Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

Project Management Plan-Alumni Re-Connection

Andrea Henriques
James Madison University

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

Introduction
The Department of Graduate Psychology is the only all graduate department
on the campus of James Madison University, located in Harrisonburg, VA.
Our mission is to transform students into outstanding practitioners and
scholars of psychology. We work to create a community that celebrates
diversity and creativity, and that values learning, scholarship, and service to
others. We are comprised of eight programs and three certificate programs
and are actually quite a large department in terms of our complexity. While
students are enrolled in their programs they are active members of our Grad
Psych community and we offer many opportunities for engagement not only
within programs, but within the department as a whole. Once students
graduate, individual programs often keep in contact with their alumni, but at
the department level we often loose that connection. Our initiative is to
reconnect with our alumni and build back our community.

Needs Assessment
The university as a whole is running a campaign to reconnect with alumni,
which is one of the reasons our department decided to embark on our own
alumni project. Another reason was the idea that many of our alumni still
attend conference and visit campus and our department needed to do a
better job of initiating events where current students and faculty could meet
up with past students. When we began to toss this idea around to program

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

directors and at conferences, people were interested in the idea, but nobody
knew where to begin.
Our department head and I decided to start attending workshop put on by
university advancement and set up meetings with the director of university
advancement, Carrie Combs, as well. These steps helped us develop a plan
and realize what we needed if we were going to move forward with this
initiative. We felt as a department it was important not only from a financial
point of view, but from a personal connection level that we put our efforts
into this project and move forward.

Project Life Cycle/Time Line

This project is cyclical. Once we get it set up, it should hopefully be selfsustaining with a little monitoring and up keep. I am working hard to make
sure that I am keeping good notes and files of this project to ensure
whomever comes in after me will have a record of what we have been doing
and be able to pick up where I leave off.

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

Identify

Investmen
t

Alumni
Reconnecti
on &
Building
Relationshi
ps

Inform

Involve

.
Identify

Inform

Involve

Investment

Meet to develop longterm plan for

connecting with alumni
and goals for
department

Send out Welcome

email to alumni. This
email make alumni
aware that we are
working to reconnect
as a department (as
opposed to programs).

Begin to actively
ask for donations
in emails

Start to identifying all

past alumni in all 8
programs/3 certificate
programs

Send a brief survey to

find out what people
want

Kind of goes
hand-in hand with
inform, but we are
looking at active
involvement
gatherings,
activities, pins,
committees.
Set up reunions at
conferences for
each program

Send pins to
doctoral
graduates

Use social media,

events, emails,
postcards, etc..
to keep
connection and

Look into holding

fund raising
events

Get list from University

Advancement

Train on iModules
system to send out
mass mailings to
alumni

Ask alumni to update

their contact
information Use social
media to inform of
events/happenings.

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

We have a twitter
account. Set up FB
account. Link them
and link to program FB
accounts and make
alumni aware of these
accounts.

gain investment.

Invite alums back

to campus to
speak at classes.
Timeline: Started
January 2015Complete by
April/May 2015, but
will continue longtermas people
graduate we will
continually update
list. On-Going

Timeline: Start
April/May 2015 by
connecting FB page
to Twitter account
and sending out
first email. This will
be ongoing with no
end date.

Timeline:
Possibly rollout
early by having
a Reunion
gathering at
upcoming
conference.
Looking to
make a logo we
can put on
pins/other
items. First
large on
campus
gathering
Spring 2016/Fall
2016. Pins,
maybe ready
Spring 2016 or
Fall 2017.
Again, ongoing.

Timeline: Start
Spring 2017
(but people
can give
sooner)

We have already identified and phase one is basically complete. We have

graduation this week and after that we want to push into phase two. We had
a quick foray into phase three, with an alumni reunion at a conference in
April, which didnt go so hot due to payment issues and poor planning, due
to rushing in, so I am pushing to hold off further events until after we get

