Random topic, but we seriously need a new alumni group for Triad App State fans. The official one seem to meet just once a month in downtown Greensboro, drink coffee & chat about paychecks & work. Anyone here interested in starting a new one?

Call Patrick Setzer and work with the Alumni Office. They will help. They want active and involved alumni chapters.

There's technically another one in Winston: the Forsyth chapter. And then the Triad chapter is listed as the Piedmont chapter on the alumni website. Seems like there could be more consistent branding of the chapters.

You should definitely contact the Alumni Office and see what they suggest. And remember that these chapters are led by volunteers, fellow alumni like you, so you're as entitled as anyone to step in and revitalize their efforts. Maybe the existing chapters would be open to a young alumni initiative or something.

Agree 100%...I've said this a lot on this board. I have contacted the head of the chapter many times and have heard nothing. As you mentioned, they meet once a month downtown at 8 AM, which in itself does not make much sense to me. Not sure about the others, but I work at 8 AM and is often hard to get away.

I would love to have more of an alumni engagement in the Piedmont chapter. Winston-Salem is a little too far to go on a constant basis. If anyone is interested, I would be glad to help start up a better Chapter that aims to engage app alums.

I've been to the Charlotte area chapters a couple of times, and they are way better than the Piedmont....not even close.

Count me in.

Curious what you would like to see the group do? How many members in the Chapter? How many alumni

They didn't even organize a viewing party for the bowl game. Bunch of bums

Nuff said....

Rekdiver wrote:Curious what you would like to see the group do? How many members in the Chapter? How many alumni

I would suggest more opportunities to hang out & socialize, other than the one they currently do; monthly breakfast gatherings @ The Green Bean @ 8:00 am in Greensboro. All of us can't meet @ 8, we have jobs to attend. Why not Saturday afternoon meetings @ Finnegan's Wake in W-S & watch an away game? Perhaps a Wednesday night dinner @ Natty Greene's in Greensboro?

I'm not sure how many current members we have. However, I can tell a very small amount attend The Green Bean gatherings. That, I can guarantee.

MountaineerChemist10 wrote:

Rekdiver wrote:Curious what you would like to see the group do? How many members in the Chapter? How many alumni

I would suggest more opportunities to hang out & socialize, other than the one they currently do; monthly breakfast gatherings @ The Green Bean @ 8:00 am in Greensboro. All of us can't meet @ 8, we have jobs to attend. Why not Saturday afternoon meetings @ Finnegan's Wake in W-S & watch an away game? Perhaps a Wednesday night dinner @ Natty Greene's in Greensboro?

I'm not sure how many current members we have. However, I can tell a very small amount attend The Green Bean gatherings. That, I can guarantee.

This is what I've been pushing for. Other chapters have socials, viewing parties, etc.. In an area with arguably the largest alumni population,there needs to be more.

ASU-FTW wrote:They didn't even organize a viewing party for the bowl game. Bunch of bums

I hear what you are saying, but a bunch of bums seems a little harsh. They are App grads getting together. It sounds like to me it is more of a case of a bunch of Indians and No Chief. If they graduated from App and get together once a month to talk App, that is better than a lot and don't think they deserve to be called bums.

That being said, it sounds like they could be more proactive and it is disappointing to not even have a viewing party for the bowl game. They need a Chief!

Or viewing part for any regular season games.

MountaineerChemist10 wrote:

Rekdiver wrote:Curious what you would like to see the group do? How many members in the Chapter? How many alumni

I would suggest more opportunities to hang out & socialize, other than the one they currently do; monthly breakfast gatherings @ The Green Bean @ 8:00 am in Greensboro. All of us can't meet @ 8, we have jobs to attend. Why not Saturday afternoon meetings @ Finnegan's Wake in W-S & watch an away game? Perhaps a Wednesday night dinner @ Natty Greene's in Greensboro?

I'm not sure how many current members we have. However, I can tell a very small amount attend The Green Bean gatherings. That, I can guarantee.

Actually chapter presidents have (or at least used to have) responsibilities far beyond local meetings. If you want to step things up locally I am sure there is room for you. My advice to you is simply make yourself available.

