Navigating Leadership: Responsibilities and Strategies for Student Alumni Boards

The success of any alumni association hinges significantly on the effectiveness of its alumni board. This article explores the multifaceted responsibilities of student alumni boards and delves into strategies for effective management, drawing upon insights from various perspectives within the alumni relations field. The alumni board is a critical asset that contributes mightily to the success of the alumni organization, one that must be cultivated and managed as a key institutional resource.

The Foundational Role of Alumni Boards

The ASU Alumni Association’s Board of Directors stands as the university’s oldest support group, dedicated to serving ASU and fostering engagement between alumni, friends, and the university. It exists to serve ASU and to keep alumni and friends of ASU engaged with the university. Serving as the governing volunteer body, the Board of Directors officially recognizes all alumni support organizations worldwide. Carrying out its responsibilities, the Board approves, monitors and supports the strategic plan as developed by the Alumni Association staff. Further, it ratifies and approves the annual budget, tax return, audit and other significant business matters.

More than just a group of well-intentioned graduates, a high-performing alumni board provides wisdom, advocacy, a strong sense of history and tradition, governance responsibilities, and active committee work. The alumni board, collectively and individually, represents a critical feedback loop to the alumni staff and leadership. An effective board advises the staff on matters that affect fulfillment of the strategic plan rather than "directing" them. The professional knowledge provided by staff coupled with the advisory capabilities of the board make for an effective combination.

Core Responsibilities and Functions

Alumni boards shoulder a range of responsibilities crucial to the vitality of the alumni association and the institution it supports. These can be broadly categorized as strategic oversight, advocacy, and operational support.

Strategic Oversight

An increasing number of alumni organizations are either developing or refining strategic plans for alumni engagement. Alumni board oversight is important, not tangential, to any strategic planning process. The alumni board plays an important role here: to ensure that the core tenets of the strategic plan are being fulfilled and to hold the alumni organization accountable for programs, timelines and performance. This oversight includes approving and monitoring the strategic plan developed by the alumni association staff, ensuring alignment with the university's overall goals.

The board also ratifies and approves the annual budget, tax return, audit, and other significant business matters, demonstrating its commitment to financial transparency and responsible stewardship.

Advocacy and Ambassadorship

Since 2008, the National Alumni Council serves in an advisory capacity and its members are considered ambassadors of the university and advocates for the Alumni Association. Board members act as key advocates for the institution, promoting its interests and values within their communities and professional networks.

They contribute to the pipeline of prospective members, identify potential donors, and champion the institution's mission in various forums. A member of the board of directors of the board of directors and an officer of the executive committee, the lead advocate for advancing the Alumni Association’s mission and goals, directly collaborating with the Director of Alumni Relations. A member of the board of directors and an officer on the executive committee, directly collaborating with the president. A member of the board and an officer on the executive committee, directly collaborating with the president.

Operational Support and Engagement

Alumni boards often contribute directly to the operational functions of the alumni association through committee work and active participation in events and programs. The CFANS Alumni Society has more than 3,200 members and is responsible for a wide variety of successful initiatives. In particular, our alumni society's efforts shall foster society membership, student recruitment, enhancement of the student experience, and communication with alumni, students, faculty, and the community. Our alumni society will encourage financial support for the college and its activities. Provide leadership on approved committee projects.

Standing committees, both internal and external, play a vital role in supporting the strategic plan. Internal committees focus on governance, nominations, and strategic planning, while external committees support initiatives related to regional outreach, communications, lifelong learning, and student and young alumni engagement. If the plan outlines strategic priorities for Regional Outreach, Communications, Lifelong Learning and Student & Young Alumni Engagement, then there ought to be standing committees that support these initiatives.

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Building an Effective Alumni Board

Creating a high-performing alumni board requires careful consideration of its size, diversity, composition, and culture.

Size and Diversity

A group comprised of 18-24 members is a highly desirable and manageable number. Boards that include as many as 40 to 60 members may be deliberately “representative” of all regional chapters, colleges and constituency groups but present challenges as to effectiveness and decision-making. Alumni boards need to be efficient and nimble. The makeup of the board should reflect the alumni body insofar as diversity of gender, ethnicity, geography and academic affiliation.

There is also a certain functionality to recruiting board members who bring important skills to the enterprise, such as a background in law, not-for-profit management, strategic planning or marketing communications.

Composition and Expectations

A board position should never be considered a resume-builder. Further, there should be a balance between members who are leaders in their community (and whose sheer involvement will elevate the stature of the alumni board), and those who can roll up their sleeves and contribute within their standing committees. These well-known and highly-active board members are often in the pipeline for a university Trustee position.

More than just the requirement of attending a set number of meetings during the board term, members must also abide by a set of expectations, either tacitly or in writing, that include a financial commitment, keeping up to date with institutional news, contributing to the pipeline of prospective members, identifying potential donors and being an advocate for the institution.

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Fostering a Culture of Partnership and Communication

An effective board should not “direct” the staff, but rather advises them on matters that affect fulfillment of the strategic plan. Staff committee liaisons and their board counterparts should work closely to draft committee agendas and to function as a team. The professional knowledge provided by staff coupled with the advisory capabilities of the board make for an effective combination. One of my former committee chairs was a Vice Admiral; while he may have known little about alumni engagement strategies, he contributed immeasurably in terms of his emphasis of timelines, teamwork and building toward the big picture.

The chief alumni officer should communicate personally with the board president and other members on a frequent basis. This is a relational business, and a key to board management is making members feel valued and part of the conversation. In addition, regular board communication generated by the staff that includes dashboards and progress toward strategic goals is another important aspect of keeping board members looped into the organization’s priorities.

Managing Board Dynamics and Avoiding Pitfalls

Effective alumni board management requires navigating potential challenges and fostering a healthy dynamic between the board and the alumni staff.

Avoiding Overreach and Micromanagement

On occasion, I have seen alumni boards operate from the basis of “overreach.” That is, they are often deeply (and inappropriately) involved in staff issues and programming. “We direct the staff, and they execute on our decisions,” an alumni board chairman told me recently. Ruh-Roh. You don’t want to be that alumni director.

It's crucial to avoid situations where the board becomes overly involved in day-to-day staff issues or programming decisions. Instead, the board should focus on strategic guidance and oversight, allowing the staff to execute the strategic plan effectively.

Addressing Conflicts and Building Trust

And while national searches are regularly conducted for open chief alumni officer positions, some board members remain uneasy as to the prospect of a graduate from another institution being hired to run “their” alumni association (this alone can result in unresolved conflicts and lack of trust). As I mentioned in a previous article, alumni directors from other universities have the unenviable task of being brought in to essentially run a family business without being a member of the family.

Building trust and addressing potential conflicts requires open communication, transparency, and a shared commitment to the institution's mission.

Structuring Board Operations for Efficiency

To ensure effective functioning, alumni boards should adhere to a well-defined meeting schedule and have clear guidelines for emeritus members.

Meeting Schedules

Members need not feel overburdened with board work. Full board meetings limited to two to three occasions a year with an additional layer of standing committee meetings (five to six times a year) is a reasonable meeting schedule. The prospect of managing a more frequent board meeting calendar each year also places an undue burden on the staff.

Engaging Emeritus Members

What do to with board members who have served their terms with distinction and is now time to move on? Find a place for these ultra-engaged alumni to continue to stay engaged - whether it’s a special annual meeting or assisting the chief alumni officer in fundraising initiatives. Keep them close: the contributions of this special group of alumni should not be cast aside simply because they’ve termed out.

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