IBM Alumni Australia is a not-for-profit organisation managed by a Committee of volunteers. What advice can you offer, or expertise you can provide to enhance our platform and services to members.
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Tell us how IBM Alumni Australia can do better to attract and retain members
Categories: Members Blog - Miscellaneous
Expiration Date: 31/12/2024
Date Published: 20 September 2024 at 4:55 PM
Date Updated: 21 September 2024 at 6:31 PM
If, for someone, IBM is just a place to work, that person probably won’t join. Being an alumnus member means that you valued the experience of IBM enough to identify with what you did as part of that team.
In my case, as someone who is still active in the industry (and not all alumni are), this means that it’s actually additional work to be a member. The membership means that I need to make formal declarations of potential conflict of interest as I join new projects in my working life. So although membership is a small burden to me, it has value enough to make me want to be a member. I value the things I did as part of IBM, I value the things that IBM taught me, I value the things that IBM stood for, I respected and identified with the people in IBM. I guess you could say, I’m a bit blue.
I think it’s great that the organisation has opened up beyond the QCC scope. I share the blueness, but I’ll never be QCC. QCC is a great achievement and I wouldn’t want to take anything at all away from QCC members, but is the concept of being an alumnus all about length of service, or is it about something more profound? I might not be long and blue, but I’m definitely blue. So, as I say, I think opening up more was a great step towards greater meaning to more people.
My thinking is that the alumnus society is about what it means for someone to join, and in particular, what it means for them to want to join. It’s about values and identity. Following that way of thinking, I’d make a few suggestions:
* Let’s get a better logo: something clean and sharp and encourage the members to use it – I’ll put it on my CV. It meant something to my professional life to have been in the IBM team. I am happy to show that. At present, the logo is busy and not well suited to its job as an instantly recognisable symbol of something – in fact, it’s basically a picture right now. This is easily and cheaply done on a gig site, such as fiverr.com
* Better merch: there are upteen sellers of branded items. It’s important not to create a financial burden on the society – it’s easy to quickly spend a lot on merchandise. Having said that, careful and astute spending could be useful to build up some stock, especially if it’s available on-demand when someone orders it. Being able to have a branded pen, mousepad, hat, shirt, etc would allow people to show their association – it’s what you do when you have a favourite team, right?
* Pins: speaking of merch… pins. We need to make certain that one of the items is an alumnus society pin featuring the great new, instantly recognisable logo. If I go to certain events, I’d be proud to wear that on my lapel. If I don’t have one, I can’t do that.
* Other loot: there are lots of products available from commercial sources that relate to IBM (especially but not only books). If we’re doing the merch thing, our storefront should offer these things too. Everybody wins.
* Create digital membership certificates or member cards: things that are worth joining give you a token of membership. It might be a card or a certificate or a PDF or a licence or a special ring or a uniform. The thing is, the giving of a symbolic token delineates the point of acceptance. Without it, you could be in or out or leave or come back or whatever – it doesn’t really matter. Given that it does really matter, we should mark the occasion in however small a way is suitable.
* Formal recitals of Ever Onwards: actually, forget that one! 😀
* Side benefits: the IBM Social Club had some great perks (for members who were still working at IBM). It’s not at the core of what the society is about, but people like that stuff. If you’re trying add value, club perks are always cute and attractive – even if it’s just a dollar off on beer at the Waterfront Hotel in Budgiewoi (I just made that up but you get the idea).
* Connecting to IBM: we’re not all still with IBM, but we’re not all divorced from IBM. People leave for reasons. Some retire. Some need to do other things with their career. People who are members of the alumnus society (as opposed to QCC) are coming because they want to pick up that connection back to IBM. QCC are the “long-termers”, the stalwarts, and that’s great, but they’re not the same crowd as the regular alumni. Regular alumni have almost certainly left IBM (for whatever reason) but want to maintain some connection (for the reasons above). To address this interest in staying connected, the alumnus society should connect with IBM and have events. They could be social and at an IBM campus, or they could be related to IBM’s current offerings and ideas, or they could be IBM offering seminars by it’s key people and experts, or they could be charitable events in association with the company. There are many options. The living connection with IBM is of interest to the alumni, but it’s also a valuable opportunity to promote the company. The audience are receptive and engaged already (we know that because they’ve signed-up as alumni). These people are evangelists already. Are they going back out in the world and talking about what they did on Friday evening (with the IBM crowd)? You bet they are! Everybody wins again.