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

survey results back towards the end of the summer. At the very least, I am
insisting that we be in charge of the events we plan in the near future so we
have full control over payment, timeline and other factors that caused this
first event to fall (though we did get our money back, so not all was lost).
We have a new grad assistant starting in August who has a background in
graphic design, so the hope is she will help design a pin that we can get
made in the fall and send out late fall or early spring. I believe now that we
have our list we can really begin to move and make contact, which will lead
to our connections.
Communication
Our department for the most part communicates by email and we
communicate fairly well. We have department meetings monthly and once
or twice a month (depends on need) meetings for the department head and
program directors, GCC, (who are all stakeholders). Being a psychology
department, there is a strong desire to get along and be agreeable. That is
not to say people dont disagree, they just do it in agreeable ways and are
nice about it. Since being part of the department I really cannot remember
any major conflicts.
One potential issue is the inability of some individuals/ groups to make
decisions, so some items tend to sit and sit until they can sit no more. We
are an autonomous department and everyone knows their job and gets it
done. People in the department also do not like to be hounded about things,

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

but who does? Usually a follow up email or stop-by sends the message when
people view things as less important or simple forget and need prompting
(deadlines are guidelines), but things always get done, eventually. Our
building is also not that large and people are around quite often, so if
something really needs to be done, the stop by and remind works very well
when email does not.

I have nor the time, nor desire to hound people all

day and these are not people who want to be bothered. I believe with this
project most decisions will not require input from the masses or most of the
stakeholders. The department head trusts me to make many minor
decisions and I can run other things by her, at least during phase one and
two. As we move into later phases and need more input can be sent out in
emails and then decided at the bimonthly GCC meetings. Having set
meetings will ensure that topics will never be put off for too long. Those that
require immediate attention can be done through email.

Resource Management
Project Team
The project team will be relatively small for the alumni reconnection project,
at least in the short term. The stakeholders, as mentioned above, are the
department head and program directors. I would consider myself the team
leader, as I am putting the entire project together, with oversight from the
stakeholders, mainly the department head. Other team members will be

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

various student works, who will change each year, and at times other
administrative staff. Since we are working with alumni contact information
we will need to decide if student workers who are not grad students can
handle the spreadsheets (privacy issues). As we move forward and start
doing mailings and planning events, we will use student workers to copy,
design, and help more with administrative type tasks.
Timeline
While we have a tentative timeline in place, this project is very flexible and
really has no hard deadlines. While that is nice in some ways, it also means
that at times the only thing motivating us to move forward is ourselves.
When things get very busy in the department it will become very easy to
push this project to the side, which in the short term will be nice, to alleviate
pressure, but long term only delay this project. I have built this into my
timeline, knowing we will push off certain deadlines. Additionally, when
speaking to university relations, they suggest going slow when building
connections and not rushing the process. In sum, while it feels that many of
these tasks could be completed faster, the phases are intentionally being
spread out to allow the alumni time to feel connected at each phase.
Identify January 2015-May 2015. New alumni will be added with each
graduating class

Running head: ALUMNI RE-CONNECTION

Inform -- May 2015 and ongoing for the life of the project. Updates will
be made daily/weekly/monthly using various platforms and depending
on what is occurring and demand for information
Involve -- Ideally spring 2016 we will have an on-campus event and
then continue forward from there.
Investment Actively ask for investment starting spring 2017. Alumni
will have opportunities to invest through connections with faculty (nonmonetary) and through links on emails and social media (monetary),
but these will not be highlighted/pushed.
Communication Tools
So far I have been using Asana and have been very pleased with it. For a
free project management software tool it has everything I need. It allows me
to enter in all the tasks, assign the task to team members (or just myself),
make notes on different tasks that all members can track or just those on
that task, upload files , auto update to my calendar, and the best feature is I
can use it from my mobile devices. So far I am very happy with it. I just
found out that I can upload and save files from Dropbox, which I love, since I
use Dropbox all the time.
Risk Management

There are not too many risks involved with this project, but with any project,
if you look hard enough you can always find potential problems. As we are

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10

making an attempt to connect with our alumni, this should be seen as a

positive gesture. Alumni have the option to let us know if they do not want
to be contacted, so those who choose this option will not be part of our
initiative. That being said, those we contact have already given the
university permission to be sent letters, emails, and be solicited for
donations. We hope they will be pleased to see not just JMU, but their old
department and program reaching out to make a connection. There are still
a few risks that we perceive could occur and I am sure there are more that
we will find along the way.
Possible Risks

Probabil
ity

Impa
ct

Consequences

We will miss some

alumni or include
those who should not
be on list

People who should

not be on email list
will get a few initial
messages or some
people will miss
emails

Double check lists before

sending things out and once
discovered remove names or
add names and resend emails.

