alumni impact
Thursday evening we had AIESEC alumni dinner in Wellington. The event turned out to be quite interesting and special because we had a very unexpected guest. It was an alumnus that was part of AIESEC in 80s and had not been engaged in AIESEC New Zealand for a very long time.
His name is Michael Sutton. He worked for AIESEC International in Brussels in 1982 where he was designing the computer network between the countries to create the online job matching system, which today we know as Insight. He has also received the International Hall of Fame award. He is a technology genius and currently a councillor for InternetNZ.
This evening made me think about a lot of things and created many strong feelings in me – a high level of sadness, anger and frustration, but also a strong incentive to put even more effort into alumni management that is so significant to this organisation.
The harsh and sad fact is that AIESEC New Zealand alumni management has been so poor over too many years. Imagine there are over 1000 alumni names in the database, yet for most we don’t have any updated contacts or background information at all. I think it’s less then 1% that are still somehow in contact or engaged with AIESEC. I find it shocking and upsetting.
Just imagine for a second if New Zealand would know who these alumni are, where they work and what they do, what they used to do in AIESEC. Just imagine if even 300 out of the 1000 would come to our events and be more or less in contact with us. What a powerful network this would be. And I’m not only saying this because it would be beneficial for AIESEC. I’m saying this also because it is beneficial for the alumni. Every single member of AIESEC New Zealand will one day be an alumnus. Wouldn’t you want to have that strong alumni community and network to benefit from as a business person or personally? Wouldn’t you want to have the opportunities to plug back to the AIESEC world every now and then? To stay in touch with the organisation where you once put your heart and soul into?
It would just be dumb not to realise the importance of this or to be so short-sighted. It’s time to prioritise alumni as much as other functions in AIESEC like people development or external relations. Because isn’t proper alumni management contributing strongly to our corporate development and external relations that is so crucial to us? Without prioritising this we are simply saying NO to a great pool of opportunities. And at the end of the day, isn’t it the alumni who show the real IMPACT of our organisation in the society?
But before we can talk about that, before we start to even think about these great events to organise, we must start from the elementary like having a proper updated alumni database. It might not be the most fascinating job in the world, but it is part of an important aim and dream of ours that we cannot ignore. It is a backbone and therefore indispensable. It must be done, before we can ever talk about having any alumni relations in this country.
Every one of us will be an alumnus one day. So shouldn’t we do the things for alumni today that we wish and expect to receive ourselves once an alumnus?
His name is Michael Sutton. He worked for AIESEC International in Brussels in 1982 where he was designing the computer network between the countries to create the online job matching system, which today we know as Insight. He has also received the International Hall of Fame award. He is a technology genius and currently a councillor for InternetNZ.
This evening made me think about a lot of things and created many strong feelings in me – a high level of sadness, anger and frustration, but also a strong incentive to put even more effort into alumni management that is so significant to this organisation.
The harsh and sad fact is that AIESEC New Zealand alumni management has been so poor over too many years. Imagine there are over 1000 alumni names in the database, yet for most we don’t have any updated contacts or background information at all. I think it’s less then 1% that are still somehow in contact or engaged with AIESEC. I find it shocking and upsetting.
Just imagine for a second if New Zealand would know who these alumni are, where they work and what they do, what they used to do in AIESEC. Just imagine if even 300 out of the 1000 would come to our events and be more or less in contact with us. What a powerful network this would be. And I’m not only saying this because it would be beneficial for AIESEC. I’m saying this also because it is beneficial for the alumni. Every single member of AIESEC New Zealand will one day be an alumnus. Wouldn’t you want to have that strong alumni community and network to benefit from as a business person or personally? Wouldn’t you want to have the opportunities to plug back to the AIESEC world every now and then? To stay in touch with the organisation where you once put your heart and soul into?
It would just be dumb not to realise the importance of this or to be so short-sighted. It’s time to prioritise alumni as much as other functions in AIESEC like people development or external relations. Because isn’t proper alumni management contributing strongly to our corporate development and external relations that is so crucial to us? Without prioritising this we are simply saying NO to a great pool of opportunities. And at the end of the day, isn’t it the alumni who show the real IMPACT of our organisation in the society?
But before we can talk about that, before we start to even think about these great events to organise, we must start from the elementary like having a proper updated alumni database. It might not be the most fascinating job in the world, but it is part of an important aim and dream of ours that we cannot ignore. It is a backbone and therefore indispensable. It must be done, before we can ever talk about having any alumni relations in this country.
Every one of us will be an alumnus one day. So shouldn’t we do the things for alumni today that we wish and expect to receive ourselves once an alumnus?
5 Comments:
Oh Kristi, it's so true..
I read that posting and you made me think in this way as I never had thought about before..
If only I had a bachelor degree - i think that job is pretty interesting finding all those alumnaes. I would like to do it :D:D Really !
you are so right.
Siki from Estonia
hugs hugs hugs
hey Siki,
hehe, perhaps you can come over and help us with this, we could really use it;)
best of luck and courage to you and lc tallinn. miss you all so much.
many hugs
Oh Kristi, please write something to your blog. You haven't done it almost a month :(
I wish to hear from you :P
Today LC Tallinn will have Christmas party :) Yesterday EB drank wine at TUT office until 1:30 am :D it was great :) We talked with Siim and Riina a lot =)
Hugs from Estonia
Siki
Dear Siki,
Thanks for always keeping your eye on things and for being interested. It's wonderful:)
I promise to update my blog soon, it's just been crazy busy in the last months to even have time to think about it. But for sure you'll here from me soon.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas party. I miss the TUT office, I still remember times when me and my EB team were having a really late night in the office preparing for our LTS, it was so much fun and so exciting.
Btw, are you running for MC? You should think about it;)
many hugs,
Heyy :)
I liked our Christmas party more than last year but the same thing happened - some of the things I've forgotten :D But this time I drank only wine! Buu !
About applying for MC position. I have thought about it and thought about my upcoming years and let's see.. But this year not.. Not yet.
Enjoy the Christmas time :))))
We miss you !!
Today I saw Liisi :) Tomorrow we will have girls night at MC appartment, men's discrimination party :D
Loads of luv,
Siki
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