Manage List of Alumni

The ability for your organization to maintain an online list of alumni was a feature added in May 2009.  This simple, but powerful feature allows your organization to define various “levels” of achievement, and then list one or several “teams” for each alumnus associated with a particular level.  The general setup of the alumni module was designed for sport-related levels of achievement, however if your organization chooses it could also recognize achievements in areas unrelated to their sport.  The alumni module also allows for an organization to maintain contact information for each alumnus, which can be hidden from the general public if desired.

What Are Alumni Levels?

In general, an alumni level defines a league or a caliber of play for your organization’s sport at a higher level.  For example, in hockey alumni levels could include “NHL”, “AHL”, “Minor Pro”, “OHL”, and so on.  These levels can be as vague or as specific as your organization chooses.  More levels can be added at any time, and existing levels can be re-named if so desired.  Levels can only be deleted, however, if they have not been used for any alumni teams.

What Are Alumni Teams?

A team for an alumnus is meant to define any team or organization which can be included within one of your alumni levels which that alumnus was a member of.  For example, if your hockey organization has included “NHL” as a level, a single alumnus could have teams added for “Toronto Maple Leafs”, and “Edmonton Oilers”.  When a team is added for a particular alumnus, you can store the dates played as well as a description of what that alumni did while a member of that team.

Determining Which Alumni to Store

Once your organization has established which levels of achievement you want to recognize, you may then choose to only recognize individuals who have met at least one of those levels.  However, any alumni can be added online and they will be listed on the public website even if that alumnus has not had any teams added.  For each alumnus, you can optionally store a photo and a description, but you must provide a description of the years played within your organization as well as the last year played within your organization.  The last year played is used to group alumni by decade.

How to Manage the Alumni

The alumni levels, the alumni, and their teams are all managed on within the Manage Main Site module of the Control Panel, on the Alumni page.  The alumni levels are listed on the left-hand side of the page and can be managed just like any other list in the Control Panel.  The middle column and the right-hand column will show lists of alumni, grouped by decade when the page first loads.  The “Add Alumni” button will be located at the top of the right-hand column at all times.  To edit / delete an existing alumnus you can click on the name in the middle column to select that alumnus – or you can click the decade first to filter the list of alumni by that decade.  This is very similar to the way that visitors will be able to navigate through the list of alumni on the public site.  After you have selected a particular alumnus, you will be able to edit the details as well as add / update / remove a team for that alumnus.