Leadership McLean County Alumni Program

I've volunteered to serve as chair of the Alumni Committee for Leadership McLean County's 2015 program year. My early thoughts and ramblings here.

Assessment

My assessment of LMC alumni is that:

- They are sufficiently busy; their pro-activeness in leadership and the community influenced their selection in the first place. Any LMC alumni activity needs to be a productive use of their time, a unique value added, and time-bound.

- They have enough friends. Purely social events have had waning attendance. The bond of friendship within LMC was strong while they were united by the common cause of project completion and the tuition they'd committed to participate.

- Their self-identity as LMC alumni is currently minimal. A recent e-mail to approximately 75 alumni, asking simply for acknowledgment, resulted in no response. There are 20 years and approximately 600 alumni in the program that are mostly disengaged. Emphasis on retaining currently active alumni (typically those within 3 years of graduation), with less focus on reviving inactive alumni, seems the more productive route.

- They will rally around a goal or task. The personality surveys taken during LMC consistently identify that "yellow" types - the list-makers, organizers and overachievers - are the highest population.

- They enjoy meeting and learning from each other. A recent survey of LMC '14 indicated desire to spend more time networking and discussing real-life issues as leaders.

- They enjoy volunteering. Demonstrated volunteerism is a key characteristic sought through the selection process as a gauge of community leadership interest. A well-run volunteer opportunity is a welcomed use of their time.

Proposal

The vision of LMC Alumni 2015 is to define and establish a concept of "active" and "distinguished" alumni, and to build a process for tracking and developing these community leaders.

"Active" alumni are those who have provided or confirmed a primary contact address within the last 12 months.

"Distinguished" alumni are active alumni who, within the last 12 months, have documented at least 25 hours of community leadership.

"Community leadership" means a paid or unpaid role with responsibility to direct at least one person who is not a family member, for a non-profit purpose.

"Documented" means a report or reports (written, presentation, etc.) totaling at least 750 words which summarize an alum's contributions to, and development from, a community leadership experience.

The Alumni Committee will:

- Develop a database of contact and other relevant information for LMC alumni, including status such as inactive, active, or distinguished.

- Publish relevant information to LMC alumni, such as Alumni Committee activities and LMC program activities, on a regular basis.

- Provide timely budget requests to Chamber staff for any anticipated funding needs.

- Serve as LMC Graduation Day Chair.

- Provide opportunities for alumni participation, such as small discussion groups with leadership development focus and task force projects.

Notes:

What was your favorite LMC day? Helps indicate the area of volunteerism you may be most interested in, or to be a day chair of.