New Role, New Home

I am thrilled to announce the next step in my professional life. As of Monday, October 24, I will begin a new full time position at the American School in London as Associate Director of Advancement for Alumni Relations. I have relocated from Southern California to the UK and am living in central London.

ASL is a k-12 independent school with a diverse, international alumni base. I’ll be a part of an enthusiastic advancement team, and I will be using my alumni relations and social media experience to deliver programs and services to ASL’s alumni.

I plan to continue to blog in this space, to present at conferences and workshops, and to volunteer. But for now, I’ll be spending the majority of my time getting settled and learning all I can about ASL and the UK.

Thank you all for reading, and being a part of a start of the next chapter for this blog and for me.

Upcoming Social Media Conferences

What’s your professional development plan for the Spring? If you’re heading to one of the following conferences, please make sure to say hello.

I’ll be in San Antonio, TX, next week for the Academic Impressions’ Social Media for Advancement and Admissions: Moving from Tactics to Strategy conference. It’s from March 21-23. We’ll cover a wide variety of social media topics from ROI to student generated content, and the conference is designed for both admissions and advancement staff. Hashtag: #aisocmed

Next up I’ll be at the CASE Social Media and Community conference in San Francisco, CA from April 13-15. This event is near and dear to my heart as I was last year’s Conference Chair. This year’s program will take a look at geosocial tools and analytics, plus there’s a tweetup sponsored by CASE and Alumni Futures on 4/14. Hashtag: #CASESMC11

Engaging Young Alumni

I’m in Atlanta this week serving as a faculty member for the Academic Impressions “Reaching Young Alumni: Key Building Blocks for Lifelong Relationships” conference. I’ll be talking about social media strategy and engagement, including topics like community management, developing strategy, and getting buy-in from the higher ups in your institution.

If you’ll be at the conference, please say hi. And if not, follow along on Twitter with the hashtag, #AIYoungAlumni.

Can’t We All Just Get Along: Web & Print Communications

I’m delivering two seminars on social media at Castle Press in Pasadena, California. Yes: a printing company has asked me to talk to its clients about web communications and social technology.

This leads me to an important point: computer-based communications have captured a great deal of attention of late. This does not mean that printed communications are useless and irrelevant. Quite the contrary, in fact: I believe that bringing together print and pixels is key to creating a cohesive, comprehensive communications strategy. Don’t let trendy software determine your communications strategy. Instead, think about your goals, audiences, budget and messages. Then, use those as the basis for developing your strategy. Just because “everyone else” is using a particular tool doesn’t mean it’s the right tool for the goals you’re trying to reach.

Alumni Futures Round Table

Andy Shaindlin of Alumni Futures and I are convening a day-long meeting for educational advancement professionals – those who work in alumni relations, communications, and fundraising. This is your opportunity to be a part of a group of about 10 participants, each of whom will have 30 minutes to get input and feedback from the rest of the attendees on either:

- a new idea or a new direction in their work that they want to share with others,

or

- a challenge or problem they face in their work, to brainstorm possible solutions

The goal of Alumni Futures Round Tables is to give educational advancement professionals the opportunity to learn directly from colleagues, innovate, and brainstorm new ideas in the profession.

Join us on Tuesday, May 18th in Claremont, California for the Alumni Futures Round Table.

Full details and registration information available here >>

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