Starting an Alumni Group
•    Begin cultivating strong alumni with your current students. 
•    Identify key individuals who will be able to help you get a list of names of former students who were active in BSU.  These students could be BSU presidents, summer missionaries, Leadership Team, Fine Art Team leaders and group members.  You can divide this list of names into different parts of the state and make personal visits or phone calls.

Purpose and Benefit of a Strong Alumni Group
•    Alumni are involved in the on-going ministries of the BSU.
•    Alumni can strengthen the ties with area churches.
•    Alumni will be prayer warriors and advocates for the ministry.
•    Alumni will support the ministry needs financially.

Maintaining an Alumni Group
•    Communication – regular and consistent. Send out emails, newsletters, mission trip reports, etc.
•    Work at it!  It takes effort.  People change addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc., but they forget to notify you of their address change. It takes time to keep an updated database. Try new options like Facebook.
•    Ask alumni to send contact info of their friends that are not listed.
•    Try to be personal. I try to send a handwritten thank you note for every donation.
•    We host a meal at Homecoming for alumni.  We report any business from the Alumni officers meeting and have a brief program.  Old pictures are set out on tables to view and everyone is encouraged to bring their family and visit.


History of the MSU BSU Alumni Group
The MSU BSU Alumni group began under the leadership of MSU BSU Director Jerry Merriman in 1970.  The officers for this group are President, Vice-President, secretary, and Treasurer.  In addition, there are 6 Board members that serve 3 year terms.  These terms are staggered so that 2 Board members rotate off of the active list each year and are replaced by new alumni.  This group began as a support group for the BSU ministry as it supported the BSU through prayer and giving.  June Scoggins, Associate BSU Director for 37 years, has played a key role in developing this list of alumni and keeping the contact information updated. Initially, she said that names were looked up in old school annuals and then the MSU Alumni Foundation provided their addresses and contact information. In 2002, with growing demands on campus ministry budgets, an MSU BSU Alumni Campaign was started.  The “2 & 5 Campaign” was a challenge for every alumnus to give $200 a year for 5 years. We saw a dramatic increase in alumni giving and it now accounts for almost half of our total gifts from churches, associations, alumni, and friends of BSU.  While many of our churches are continuing to give at the same level that they did 20-30 years ago, the rising demands on budgets continue to impact our ministries.  The challenge for the future is not only to increase our church giving, but also cultivate active alumni to give back to our ministries.