Alumni Channel is pleased to announce that the latest stage of its web site redevelopment has been completed with the launch of a more refined and professional looking design for our client web sites.
Today, Michele Neves, assistant principal of Paterson Catholic High School in Paterson, New Jersey, made a commitment to begin implementation of the Alumni Channel for their online alumni community. PC is the first school on the Alumni Channel new design platform.
Paterson Catholic High School is a private four year Catholic high school located in Passaic County, New Jersey serving students from 9th through 12th grade. It is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson.
The Alumni Channel will be exhibiting at the following upcoming conferences:
I recently attended two conferences on young alumni relations where we learned a great amount of information on how to connect to different generations of alumni. We also listened to several organizations who told us about their needs in online communities. Through these and other discussions the Alumni Channel is going be looking into some of these ideas in 2008:
In early January we’ll be launching a brand new, streamlined design. The new design is easier on the eyes, more professional looking, and better accommodates those organizations with darker colors. Take a sneak peek!
Today our twenty-four membership sites collectively got to 25,000 registered alumni! We’re looking forward to more growth as we launch into different sectors outside of public schools (Catholic schools, independent schools, etc.). We’re also looking to update our look-and-feel and add new options such as support of photo galleries, surveys, and additional demographic data.
Often we are asked why an organization should go with Alumni Channel? Is it worth it to pay? Couldn’t we just build it ourself? How about one of those free services like Reunion.com, Classmates.com or AlumniArchive.net?
Here’s an excerpt of a reply given to one such school in November 2007 . . .
We are a small, approachable company. We began working with schools in 1998 with our first site for Cherokee High School in Marlton, NJ. In 2006 we started working the business full-time and have added over 20 more organizations and now have over 24,700 members in our database. We currently host the alumni sites of seven Burlington County schools and fourteen within New Jersey. “Mercer County Technical Schools” and “High Technology High School” are our clients too.
If your non-profit organization becomes a member of Commerce Bank’s Affinity Membership Program, then Commerce Bank will donate to you an amount of money based on a percentage of the average balance of Alumni and Friends with Commerce Bank Affinity Program accounts. 
Open an account at Commerce Bank and they’ll make a contribution to your organization. Commerce will make an annual donation based on the average balance in all members’ accounts. Checking, Savings, Money Market, CD, and Retirement accounts are all included in the program.
If your members are already a Commerce Customer, have them visit any Commerce store and ask to have their balances included as part of your organization’s Affinity Membership Program.
Today two new security features were added to Alumni Channel school sites. Site administrators now have the option to:
These options make it possible to keep a sharper eye on who is registering at your site.
Today, Jim Rooks, principal of Summit High School in Jackson, Wyoming, made a commitment to begin implementation of Alumni Channel for both Summit High School and Jackson Hole High School.
Summit High School was established to meet the individualized personal, social, and academic needs of alternative learners. Summit serves 9 – 12th grade students enrolled within Teton County School District #1.