To assist with organising your alumni association structure, the expert team at Aluminati has created an overview of the typical alumni association organisational structure – Contact us today to find out more about how we can help your alumni network!

Considering whether to form an alumni association to support the success of your organisation?

The first step is always creating an alumni association organisational structure.

Adopting a set alumni association structure can help you to divide and assign responsibilities, ensure governance, and promote productive relationships between members.

What are the objectives of alumni association?

The main purpose of an alumni association is to support the wider goals of an organisation by nurturing a spirit of loyalty and promoting the institution’s overall well-being.

This can be achieved through promoting alumni donations, hosting philanthropic events, and publishing newsletters.

Alumni association structures: An overview

Setting out a clear alumni association organisational structure can make establishing various positions and responsibilities much easier.

Each person will play an essential role in organising and carrying out the objectives of the alumni association.

How do you organise an alumni association?

While the structure of every alumni association can be customised to suit the needs of the institution, there are ongoing board and committee positions that must be filled to ensure the association operates smoothly.

We explore some of the key alumni association roles in more detail below.

President

The principal executive officer of the association, the president presides over all alumni association meetings. They provide leadership, and have responsibility for ensuring the association is working towards its key goals by liaising with the university and alumni association faculty.

In their absence, the president should assign another senior member to attend meetings as a representative.

Vice-President

Assistant to the association’s president, the vice-president will carry out senior duties as instructed by the president. Typically, the vice-president will offer crucial oversight and executive direction, and attend alumni association meetings in the event the president is unable to attend.

Secretary

The primary role of an alumni association secretary includes maintaining a record of meetings, as well as preparing and distributing the agenda and minutes of these meetings. Often in charge of managing their diaries and appointments, they should liaise with leadership to ensure they are always aware of any upcoming meetings and changes to their schedule.

Treasurer

Responsible for every financial transaction associated with the alumni network, the treasurer handles the collection and spending of funds as well as the accounting of contributions and expenditures. They’ll also be required to make a record of receipts, deal with the financial planning and budgeting, handle the financial side of fundraising, and create financial reports.

Legal and administration committee

This committee helps to ensure the alumni association is operating within the confines of the law, while also completing essential administration tasks. This might include scheduling meetings, managing the diaries of more senior members of the team, arranging post and deliveries, and handling both phone and email enquiries from alumni and organisation staff.

Events committee

As the name suggests, the purpose of the events committee is to coordinate, organise, and execute the activities of the alumni association. This might include charity dinners, annual reunions, tournaments, getaways, silent auctions, motivational speakers, as well as other in-person and virtual events.

Membership committee

The membership committee will be in charge of recruiting alumni. While every individual that graduates from an institution automatically becomes an alumnus of that organisation, they often require significant communication and engagement to encourage them to take an active role in supporting the institution.

The membership committee will typically have the responsibility of handling public affairs, as well as identifying member needs and the services that can support these needs, conducting market studies, increasing membership through recruitment, and keeping existing alumni updated on events and institution updates.

Other committees

It’s worth bearing in mind that every institution is different. As your organisation grows, you may decide to increase the type or size of your alumni association’s committees. Some educational institutions might also have an international committee, academic and training committee, or a corporate development committee.

How Aluminati can improve your alumni association’s organisational structure

Do you need flexible and scalable support connecting your alumni organisation?

With Aluminati’s innovative and customisable alumni engagement platform for the education sector, getting in touch with other alumni and institution staff has never been easier.

Boasting a user-friendly design, this comprehensive alumni management system features an intuitive dashboard, the ability to create and target groups based on regions or interests, an extensive directory, and flexible digital library with an easily searchable interface. 

Instead of forcing your community to adopt a set structure, this scalable alumni program can be built around your alumni community, allowing it to grow with your organisation. To find out more about the way our platform works and how it can support the growth of your alumni association, why not get in touch today?

One of the easiest ways to understand the Aluminati alumni engagement platform is to see it in action with one of our personalised online demonstrations.

Alternatively, you can also get in contact by calling us on 01638 676 232, emailing us at info@aluminati.net, or using social media.

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