With finite resources and competing demands, Hub Burton believes the challenge of Ohio University's Office of Alumni Relations is to keep an increasingly sophisticated alumni audience connected to the institution.
"I believe we have always been good stewards of the resources we have, given the fact we have almost 150,000 alumni," says Burton, named this spring to direct the campus' alumni operation. "But it's a constant challenge. And that means we need to evaluate programs, see what works, what doesn't work, streamline, economize, reevaluate and identify opportunities."
When they survey the alumni landscape, Burton, associate vice president for university and alumni relations, and Vice President for University Relations Adrie Nab see an immediate opportunity to elevate the overall quality of alumni chapter programming and potential for the Office of Alumni Relations to work more closely with chapter leaders on event planning. The end result, Burton hopes, is increased participation in university events at the local level.
"What we're trying to do is create programming that's going to invite and attract as many of our alumni as possible to get involved -- to not just be a participant but become involved, in a leadership or coordinator's role," Burton says. "We have to find programs that are attractive enough, representative enough of the institution to bring alumni back, to have them make a decision on a week night not to get on the beltway and go home, but instead go to an Ohio University chapter event."
Burton is quick to praise the past work of alumni chapter leaders and event organizers, and says that plans to "reinvent" chapter programming "in no way, shape or form reflect poorly on the job that Alumni Relations has done to date. You look at the loyalty of our alumni and that's a measure of the job the association and chapters have done. But the times are a changin' and we believe we can hike our programming a notch."
Burton points to Chapter President Wes Osborn, BSC '73, and the Philadelphia-Delaware Valley Chapter as an example of what has been done with chapter events and what can be done. Working closely with Assistant Director of Alumni Communications Dexter Bailey, BSJ '92, Osborn and his chapter sponsored a reception with President and Mrs. Robert Glidden on a restored sailing ship on the Delaware River in September. Sixty alumni and friends attended, up from the 12 to 15 who normally take part in a chapter event.
"That event is really a strong example of what can be accomplished," Burton says. "Wes experienced what I think a lot of our chapter leaders encounter, and that is the feeling that chapter events had plateaued, and it was really a test of his motivation and that of the chapter to ask, 'What can we do next?'"
Burton also singles out alumni events in Columbus, St. Louis and New
York City over the past year as evidence of innovative, quality
chapter programming. More than 170 alumni and corporate, civic and
political leaders gathered in September in St. Louis for the first
Athenian Dialogue to hear David Wilhelm, AB '77, former campaign
manager for President Clinton, and OU Distinguished Professor of
Economics Richard Vedder discuss the presidential race.
In New York on April 9, more than 75 people attended "Bobcats Off Broadway," a reception celebrating Ohio University theater that was sponsored by the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Alumni Chapter. The event preceded the Aegean Theatre Company's New York premiere of "Trouble Down Below." The theater group consists of Ohio University graduates.
Burton is the first to admit that it's difficult to maintain chapter events at the highest level all year long, and that "there is a real place for those opportunities to go to a ball game, or have a tailgate party or small get-together for alumni. These events will happen and we'll support them. But we also want to make sure they are at the very highest level and as attractive as possible."
Alumni Relations instituted a three-tiered chapter event system a year ago. A Tier One event involves an appearance by President Robert Glidden and a Tier Two event includes representation of some sort from university officials. Tier Three events include no representation or programming assistance from the Office of Alumni Relations.
"I'd say the bread and butter of the tiering system would be Tier Two," Burton says. "I don't think it's possible to operate at that highest Tier One level week in and week out across our chapters nationwide."
More than 250 Ohio University alumni chapter events took place across the country over the past year, involving about 10,000 alumni.
Among Burton's goals are a more cooperative, creative and advanced planning process between the Alumni Association and chapter volunteers and a leadership conference for chapter volunteers, possibly as early as next spring.
Joanne Utley, BSJ '79, of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Chapter acknowledges there are university "resources we're not utilizing." Utley, a National Alumni Board member, coordinated the "Bobcats Off Broadway" event and also helped organize a tailgate event before the Army-Ohio football game last fall at West Point that attracted 375 people.
"There are a great number of university resources we don't always get to use," says Utley. "There are university people who come to New York all the time and we don't always know about it. It's educating the colleges and schools that the chapters are out there, and if their people attend a big event it's an advantage for them and a way for us to draw people out for an event."
And, Utley says, "It's good to occasionally take a look at what you're doing, and reexamine and challenge yourselves to do things differently and not do the same old events."
