that would help them inculcate the ΑΣΝ values in their daily lives. Other alumni have expressed interest in opportunities for career networking. Some have asked for names of fellow alumni when they move to a new city. Most activities will involve more than one of these. Those who gather to organize local alumni clubs will speak to the wants and needs of local alumni, so each club will have its own flavor, guided by ΑΣΝ tenets.
Here are some examples of what alumni clubs are doing:
Buffalo |
Annual awards dinner |
Chicago |
Service programs including support of the Chicago Jesuit Academy Cultural events |
Danihy-SE Wisconsin |
Fall - Annual Mass and reception for ΑΣΝ alumni and students Spring - Annual Alumni Award Brunch |
Denver |
Hosted receptions after a speaker event featuring Nobel Peace Prize winners co-sponsored by Regis University Evening of reflection Collaborates with the Regis Chapter on service projects |
New York City |
Ignatian spirituality series Collaborating with Fordham Chapter on speaker events Networking with Fordham and St. Peter’s students |
Omaha |
Annual William Kelley SJ Lecture |
Washington, DC |
Speaker events featuring William Byron, SJ, Thomas Reese, SJ and Woodstock Fellow Dolores Leckey |
Resources at the Central Office
Support
Call Kate Gaertner, Executive Director, at (414) 2817542, or email at kate.gaertner@marquette.edu if you are interested in starting a Club. The Central Office may have heard from other alumni in your area.
Database Assistance
The Central Office can provide to alumni interested in starting a Club the names and addresses of alumni in a certain area, as well as the email addresses we have of alumni in that area.
Communications Assistance
The Central Office can assist with the bulk mailings of an alumni club, including help with composition, use of our stationery, postage, and mailing services. The Office can send broadcast email to alumni as well.
Alpha Sigma Nu Materials
Newsletters, Bylaws, and informational flyers are available to hand out at meetings or other events. Some door prizes, such as ΑΣΝ pins, luggage tags, or decals may also be available.
Ideas
Because we at the Central Office work with long-standing Clubs, as well as newer Clubs, we have history and experience on which a new Club can draw. Feel free to use us as a resource, a sounding board, a brainstorming partner, or a place to find an idea for a program or event.