Another amazing week! |
This past weekend had the immense privilege of going to my own 25th reunion wearing a single hat - attendee - and I had a blast! Reunions are ideally a mix of the past and present (let the president speak of the future!) which in this case meant skipping around with one of my best friends and making a few new ones along the way through a couple later-than-usual nights. |
Changing context altered my thinking about why we do what we do and how we can do it better, but it needs a ton of editing so I'll save it for the season recap. |
The promised notes from St. Olaf and coverage from Andover, Cornell, Dayton, Dickinson, and Lehigh follow! |
Um! Yah! Yah! |
Recap: St. Olaf Reunion |
Kate had the obviously brilliant idea to make the class year the focal point of the name tag. Seeing it in actual print led to many a facepalm - why wasn't this done anywhere before? It makes so much sense! |
A discerning eye will pick up on the size of these tags too. 4x6 once folded in half sleeveless coated paper stock. They don't weather particularly well but by this point in the season the warmth and humidity in Northfield is usually a bigger problem than rain. As for the flair bar: she got those containers on Etsy and they are class-y! |
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Non Sibi |
Phillips Academy Andover |
Fun fact: Andover is one of only two secondary institutions in our portfolio. Funner fact: their reunion execution has much to inform all of our post-secondary clients! |
With the benefit of plenty of staff to draw on Andover implemented a concierge-style check in process. A greeter would welcome you at a station, get you printed up, then escort you to the next table to collect housing and swag. Meanwhile another staff member would slip in to the station spot and greet the next person. Yes, it takes more people, but it created an impressively smooth (and soothing) arrival for all of the attendees and was a marvel to observe. |
Keep an eye out post-season for their name tag in the gallery - the schedule piece in particular was a nice touch! |
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Ithaca really is gorges |
Recap: Cornell |
8000! Closest we've been to 2019-era turnout in Ithaca yet. 302 registerable events combined into 399 packages across 5 orgs. Yeah, it's that big! This was boosted in no small part by the gatherings of their diverse alumni programs: CAAA, CBAA, CLAA, and Cornell Pride who offered both group-specific programming and complementary programs that fit well with and around the class reunion activities. |
Surprise success story #1: in years past, runners for the 5k signed up through another system - if they remembered to make the hop over there. This year Lauren folded it in to reunion reg - and also set up an Express Registration flow for locals who only wanted to run. Result: triple the high water mark of registration, which gave her the budget flexibility to add more nice touches to an already great event. |
Less surprising success story #2: we launched the new email features just before they got going, and the staff made significant use of them. 16 email messages to ~4500 recipients plus 10 text messages to over 10k recipients. Zero complaints. |
Running an operation at this scale requires an awful lot of hands and love - between the unstoppable staff, the energetic cadre of clerks led by an always remarkable leadership team of head clerks, and the volunteers who bleed Big Red there's plenty of both to make something magical happen every year. |
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The last picture is Scott Pesner, one of the first volunteers I worked with back in 2011/12 whose patience, humor, and candor were invaluable in helping us understand the volunteers' needs. Every year we take a picture to happily acknowledge what we continue to accomplish together. |
Go Flyers! Not Philadelphia! |
Recap: Dayton |
Imagine, if you will, a reunion where you get half of your registrations in the first day of public sales and then the rest over the subsequent 3 months in dribs and drabs. This is the world in which Amanda lives, and if it didn't also involve a massive demand for campus housing, a lottery, and a targeted draft for those who will win a room, her job would be easy! |
Dayton has also made heavy use of express registration and our good friends Scanny McScannerson to help manage the legendary Porch Party, squashing what used to be a bit of a congested mess. With 4 people scanning (plus carding and wristbanding happening concurrently) they processed 1200 people in an hour which is amazing! |
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Carlisle is cute |
Recap: Dickinson Alumni Weekend |
Some of you are aware that we on occasion borrow a trusted friend from one institution to help us staff another one's major weekend. Such is the case at Dickinson, where CK is not only welcome but specifically asked to return for their events because they love her so much. Arika, Andrew, and their colleagues have been awesome and are just fantastic people to work with. We're glad this works for everybody! |
Here's a fun fact: Dickinson is a carbon neutral campus and thoughtfully encouraged all attendees to offset their travel-generated carbon emissions too. We did our part - AlumnIQ purchased offsets to cover all of our travel and shipping emissions. Perhaps the next step is adding this to registration! |
Sorry we're a little short on pictures for this one. We'll have to defer to the college's Facebook gallery from check in instead of our own. TBH, they're better anyway! |
The steps are not missed |
Recap: Lehigh Reunion |
Lehigh alumni interviewed me, funded my scholarship, crashed band camp, and were a persistent presence throughout my undergrad years. It is no wonder that I had a love for this profession inculcated in me as a result. My first volunteering experience as an alum was serving on the general reunion committee - and look what happened! |
Ken (also a Lehigh man) kindly offered to staff this reunion so I could go play. Which also meant I could take a step back from ops and look at the event with different eyes. Reunion is a much more polished, professional experience than it used to be! |
Big hits: Hawktoberfest, a beer garden event with an oom-pah band playing the hits of the 90s (19 not 17) on what we refer to as the sacred grove. Loosely structured, totally chill vibe, and if that was the only reunion event it would have been plenty. Discovering the Universe: James Webb Telescope and Beyond not only took us back into Neville 001 but also deep into space. I can't tell you how many people I ran into after this lecture who were still processing how awesome the talks and media were. And the cherry on top was (possibly) the largest alumni band turnout ever on the most perfect day for a parade! |
Lehigh's reunion-keyed lanyard game is tops. Different colors for each reunion class make it very, very easy to pick up on what kind of crowd was at every event. Certainly easier than squinting at a name tag (though I hope to see them steal St. Olaf's idea next year!) |
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