Wisconsin Alumni Association amplifies alumni relations

Louder than the cheers emanating from Camp Randall on a football Saturday and more intense than the red polyester pants worn by the most loyal of UW grads, the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) turned up the dial on UW affiliation last week when it unveiled a new logo, Web site design and its first-ever online annual report.

“Amplifying Alumni Relations,” the theme for the association’s 2002-2003 annual report, was chosen as a way to illustrate the ever-deepening ties between WAA and UW–Madison. Over the past year, the association has focused its efforts on working even more closely with the UW’s schools and colleges to reach out to alumni in a more streamlined manner.

“Our main objective has become taking what we do – connecting, enriching and serving UW grads – and doing it better,” says WAA President and CEO Paula Bonner. “That means we’ve started connecting alumni in new ways that are both fun and familiar, whether it’s through their school or college, a student organization they participated in while on campus or activities taking place in the area where they live now. And we’re seeing phenomenal results.”

In the past three years, WAA has engaged more than 50 percent of the 330,000 alumni living around the world. And since approximately 18,000 UW grads live abroad, online communications are playing a bigger role than ever before.

“Putting our annual report online was just another way to make ourselves more accessible to our global alumni base,” says Cheryl Porior-Mayhew, vice president of marketing and communications. The piece – which can be found at http://www.uwalumni.com/resonatingred – features interactive audio and visual displays that can be downloaded by those interested in learning more about how to connect back to their alma mater. It was produced entirely in-house, saving the association thousands of dollars.

The annual report is an extension of the powerful Web presence WAA has maintained for a number of years at uwalumni.com. In 2001, the Web site won an American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Gold Circle award for total redesign, and just last month, In Business magazine noted that uwalumni.com was ranked the 22nd most popular local Web site by Alexa, a Web tool providing online statistics to businesses and their competitors.

The latest redesign of the site, completed last week, features nostalgic photos, simplified navigation and an easy read about the number of services offered to UW grads, from an online directory to learning and travel opportunities, to reunions and other special events. Another feature that seasoned uwalumni.com visitors might notice is the presence of a new WAA logo, featuring the same W crest used by UW–Madison and its many schools and colleges. “It was time for a change,” says Bonner. “This new mark really reflects our support of, and synergy with, the university and its alumni.”

Alumni and community members are encouraged to visit http://www.uwalumni.com or http://www.uwalumni.com/resonatingred to learn more about the changes at WAA.