It is said that best days of our lives are school days.

We remember all the great times that we had when we were kids when we meet our old friends. It’s Reunion time. Organizing a reunion has always been a tricky affair – mainly because we never get to everyone in our batch, let alone the entire school/college.

Then, there are those who receive invitations very late because most of these invites are passed in a chain format and on general purpose social networks like Facebook.

The best things in life come in threes; like friends, dreams and memories, someone once observed.  And how true has been this observation. The thing about old friends is that we get so used to them being around, we get so comfortable with them that we do not notice their flaws any longer.  Our memories with them always bring joy to our hearts and smiles on our faces.

These friends can be from our school or society or your colleges.  Fate can at time be cruel to us and make us get separated from our friends.  Our buddies become distant friends and our interactions may now get reduced to ‘liking’ or ‘commenting’ on their status updates and wishing them on their birthdays.  In this age of technology, physical space between two people may be anything but that in digital space is only that of a click.  So our tweets and posts manage to convey our feelings to one another to some extent.

Your Alumni are all the students who have passed out from any course of your institute.  By any course, we mean any full time or part time core or non-core course that you as an institute have offered to the public.  A simple internet search would lead you to numerous training programs on networking skills. You may also find in the curriculum of many management institutes that ‘business networking’ is an elective for those who wish to ‘crack super deals’ with high-profile clients.  As a management institute, you need to be in touch with all your stakeholders as well. And your alumni association is an important part of this group of stakeholders.  Why do you think you should bother with connecting with your alumni at all?  They have of course taken their inputs and passed out from their courses and your duty as a management institute has been done.  So, why then invest in reconnecting with your ‘ex-students’?

Here are some reasons why you should get involved in the private social networking of the Alumni Association:

• Networking: The Alumni Association helps you to stay connected and bond with the fellow alumni and provides you with a networking opportunity. The association helps you to stay connected and keeps you in loop with your Alma Mater. You can now Talk to your faculty and the Current Students too. This association helps to create reunions where you can meet your buddies and have fun.

• Pride: Celebrate your Institution’s achievements and be proud of it to create an Alumni Association.

• Support: You can support your Institution in many ways – by lending your services, volunteering and helping recruit students. You can also provide your institution with monetary support.

Points of comparison between The Alumni Portal and Facebook:

Exclusivity:

This is the biggest drawback. No one thinks about their school/college when they are on Facebook.

Event Calendar:

Facebook has an events.