Andrew Shaindlin has served as executive director of the Caltech Alumni Association since 1999. In this position, Shaindlin oversees the operations of all Caltech alumni programs, serving more than 20,000 alumni worldwide. He also has worked in alumni relations for the University of Michigan and Brown University and is a well-known leader in alumni education. Andrew is a graduate of Brown University and is currently enrolled at Claremont Graduate University pursuing a master's degree in education. He has been a CASE member since 1989 and is a recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple teaching award. Andrew can be reached at andy@alumni.caltech.edu.

Caltech is in the final year of an ambitious $1.4 billion capital campaign. What role does Caltech's alumni association play in this effort?
Our association does not solicit alumni directly for donations. However, I report to the vice president for development and alumni relations, so it's clear that our high-level purpose is to support the development effort. We do this in a variety of ways, including collaborating with development staff to coordinate programming, making sure Caltech's name and its achievements are on the minds of alumni, and making Caltech relevant to alumni in their daily lives.

We consciously try to select themes and content for our alumni programs that reflect campus priorities for fundraising. For example, when we develop the theme for our annual two-day Alumni College or select faculty lecturers to speak on the road, we try to showcase academic or research areas that are among the campaign's priorities. We also provide alumni with services that fill their needs, such as career development or professional networking. We can provide that in a way alumni cannot find elsewhere because Caltech's alumni network of scientists, engineers, academics and professionals is well-established, close-knit, and highly regarded.

You have more than 18 years in the alumni relations profession. Do you believe recent alumni are more involved?
I think that in general, more recent alumni tend to ask hard questions before investing time, energy or money in a relationship with their alma mater. Former generations of alumni were loyal to their alma mater more or less by default: supporting your school was just something you were supposed to do. Younger alumni are more likely to consider it as a value proposition. They will say, "I could pay $55 for an annual alumni association membership, or I could spend that money on subscriptions to magazines to help me keep up with my profession."

It's not a cynical calculation on their part; it's just a function of so many competing organizations vying for their loyalty and attention. They have to measure the value of a relationship and weigh their options.

I don't know whether today's alumni are more or less involved overall than they were, say, 18 years ago. However, they are almost certainly more well-informed about alumni news and activities. But with the commensurate increase in the volume of communications overall, it's still a constant struggle to make your message noteworthy and relevant.

Caltech has had a number of notable alumni. Does having distinguished alumni make it easier for an institution to build a successful alumni program?
It doesn't hurt to have familiar names to use in communication with and about alumni. But the success of an alumni program depends more on providing alumni at large with relevant services and programs than it does on a "who's who" list you might publish on your Web site or in your alumni magazine. A school without a single "notable" graduate could still have the most effective alumni program anywhere-if it's relevant and it serves the needs of alumni in a way that's unique to that institution.

You have been an active member of CASE since 1989 and currently serve as vice chair of the Commission on Alumni Relations for CASE. Describe how this has helped you in your career as an alumni relations professional.
My first involvement with CASE was serving on a committee to select scholarship recipients to attend the District I conference. From there, I spoke as a panelist at the district conference and before I knew it, I was doing workshops, presenting at the CASE Assembly, contributing written pieces to CURRENTS, and teaching online courses.

You don't have to serve nationally, however, to gain from involvement with an organization. Early on, I learned from more experienced professionals on other campuses; more recently, the real value of CASE for me has been the network of colleagues whom I can connect with by e-mail, face-to-face, or by phone to brainstorm solutions to problems in my own program.

Someone who attends a conference or reads CURRENTS just to look for model programs to copy is missing out on the network's real value. In my opinion, the things your peers are doing should serve as inspiration for you to improve upon. Taking an existing idea and using it as a springboard to invent something new keeps your work fresh and lets you create things that others, in turn, will improve on in their own way. As long as this cycle continues, then I believe the whole profession benefits.

This is something I think younger alumni professionals should be aware of: the profession is still very young, and it involves a relatively small group of people. It's possible to influence the entire field with a single innovative idea or new way of doing something.

As for the Commission on Alumni Relations, I believe it has a responsibility to bring attention to emerging topics in the profession. For example, the field of social network analysis can help us measure and understand how our alumni connect and interact with one another, which in turn will help us design services they need. My interest in this came from discussions on the commission. The commission is also a conduit for telling CASE's staff about what keeps alumni directors up at night and can provide solutions to potential problems long before many in the profession even know there's a problem in the first place.

This article is from the February 2007 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.