FundSvcs Community

I am interested in our collective's thoughts on printed alumni directories, like those done by Harris Connect (now PCI). They offer to do a printed alumni directory for you and do "finder" services for free, including calling all of your alums to update their contact information and confirm they want to be listed in the directory. They make their money from the printed books sold to the alums as well as any other items bought by the alums. Are institutions still doing these? Is there value in publishing these? While I do see the value in getting addresses, phone numbers, emails and especially employment information for "free", the information returned is often unorganized, unformatted and an extreme pain to import. Also, I am trying to get past my personal feelings about publishing an alumni directory. Yes, the alums are contacted through mail, email and phone calls and given an opportunity to opt out of being published. My personal feelings have to do with privacy. Yes we technically CAN publish directory information, but SHOULD we? What are your thoughts? What is the industry standard on this "tool" ? Thanks. Cindy Cindy Hicks Manager of Database Services University Advancement (706) 507-8988

Cindy, I think these things are a good deal for the publishers. If you’d like to chat about this, give me a call. Peter Wylie 202-332-7571 Sent from my iPad > On Feb 1, 2019, at 2:16 PM, Cindy Hicks <hicks_cindy@COLUMBUSSTATE.EDU> wrote: > > I am interested in our collective's thoughts on printed alumni directories, like those done by Harris Connect (now PCI). > > They offer to do a printed alumni directory for you and do "finder" services for free, including calling all of your alums to update their contact information and confirm they want to be listed in the directory. They make their money from the printed books sold to the alums as well as any other items bought by the alums. > > Are institutions still doing these? Is there value in publishing these? > > While I do see the value in getting addresses, phone numbers, emails and especially employment information for "free", the information returned is often unorganized, unformatted and an extreme pain to import. Also, I am trying to get past my personal feelings about publishing an alumni directory. Yes, the alums are contacted through mail, email and phone calls and given an opportunity to opt out of being published. My personal feelings have to do with privacy. Yes we technically CAN publish directory information, but SHOULD we? > > What are your thoughts? What is the industry standard on this "tool" ? > > Thanks. > > Cindy > > Cindy Hicks > Manager of Database Services > University Advancement > (706) 507-8988 >