An alumni association chapter meeting at a coffee shop at 8am is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

lol at everybody that is involved in that

I also agree with this. I can't make the morning coffee thing. I would be there for 10 minutes and have to leave for work. It's terrible timing and pointless. If yall get something together, please let me know. I just graduated in May and moved to Greensboro for work. Would love to meet other Apps!

I'm in High Point and I'll help out too. I've been to several meetings, but that was about 4 years ago. I haven't been to the 8am meeting, but I think it's a way for alumni looking for a job/change jobs to get job leads. That's a good meeting to keep, but I also would like to meet other alumni. The piedmont chapter should have 100s of people in it. I can name 50 people from my high school that went to App. We need to have viewing parties, socials, and other social events. Count me in.

After seeing the comments, I'd suggest you contact both the Alumni Office and the current President of the Triad Assoc. Everything is relative to people willing to volunteer time to put things together. I'd suggest you volunteer to take over the leadership of the Alumni Chapter after convening an ad hoc meeting at a place of your choice...maybe one that is considered and App watering hole with as many alumni as you can muster, possible including the current names on the Chapter rolls. The 8:00 meeting should be considered nothing more that a networking event, not the major focus of the Alumni Chapter. I like the enthusiasm!

I agree with Rek. Here is the contact person for the Triad Association. I received an email today. Maurice McCord (class of 1992) Maurice.McCord@morganstanley.com

I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but give it a read and let me know if you have any questions, I'm glad to help!

___________________________________________________________________________

You all have made good points. As president of the LKN Chapter, I'd like to give some insight and advice. I can't speak much about the Piedmont Chapter, as I have not met their President or Leadership Board members. However, running one of the chapters does require a lot of work. All of the work is done by volunteers, and we don't receive any benefits.

Like most of you, I work a full-time job, have a wife, and a child. Planning several different types of events (viewing parties, socials, networking events) and providing information does require effort. While the Alumni Association assists in any way that it can, 99% of leg work is on the leadership board. We recently just added our 5th member to the leadership board (there are 7 total positions). We just began in August, and we've held 3 events. We want to increase that over the next 6 months. There had been a long-running, monthly networking event in the LKN area for App alums planned by one person. It was once a month at 7:30 AM. When we created the LKN chapter, we decided to put those networking breakfasts on hold and plan some after-work events. So far, we've held one of those events and it ended up being great. With each event, we have partnered with App alumni-owned businesses to host events.

I don't say all of this to talk-up our chapter or our board members, but to give some insight on how much work is involved to plan these events. We have been lucky with our two viewing parties, exceeding over 60 people in attendance both times (ODU and Camellia Bowl)--utilizing social media constantly is a great way to engage area alumni.

The main points of the alumni chapters are to: 1) connect alumni back to the school, 2) increase Alumni Participation Rate (APR), 3) tap new donation opportunities to the school (App Fund and Yosef Club), and 4) to advance the awareness of Appalachian through North Carolina and the country.

When you begin serving on a leadership board you are provided a sizable packet of information that covers the structure and operations of the chapter, what is and is not permissible, information regarding booster do's and don'ts, participation requirements, and other information/requirements.

I think it's great that so many on this thread have posted that they are willing to volunteer in the Triad area. I grew up there, and it's a place ripe for alumni events. I would suggest reaching out two Patrick Setzer and Summer Wisdom in the Alumni Association. You can let them know that you are interested in volunteering to help plan events and serving on the chapter's leadership board if there are openings. Summer handles the outreach to chapters and has been extremely helpful to me as we get this chapter going. If you have any questions about getting in touch or want their contact information, just shoot me a PM or an email at danielsc @ alumni dot appstate dot edu.

Go Apps!

-Chris

Thirding what Rek said. Starting a whole new chapter would only confuse things further, in my opinion. There's no reason you couldn't work within the context of the existing chapter and simply expand what it's doing. I am sure that any volunteer chapter president or local alumni contact would welcome it. Again, these are volunteers with other work and life responsibilities. They took the initiative to help get other App alumni together, but by no means should be expected to do it all.

As the old saying goes, it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.