Office Space: Foreign exchange
CURRENTS Article In this article, Sue Rees, head of alumni relations at City University London, discusses what she learned during her opportunity to observe and work with alumni associations at six U.S. institutions and compares and contrasts the differences between alumni organization efforts in the United States and the U.K., which she concludes is mainly a difference in scale and scope.

On the Same Flight
CURRENTS Article Many larger institutions are decentralizing their alumni operations, meaning that colleges, schools, and faculties have their own alumni staff members who work separately from a central alumni office. Decentralized alumni relations, like most alumni relations endeavors, requires maintaining a strong overall vision; balancing the needs of the whole with those of the parts; and keeping open lines of communication between deans, school-based offices, and the central alumni organization.

CASE Europe, Partners Release Results of Two-Year Alumni Relations Project
Article CASE Europe and other members of the "Alumni go Europe" partnership have released a report on the results of a two-year project to strengthen and enhance alumni relations programmes at European universities.

Advance Work: Import-Export Business
CURRENTS Article A contingent of Yale University alumni leaders traveled to the Australian National University to pass on their knowledge of alumni relations and benefit from ANU's expertise in environmental and sustainability issues.

Strength in Numbers
CURRENTS Article Some communities of practice are less about benchmarking information and more about creating an economies of scale. The members Northeast Indiana Alumni Directors Consortium hold joint events and help each other out. This sidebar is part of the article "Easy as Pie."

Advance Work: Something in Common
CURRENTS Article Smaller institutions sometimes need to think about economies of scale when planning alumni events. A group of European independent schools did just that and pulled off a successful joint reunion in New York.

Joining Forces
CURRENTS Article Small colleges may have trouble hosting alumni events in locations where their alumni base is small. Three liberal arts colleges in Maine--Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates--teamed up to hold combined programs for alumni in cities nationwide. The three alumni offices now work together to organize arts and sports events, travel programs, and networking parties, as well as a joint annual retreat for alumni officers from nine New England colleges.