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An Updated Way to Reconnect with Yale—Online
November 2002
by Grace Profatilov Grace Profatilov is Assistant Director for Communications at the Association of Yale Alumni. You know Dave is a programmer in New York City; Katherine is a pediatrician in Atlanta; and Siddhartha
is an engineer in Minnesota. But whatever happened to Alison?> The best place to find out is the Yale University Online Alumni Community, the centerpiece of the Association of Yale Alumni’s new Web site. With the easy-to-use and fully searchable directory at aya.yale.edu, you can now find all of your long-lost friends, reacquaint yourself with your classmates, and get up-to-date information about things happening at Yale and at alumni organizations around the country. Other new features include message boards where alumni can discuss everything from headline news to favorite professors and a calendar that alumni can search to find events occurring in their area or with their class. In addition, the online services previously offered by the AYA are still available, such as the Virtual Yale Station, which provides permanent e-mail addresses for alumni, the class and club listservs, and the hosting of class and club Web pages. The AYA was one of the first university alumni associations to offer listservs, permanent e-mail addresses, and Web site hosting for its alumni. The listservs are e-mail discussion groups that are defined by class year or club affiliation. If you miss the late-night discussions on subjects ranging from the intellectual to the interpersonal, join your class listserv. The Virtual Yale Station has been immensely popular, with more than 20,000 alumni registered for permanent e-mail addresses over the past five years. The AYA also hosts Web sites for any class or club that wishes to create and maintain one. Currently, 44 classes and 39 clubs have Web sites hosted by the AYA. “One of the main purposes of the AYA is to provide a channel of communication between the alumni and the University and to keep alumni in touch with each other,” says Jeff Brenzel, executive director of the AYA. “With the current Yale alumni population at around 130,000, it is a daunting task to connect with all alumni. The Internet is the perfect medium for the AYA to provide information about the University and alumni activity and to help alumni stay involved.” Since the new Web site was launched in May, more than 19,000 alumni have registered and the response has been enthusiastic. “I like the clean, simple look of it, the amazing number of alumni the program can sort through in a jiffy, and the crisp layout of each alumnus’s page,” says Theodore Voelkel '71PhD. “It was particularly useful to have the program search for maiden names for alumnae, always a bugaboo in trying to find them from so long ago. Yale’s investment in this service is much appreciated by its users. I have unearthed gold, thanks to your Webmasters.” In addition to the new online services, many new features were added to the Web site. “Tool boxes” for alumni volunteers contain helpful resources such as sample letters, standard forms, and guides for best practices. A Webmaster’s guide is being developed for the alumni volunteers responsible for their class or club Web sites. And a “spotlight” area on each Web page brings attention to outstanding University resources, alumni volunteers, and alumni activities. Also under development is a career mentoring and networking program, due out next year. The AYA Web site is the ideal starting place to reconnect with Yale. Be sure to check aya.yale.edu often for up-to-date news and information and new features, and,
of course, for the whereabouts of Alison. |
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