Alumni Association's Strategic Planning

Subtitled, "Can a development officer persuade his alumni board to commit itself to the recruitment of new donors?":

Look, I appreciate the importance of strategic planning and recognize its necessity. We all need road maps. But the process can be deadly dull, especially in heavy doses. Ski lodges have bars, I remind myself as I pass the pond with the sporadic geyser and the fake swans and head to the Spruce Room.

Waiting inside are the early arrivals from our alumni association's Board of Directors - the group requiring the road map. Most alums don't harbor the same fervor as the 22 members of this group. So we thought it was time to harness all that energy and focus the board on a few "strategic" initiatives that might engage more alumni in some fashion. I had my own agenda for the day, which I'll get to in a minute.

The article by Mark Drozdowski, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, is here.