Recently, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter administered its 2016 alumnae survey. With over 2000 alumnae in the area, the effort to revitalize and grow our alumnae chapter is in full force. But we can’t do that without our local alumnae’s support.
The results of the survey have trickled in over the last few days, posting a higher click and response rate than we’ve seen in years past. It truly is an exciting time to be an AOII in western Washington. As we read through the survey responses, we noticed a trend with several questions or comments. We hope this post serves as a pseudo-FAQ for being a member and active alumna in the Puget Sound area. What territory does the Seattle Alumnae Chapter cover? Despite our name, which was decided back in 1917 when we were chartered, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter essentially covers the entire Puget Sound area. Our territory encompasses north to Marysville, south to Olympia and beyond, east to the Cascade mountains, west to the Olympic Peninsula, and all points in-between! And with over 2000 alumnae in the area, it is almost guaranteed that we have at least one sister in the area from almost all of our 200+ collegiate chapters. That’s exciting. Why don’t we have several alumnae chapters in the area? That’s a great question. And one day soon, we hope that there will be several alumnae chapters spanning western Washington. However, due to a lack of chapter leadership and low membership numbers, that opportunity has yet to present itself. This is a goal of our current chapter’s leadership. Ideally, we would like to see several chapters – South Sound, Kitsap, North Seattle, etc. but at this time, we do not have the strength in numbers and willingness to serve as a chapter officer to do that. In the meantime, we will plan several events in our various geographic areas with the goal of bringing sisters together, strengthening our bond as an alumnae chapter, and ultimately breaking off into smaller, but stronger alumnae chapters. What are dues? Where does the money go? How do I pay? We received feedback that some alumnae are not current members of the alumnae chapter because they aren’t sure what the money is for or why they aren’t seeing any return on investment. Those are excellent questions and concerns. Here’s a high-level overview for the purpose of this FAQ. The Seattle Alumnae Chapter offers three membership levels: General, Life Loyal, and First Year on Us. By paying dues, you are supporting the fraternity's growth and continued success. By paying dues, you are investing in the future of AOII (our collegiate membership) and ensuring success on the local alumnae level. Our chapter leadership is hard at work refocusing our budget to better serve our alumnae members. We want our membership to feel fulfilled with their $50 annual commitment. Here’s a quick breakdown: First Year on Us ($0): The first year after graduating college, your international alumna dues are paid through our international "First Year on Us" program. The Seattle Alumnae Chapter also waives local dues for a graduate's first year. If you have graduated in the last five years and have yet to join an alumnae chapter, this would also apply to you. General ($50 per year): General membership is broken up in to two categories – local and international dues. International dues cover our operating fee, education and training, technology and archival fees. Chapter dues are $15 and stay with the local chapter for administrative costs (mailings, website, etc.) and chapter events. Life Loyal ($34 per year): Per AOII policy, Life Loyal members are exempt from the $16 operating fee. Therefore, Life Loyal dues cover the education training, technology and archival fees, in addition to chapter dues. Again, we’ll break this out even further in a future blog post. If you are ready to become a dues-paying member of the Seattle Alumnae Chapter, please visit our chapter website. A group of AOIIs already gets together pretty regularly, but we’d love to have more! This is great! We already know and appreciate that many groups of AOIIs are already meeting. In fact, we want to encourage and celebrate that. As Colleen and Shannon mentioned in their Presidents’ Note, our goal is to focus on those small groups and host 2-3 larger all-chapter events during the year. If you are already hosting or attending an event full of AOIIs and wouldn’t mind welcoming a few more to tag along, please email your event details to seattleaoii@gmail.com. We will help create a Facebook event, if one hasn’t already been done, and promote it via our private Facebook group and/or through email and other online resources. I have a great idea for an event…but what do I do? As you may have noticed, we’ve started posting several happy hour and brunch events on our Facebook page spanning different areas of the Puget Sound. That said, there are still so many areas that we have yet to cover. Do you want to do a brunch north of Seattle? Or maybe a picnic at Island Lake on the Kitsap Peninsula? What about a book club in Olympia? Let’s do it! Please email any and all event ideas and information to seattleaoii@gmail.com. We will do our best to disseminate the information to all of the alumnae in the area to ensure success and sisterhood! What collegiate chapters do we support? While Upsilon at the University of Washington is closest to us, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter is proud to support the Tau Gamma and Alpha Gamma sisters at Eastern Washington University and Washington State University. We look forward to strengthening our bond with these chapters as our own alumnae chapter grows. ---- What other questions do you have, sisters? Please always feel free to email us with any question, large or small, that you may have. Roses!
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