Very low survey

response

We have almost
1000 alumni so if
reply we will still be
ok

Low participation in
social media

Low reunion
participation

L/M

As long as people
log in and are
seeing our posts
that is good
enough
We can still hold
small events

Low donations,
running out of
funds

L/M

We will use the data we

receive and hopefully have
a representative sample.
We will try to establish a
connection before we send
survey.
Ideally we can encourage
others to post as well, but
main goal is to have alumni
connected and see what is
happening.
Having small events to
start is not necessarily a
bad thing. Events can grow
with project.
Draw some funds from
department, if available.
Push investing earlier and
harder.

Without any funds

to keep project
running, we would
need to stop having
events

Response/Prevention

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11

Evaluation
This whole project revolves around people and making connections, at least
the first three phases and part of phase four, so it should be relatively easy
to evaluate and determine if we are seeing a return on our investment.
During phase one, which we are almost finished with, we have our completed
list of alumni. This list took a little more effort than we initially thought as
names were lost/left off and people took a little more time to get back to me
with their updated list, but we have it now as good as it is going to get.
Phase two will begin as soon as graduation is over. Once we begin our social
media postings and emailing we will be able to gage the response level and
reactions to these new levels of engagement. If people respond and begin to
interact we are successful. When we start posting to FB and Twitter and
others "like" or post back, we know that people are out there. The more
alumns that join our page and begin to interact with us will mean we are
making a connection. We will also be sending a brief survey through
Qualtrics and we can evaluate not only the rate of responses, but the
responses themselves.
During the third and fourth phases, which require more active involvement
(responding to posts and surveys is active, but does not require the alumni
to come to campus or to an event) evaluation can be done by looking at the
success of alumni events held on and off campus. Success will have to be
defined, since the number of participants may or may not be the definition of

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12

success. For example, if we hold a reunion at a conference where only

school psychology participates, we can gage how many alumni turn up than
in other years, taking into consideration the location of the conference (are a
lot of alumns close by) and did other alumns from other programs here
about it and show up to this event. Additionally, did the alumni who came
have a good time? So while numbers will be part of our success formula, it
will not be the entire factor. In phase four, an increase in donations would
certainly be successful, since it would mean alumni are feeling investment
and more funds would allow the project to continue and grow. Another
measure of success is alumni continuing to come back and present for
classes, guest speak, become adjunct faculty, and participate in our
graduate psychology community. Overall, evaluation will continue short and
long term and be measured in numerous ways
Conclusions
To say this project has been a learning experience would be an extreme
understatement. I am not a planner in the traditional sense and this has
forced me, literally forced me to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)
and really plan things out so that others know what I am thinking. It has
been an odd, yet not terrible experience. With my job, I know what I have to
do and I do it. I have no need to plan in the traditional sense. When I need
a plan, I have a brief list (ie...event planning, financial plan, etc) and keep
the details in my head. On the rare occasions I have had to fill in the blanks,
I just print out a list and fill in the needed spaces for people. When I used to

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13

teach, years ago, I was the same way with lesson plans, which made my
principal nuts. Lesson plans were brief, quick notes to myself with any
supporting materials I needed. Why spend the time writing things down
when I know what needs to be done? This assignment has shown me that
there are other ways to go about this and having things in writing is not so
bad. For instance, when I leave this job, I wont have to go back and write
this all down for the next person (as for the rest of my job I guess they are on
their own ). This is not to say I dont plan, I just dont make notes and keep
them as I probably should. Additionally, it has also made me realize how
much we are all project managers in our daily lives and many of the
strategies we are using already without even knowing it (SMART) can help us
out so much in our work if we take the time to plan it out and things we do at
home can be brought to work. I will take a lot of lessons from this
assignment and really make an effort to bring them to my job and future
jobs. Things as simple as having extra time built in or risk management
plans (what do I do when all the power goes out during a workshop?) would
be great to have thought about before they happen.