AROPS – The Schools’ Alumni Association – Relevance and Impact
Mission
AROPS – The Schools’ Alumni Association provides a forum to exchange best practice in all aspects of alumni engagement, and provides opportunities to network, learn and share ideas.
AROPS is open to representatives of school alumni societies, professionals working in alumni engagement or development, Heads and Senior Leaders of schools, Heads of Partnership and Marketeers. Members are drawn from a wide range of schools, from small prep schools to state and independent senior schools and sixth form colleges in the UK and overseas.
Vision
While continuing to exchange best practice on all operational aspects of alumni engagement, AROPs – The Schools’ Alumni Association aims to share and develop thought leadership on all aspects of alumni engagement, alwasy with a view to securing the long term future for of member schools. AROPS will generate, collate and share thought leadership narratives on:
Best practice in alumni engagement:*
- Alumni as ambassadors who embody the culture, values, ethos and character of their schools
- Alumni as contributors to independent and state education as governors, trustees, volunteers, donors, speakers, mentors and key influencers
- The role of alumni in influencing and impacting admissions, marketing and the reputation of schools
- Building healthy, functioning, mutually supporting relationships with Development offices and other external facing functions in schools
- Communicating changing societal values, and political narratives around independent schools to alumni professionals and volunteers
- Communicating the changing values, aspirations and expectations of Millennials and Generation Z to improve alumni engagement to this demographic
- Championing equality and diversity on alumni representative boards, societies and associations to reflect the current make-up of the school and wider society
*AROPS does not exchange best practice on fundraising or Development but constructively engages with the Institute of Development Professionals in Education (IDPE) and other relevant professional Associations on behalf of its’ members, gathering useful and relevant advice and guidance for member schools, and advising these bodies on the broader role and purpose of alumni engagement.
Core Benefits
In addition to the Core Benefits list below the benefits of being a Member of AROPS include:
- Low cost membership: accessible to smaller schools and alumni societies
- An annual AGM: to review and revitalise AROPS year on year.
- The Annual Conference: inspiring speakers, networking, education and inspiration
- Regional meetings: free to member schools, societies and associations
- Members’ Directory: printed and online directory
- Termly e-newsletters: useful information, links to thought pieces, events and news.
- New Website: mobile and laptop friendly, promoting events, booking, news and views
- LinkedIn Group: over 120 members
- Reports and thought leadership: Summarising meetings, breakout sessions and talks
- Alumni Association Survey: to provide benchmarking and key performance indicators
- Thought leadership: through events, blogs and articles on the AROPS website and LinkedIn sites