* Auctions: if IBM ever wants to clean out its garage (like that enormous stash at Rosebery!), it could donate some retro gear to the alumni society. Auctioning of certain pieces as memorabilia items might generate some funds for the society. Also, auctions are exciting!
* Keep up the comms: the communications I’m receiving in my email are good. They keep me connected. Maybe they are issued as a digital newsletter or chat digest or maybe they stay as email. The key thing is being in communication with the org (in the words of Peter Hutchinson) “is goodness”. I’m a member of ACM and IEEE and they both do this with some enthusiasm. It’s good to do if you want members to be (at least loosely) involved. So props on that one!
Those are my immediate thoughts. I hope they are helpful.
Cheers, Mark.
Hello Mark, Welcome to our Alumni!
I am delighted to read your response and the great ideas you have put forward. We are hoping to have many more ex-IBMers such as yourself signing on to the Alumni.
Our 300+ QCC Members were the lucky ones to receive great recognition and rewards on attaining 25 years of service but sadly, IBM no longer offers such recognition and rewards for long service. We recognised this in 2018 when IBM funding dried up and our QCC Chapter registered as an Incorporated Association with Consumer Affairs in Victoria. This year we won the support of our members to change our name to IBM Alumni Australia and remove the criteria for years of service and residency in Victoria.
Nowadays, few people join a company with any aspiration or expectation of staying for 3 or more years.
We have all made great connections and lasting friends while working on many different projects or accounts, in various roles and across many locations. We don’t measure these friendships, or the influence of individuals, by any length of tenure.
We will take on board your feedback on the logo, and your suggestions re merchandising and offering rewards or incentives to our members. Perhaps we should sign you up as our Marketing and Merchandise Manager. However, we might need to sign up a few sponsors or raise our subscriptions to fund some of those activities.
Right now, we are dependent on our Committee Members and a handful of volunteers to provide any services to our Members. We are a not-for-profit organisation with no paid employees. Our subscription fees help us pay the bills for administration costs and fees associated with online systems and various licensed tools and Apps. We owe much to our Treasurer and Webmaster (one and the same person) for looking after our finances and doing most of the work to maintain our online and social media platforms.
We have some great people on our Committee but some (like me) are getting a bit log in the tooth (I know that is age-ism but it’s true) and we are looking for fresh blood (younger generations) to tap us on the shoulder and introduce new ideas and channels of communication.
We will certainly consider your suggestions and welcome any further responses from members. We are also open to any offers of help with graphics, design and marketing to enhance the member experience.
Your enthusiasm and encouragement is much appreciated!
Regards, Judy Horman
Hi again, Judy,
>Nowadays, few people join a company with any aspiration or expectation of staying for 3 or more years.
Well, that’s true. As I say, I think the thing about IBM is what it stands for, rather than length of service. I think length of service is admirable, but it’s not the only coin of the realm, as it were. Shakespeare wrote volumes, but Emily Bronte only wrote one novel. Anyway, you get the idea, so I’m going to stop before this gets way too deep & meaningful 😀
> Right now, we are dependent on our Committee Members and a handful of volunteers to provide any services to our Members.
I’d love to help. I wanted to contribute, being why I wrote the longer contribution and put a bit of thought into it. I can’t pick up an officer role at the moment. I simply don’t have enough time with my commitments in life. I’d love to later on, when I get on top of things.
M.
Thanks Mark … I’ve enjoyed this dialogue and hope to hear more from you 🙂
I think there are ex-IBM Australia friends who are on other platforms (eg Facebook / LinkedIn). With the expanded membership rules, we need to reach out to those others and suggest they join us in the IBM Alumni association. Should we have a page for suggested/possible new members??
Hi Peter,
I agree. We should all make use of Facebook and LinkedIn to update our own profiles to reflect our Alumni membership. We can post items on the Alumni’s FB page or others such as “IBM Famous in the70’s” and “IBM Infamous and the 80’s” to reach out to our contemporaries but we also need to connect with IBMers of the 90’s and onwards to make a real shift in our demographics.
I’ve been ‘soliciting’ new members by direct contact and forwarding the newsletter to a few who still work for IBM and some of my former colleagues from interstate, NZ and countries.
However, I don’t think posting names of prospective members on our website is a very good idea – some may not take kindly with appearing on a Wanted List.
It’s great to see some new and not-so-familiar names amongst the applicants for membership. Keep u the good work!