Start an Alumni Club
The purpose of Alpha Sigma Nu Alumni Clubs is the encouragement of our members' lifelong commitment to the ΑΣΝ values of scholarship, loyalty and service. Alumni Clubs provide opportunities for expression of that commitment through participating in service projects, presenting speaker events, developing programs that connect faith with life, and providing a venue for career and social networking. Each club determines its own activities and agenda.
Establishing an Alumni Club
What an Alumni Club Can Provide
Initial Steps
Guidelines and Suggestions
Club Name Selection of Club Locations
Alumni Club Handbook
Potential Activities for an Alumni Club
Purpose of an Alumni Club
Alpha Sigma Nu Alumni Clubs have as their purpose the encouragement of Alpha Sigma Nu members' 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 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
Our emerging Clubs have experienced success with the following formula:
Contact Amy O'Neil, Director of Development and Alumni Relations by phone (414) 288-7542, or email, 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 and 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.
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 help advertise an event, send an email invitation to members, and may provide ΑΣΝ nametags, stationery for invitations, small door prizes and/or speakers’ gifts.
Clubs can apply for an Alumni Club grant each year to help cover the costs associated with an event
The location of an event should be accessible, easy to find, of local interest, and have parking where possible.
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. 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.)
The Alumni Club Handbook has many resources helpful when starting an Alumni Club. You can download the handbook here.
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.
See what our Alumni Clubs are doing:
Buffalo
Annual awards Mass and Brunch, support student Chapter service projects
Chicago
Service programs, including support of the Chicago Jesuit Academy
Collaboration with the Loyola Chapter, cultural events
Danihy-SE Wisconsin
Annual Alumni Award Brunch, ice cream social with the Jesuits, Hunger Clean- Up
Denver
Hosted receptions after a speaker evenst co-sponsored by Regis University, evening of reflection, ΑΣΝ Social Gathering for mingling and networking with students and alumni, Collaboration with the Regis Chapter on service projects
New York City
Career Night, Lenten service project
Omaha
collaborating with Student Chapter, service projects, lectures on campus
Washington, DC
Speaker events featuring Jesuits and other noted experts on topics interesting to alumni and students
Alumni Clubs can apply for small grants to support an event. Find application here and application budget here.
Resources at the Central Office
Support
Call Amy Venables O'Neil, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, at (414) 288-7547, or email at amy.oneil@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 the names, addresses, and email addresses of alumni in a certain area.
Communications Assistance
The Central Office can assist with 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, By-laws, and brochures are available to hand out at meetings or 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.