Clubs

So the economy hasn't been great. Membership dues have been down, leaving barely any funds to send a 23-cent postcard much less a 37-cent newsletter or invitation. Yet clubs still need to find a means to reach out to their members. The era of electronic communication is here!

The Dartmouth Club of the Midwest has moved almost exclusively to electronic communications in the last four years. Traditionally the club had used the twice-a-year College mailings to put out fall and spring newsletters, with the fall mailing including a dues solicitation. The annual dinner was the subject of an additional mailing in the spring. For events, the club relied upon locally mailed postcards (green, of course!). Fortunately, Olaf Minge '93 stepped up in the mid-1990s and designed a great Web page, one of the first in the Dartmouth club system. Over time, directly and through the College, the club gathered e-mail addresses for most of its members. Jim McFarland '86, while serving as president of the club from 1998 through 2000, took on the job of chief information officer, polishing and maintaining the clubs e-mail list, a demanding task that current president Rob Albright '89 has carried on.

Olaf Minge returned from a sabbatical in Norway recently to update and maintain the club's Web site, which now includes all newslet- ters and event information (www.dartmouth. org/clubs/midwest/). They still send one mail- ing, a membership dues "invoice" each fall that has a cover letter from the club president, but all other communications, including newslet- ters, are e-mailed. The only downside has been a few of the older club members missed the invitation to this years annual dinner, honoring Jim Hale '62, retiring general counsel of Target Corp., because they do not have e-mail.

Enrollment activities, with the support of the Dartmouth admissions office, also have moved exclusively to e-mail and the Web. Club DED Dennis Ryan '81 has been working with Andrea Lordan '86 of the Dartmouth Club of Boston and Mark Smoller '53 of the Dartmouth Club of Long Island assisting the admissions office in this process.

"The two big advantages of using e-mail and Web sites are the speed of communication and low cost," says Dennis Ryan. "The major problem is keeping up a good e-mail address list as people move and change their Internet service providers."

At the Dartmouth Club of Los Angeles, they use e-mail and newsletters as their primary methods of communications. Event leaders give their newsletter editor information on the event, which is passed along to the communications chair, Anton Anderson '89, to be disseminated via e-mail. Often, their newsletter is simply a subset of the events they have going on. Many of their events are announced only via e-mail—especially last-minute events or events that other schools' clubs have invited them to attend.

They also use their e-mail list to pass along news and announcements from Hanover, including links to the Daily D and the College News Service. "We try not to send more than three e-mails per month, so as to not add to the flood of e-mails everyone receives," notes Anton Anderson. "Though we are looking for a new Webmaster, we use the Web for a number of things. We use it to promote events where we can give more detail on an event than is possible in the newsletter or e-mail." Their Web site will often include maps, directions and relevant links on the topic. From the DCLA Web page ( www.dartmouth.org/clubs/dcla/ ) local alums can look up the names of club officers or DEDs (to sign up to interview applicants) or even pay their membership dues via Paypal, thereby completing the circle created by the waning economy.

Speaking of communicating about events, the Dartmouth Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Alumni/ae Association CD- GALA) held its annual reunions breakfast in Hanover on June 19. About 40 alums, faculty, staff and friends attended. President Jim Wright and Director of Alumni Relations Nels Armstrong greeted those gathered and Assis- tant Dean of Student Life Pam Misener gave a brief campus update. David Eichman 'B2, D- GALA president, summarized the activities of D-GALA during the past year and reminded everyone to attend the next D-GALA all class reunion scheduled for October 1-3 in Hanover. For more information about D-GALA events, please visit www.dartmouth.org/affiliated/dgala.

Moving? Going somewhere on business? Take a look at the Web sites of clubs across the world: www.dartmouth.org/about/clubs.

If you have any comments about the Club Notes section or would like to share news about your club or its members, please contact me.

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