If it wants to survive, the Olds College Alumni Association (OCAA) is going to have to radically change and embrace new technology, even though ironically, some of that technology is making it harder to keep in contact with grads.
That's the view of OCAA president Ed Shaw, (agricultural mechanics, Class of 1971).
"Getting a hold of people is really difficult," Shaw said during an interview with the Albertan.
"People change their email addresses when they change companies' names, or they go from one company to another and their email (address) is no longer valid. They sometimes change cellphones when they go to a different area. They travel so much."
Shaw said to solve that problem, and communicate more effectively with a wider swath of grads, the association is going to have to utilize new technology, especially social media.
"The alumni association is going to have to reinvent itself to meet the needs of our current graduates," Shaw said.
"The alumni association has survived for years by doing what was done in the '50s and '60s and attracting those people, whereas today's functions, so far, we started to move and doing some changes that way, but we've got to change or we will die."
Shaw said part of the problem is the sheer number of grads, and they're spread all over the world. Also, as time goes on, many grads are aging and can no longer attend alumni events.
"The college used to be very small. Everybody lived on campus and everybody knew one another and it was 50 to 60 graduates a year," Shaw said. "Now there's 15 times that. There's different faculties. People live off-campus. There isn't the interaction."
He said the OCAA needs to become more relevant for grads.
"We have to find something that the alumni association can do for our graduates, such as connecting for job availability, you know — job postings. Or upgrading, bringing people together, bringing speakers in. Or arranging — like we did in November, the 50th anniversary of ag mech. That was done through the ag mech (association) but kind of through alumni. I headed that up," Shaw said.
"That was a tremendous success. And we can do that with different faculties. We don't have to hold it here at the college, we can have chapters out in Manitoba or P.E.I. or Bakersfield, where we have students who are graduates. So we can do something there that they might come together. Maybe five of them come together once a year, maybe twice a year.
"Bring something in for them. Give them something that they need. We have to identify what would attract them," he added.
Shaw said lack of money is another issue for the association.
"We used to have a membership fee and we had about 300 members who would pay every year. And that funded our operations, our news magazine that went out. It was four times a year. We cut it back to three, then two, then one," he said.
Now communication is provided to members through a magazine produced by the college.
"Until we can put a product out there that people are willing to pay for, putting a membership fee isn't going to be there," he said.
Betty Jorsvick (home economics, Class of 1952) has similar views.
"The thing is, they would like the alumni to donate, but if you feel no connection, you don't feel that drive to donate. You've got to feel that it's part of — you know — important," she said.
"They need to do some work in that area, and I'm not sure, but you've just got to make people think that you care about them, and that sort of slipped by the way. No one in particular is to blame," she added. "It's hard to (re)start something you quit. Easy to stay with it."
