Louise McCarthy is director of alumni relations for Monash University, a public university with about 55,000 students based in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to working for Monash, McCarthy served as alumni relations manager at RMIT University, also in Melbourne. Her background includes teaching roles in management and fashion. She holds a master's degree from RMIT University and can be reached at louise.mccarthy@adm.monash.edu.au.

You oversee one of the largest alumni programs of an Australian institution. Please talk about your efforts to connect with alumni in Australia, Malaysia, South Africa and other areas.
We are very fortunate to have campuses in both Malaysia and South Africa, so staff members there help support our alumni activities. We also have large alumni networks in Singapore and Hong Kong (more than 7,000 in each location as well as Malaysia) and have terrific alumni volunteers running committees in these regions. We work with our alumni committees and alumni volunteers across the world to organise activities and to connect alumni to each other and to other relevant regional networks.

What do you like best about your job?
I really enjoy meeting alumni from all walks of life, hearing their stories and learning how education has improved their lives. And I love the complex challenges of alumni relations-developing meaningful ways to support and connect with alumni across all areas, using technology effectively to extend relationship management and collaborating with faculties to improve alumni services. No two days are ever the same.

What has been your greatest challenge as alumni relations director at Monash University?
Prioritising. We are trying to service many alumni around the world and staff across several campuses and have just implemented a new database system. So conflicting priorities is an ongoing issue.

What led you to work in alumni relations?
I taught for some years in a TAFE institution (Tertiary and Further Education, an alternative or precursor to university in Australia) and really enjoyed the challenges and working with students. I wanted to continue working in education and applied for the job, not realising then that it would be a new-and fabulous-career.

What advice would you give to a new alumni relations professional?
It's a privileged role. And it's all about effective relationship management. So get to know yourself better so you can relate well to others. Be respectful and appreciative of the volunteer nature of alumni work. Integrity is a language understood by everyone. Never stop learning and don't be afraid to ask for help or advice. And be resourceful: there is always a way to get over, or under, or around, the inevitable hurdles.

What changes do you foresee for alumni relations professionals during the next five years?
A key challenge will be to continue to expand our services to a growing alumni network globally whilst our funding will not increase exponentially. Monash University currently adds around 18,000 new graduates to our database each year. Our small team is constantly looking at how we can manage this most effectively. Technology plays a huge part in this, enabling a far wider reach.

How has CASE membership influenced your career?
When I first started working in alumni relations in Australia just over 10 years ago, it was quite an isolating experience. Apart from my immediate small team, there were few who understood our role. Liaising with colleagues at other local universities was a great support initially-and still is-and the CASE network has extended this support globally.

Connecting with others who have similar issues is refreshing and validating. CASE provides great opportunities for formal and informal benchmarking, which we do all the time. It's invaluable and has added a professionalism to the work we do.

This article is from the August 2009 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.