¶ Overview
Our Muslim alumni are an incredible financial and professional resource for our community. Alumni understand the importance of the MSA for the student community it serves and have experience that student can benefit and learn from. The Treasurer is responsible for appointing Alumni Engagement Officers, assigning them specific goals for the semester/year, and following up to make sure they are on track to accomplishing the goals.
¶ Prerequisites
Overseeing Alumni Engagement Officers requires that you understand what is expected from officers. Make sure to read and understand the following first:
Alumni Engagement Officers Instructions & Expectations¶ Strategy
The general strategy for our alumni network is to build genuine relationships through regular conversation and contact. Focusing only on fundraising or mentorship will not build a strong network. Alumni need to feel that their interests and time are valued and are not simply being taken advantage of. This is reflected in all emails and phone calls. Alumni should only rarely be called or emailed solely to collect donations or information. Alumni should be asked about their wellbeing, interests, and involvements as you would with any distant friend.
¶ Appointment
As is true with all officers, individuals who the Treasurer believes are qualified and work well with him/her should be appointed. The Treasurer should not feel obligated to appoint anyone that would in any way make his/her responsibilities more difficult.
In general, Alumni Engagement Officer who are upperclassmen develop the best connections with alumni and have the most success in the role. This is because upperclassmen know more recent graduates than lowerclassmen and can more easily reach out to somewhat familiar faces. Upperclassmen also have a better understanding of both the MSA's services as well as the job application and graduation process.
A good balance of brothers and sisters should be appointed to this officer position. The Treasurer should aim to appoint between 2-4 alumni engagement officers each semester.
¶ Training
Upon appointment, the Treasurer should schedule an in person meeting with all officers. During this meeting, the Treasurer will review the officer instructions and expectations (linked above) and teach everyone how to use our Hubspot contact directory. After the meeting, the Treasurer will grant all officers access to the directory.
During this meeting, the Treasurer should also review the general strategy and goals for the semester. Officers should be told to reach out to 10-15 alumni each week via email or social media and attempt to schedule 5 phone calls each week. A script for these phone calls has been provided on the officer instructions page. The Treasurer should tune this script to include any upcoming events or questions that should be stressed depending on the MSA's needs.
¶ Accountability
Throughout the semester, regular in-person meetings are not required. The Treasurer may follow up with each officer's progress through a group chat. The Treasurer should also offer to sit in on officers' first phone calls in case they need support or want feedback on the quality of the call.
¶ End-of-Semester Report
Before the semester ends, officers will be required to write a report summarizing the progress of our alumni outreach during the semester. Templates and examples of this report can be found in the officer expectations page (linked above). This report should be shared with the board for transparency and can also be shared with the Association for Muslim Professional Development who may be interested in further contributing to our alumni engagement project.
¶ Comprehension Quiz
If you were instructed to read this page as part of an online training curriculum, you must submit this quiz and answer all questions correctly. In the case that you do not answer a question correctly, you may view which questions were incorrect and take the quiz again.
