Tau Beta Pi AlumNet Proposal

Submitted to the Executive Council

Amy Kaleita, PA B '97
Alumni Relations Chair, IL A
Secretary, Central Illinois Alumnus Chapter

August 2000

Motivation & Purpose

One of the strongest assets of Tau Beta Pi as a national organization is the vast alumni membership. Currently, however, there are only a handful of opportunities for alumni to serve the organization and the student members. Also, in general, student members have little to no interaction with alumnus members who could potentially share with them valuable information and experience. In this day, in which there are increasingly diverse career paths that individuals with an engineering background may follow, it would be helpful for students to have contacts in these fields. At the 1999 spring meeting, the Executive Council led a discussion on the decline in membership acceptance rate. Suggestions for improving membership from the students included improved opportunities to network with alumnus members, both in industry and in graduate schools. This was also cited by the independent marketing consultant as an opportunity for Tau Beta Pi to do more in terms of providing a benefit to student members.

The purpose of the program proposed herein, tentatively entitled Tau Beta Pi AlumNet, is to pair student members of Tau Beta Pi with alumnus members in graduate programs, academia, and industry to allow for the transmission of information about a field, company, institution, etc., and to facilitate the establishment of networks, so critical for the attainment of pre-professional and career development. Thus it would be a tremendous service for student members. Additionally, there is a potential for the program to be a service to alumnus members contemplating a career change or seeking additional education.

The advantages to Tau Beta Pi as a national organization are numerous. For one, it would strengthen the organization as a whole by bringing together Tau Bates from various geographic egions and scholastic generations. Also, it would foster a sense of connection to the organization on the part of AlumNet student and alumnus participants. Furthermore, as mentioned above, it would provide another benefit of membership and thereby could act as another enticement for eligible students to accept membership in Tau Beta Pi.

Backgrond

There are several organizations that currently offer mentoring or networking programs. These programs, however, are often limited to a particular geographic location or to a particular minority group within engineering. For example, the successful mentoring programs offered by Women In Engineering (WIE) at institutions such as the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign give female students the opportunity to meet with women currently in engineering industry and academia.

There is, however, currently no formal pathway for all members of Tau Beta Pi to share experiences and advice, despite the tremendous potential. A personal anecdote illustrates this point; one Tau Beta Pi alum tells the following story. “Just after I had accepted admittance to the graduate program at the University of Illinois, I was speaking to a fellow Tau Beta Pi officer at my undergraduate institution about my decision. He mentioned that one of our members from the year before had begun graduate studies at the U of I the previous fall, and offered to put me in touch with him. That graduate student then provided me with a wealth of information on finding housing, things to do in town, things to avoid, etc. This was information that was immensely helpful to me in the ensuing months, but it was merely by coincidence that I was put in touch with the fellow Tau Bate at the U of I in the first place, because I happened to mention it to someone who happened to know someone else. In another situation I may not have been fortunate enough to be able to utilize this avenue.”

To try to capitalize on this potential in a more organized way, an alumni contact program was recently instituted as a joint project between the Central Illinois Alumnus Chapter (CIAC) and the Illinois Alpha collegiate chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At the end of the spring 1999 semester, an email was sent to all members of IL A requesting that if they were graduating, they respond to the email with a few pieces of information about where they were going and what they were intending to do. The response was overwhelming. Within several weeks, over 80 members had responded, willing to be contacted by Tau Bates in the future. Concurrently, a web site was set up to allow on-line registration. To date, more than 100 alums have registered with the program, representing a wide range of programs in academia and industry. As of yet, only a handful of students have utilized this program, but to date there has been minimal publicity. It is anticipated that with routine publicizing of the program, this will be a popular service to IL A members.

The willingness of alums to participate and the potential for service to student members can be assumed to extend much wider than merely one chapter or district. The task of creating such a program at the national level is eminently feasible.

Initial Implementation Plan

Task 1 – devise system to collect and store data and requests
Currently, in the CIAC-IL A system, alumni may register on-line by filling in the relevant information on a web page form. Submitted information is stored on a password locked web page until such time that it can be downloaded to an off-line Microsoft Access database. We feel that given the CIAC-IL A resources, the database needs to be stored off-line to protect the privacy of the participating alumni. The same web submittal procedure is used to collect student requests for AlumNet contacts. A copy of the submittal form currently in use by CIAC-IL A can be found at dilbert.cen.uiuc.edu/soc/tbp/alumni/submission.html and is included in an appendix to this proposal.

The above procedure will work well on a national level while the program is relatively small. As the program grows it will be necessary to devise a more automated system and a completely secure on-line database for alumni information, for example, an Access Database with full internet security. This would cut down on the amount of work that needs to be done manually to add to, update, and access the database. Submission of request and registration data via the web page will be accomplished through Active Server Pages (ASP) rather than manual transfer of the data into the database as is currently done.

The program will operate on a fully electronic basis; that is, initial contact will be done by email only. Most students today prefer to work via email. Email contact only will also facilitate keeping the alumni information current. Once per year emails should be sent out to registered alums requesting them to re-register if their information has changed, or to remind them to request that they be removed from the database if they are no longer interested in participating in the program. An alum may re-register or request removal at any other time as well through the registration web page.

Task 2 – advertise the program
Certainly, a critical element in the success of AlumNet is publicizing the program. The following are suggestions on how this should be begun:

Executive Council should draft two announcement letters introducing the program. One letter would go to collegiate chapters encouraging students to use the service, and also to register upon graduation. The second letter would go to alumnus chapters encouraging alums to register with the network.
An announcement of the program and should be placed in The Bent. Similar announcements in The Bent should continue annually.
A brochure explaining the program should be developed and subsequently included with information provided to the chapters along with the information about other national programs already in existence.
Around the time of graduation each year, email reminders should be sent to each chapter, if possible, requesting that they alert graduating members of the opportunity to register with the network.
The program should be announced at the next national convention.
Task 3 – disseminate requested data
In the development phase of the program, matching of students with alumni will be done manually, that is, selection of the mentor or contact will be done by the program coordinator(s) based upon the information submitted in the request. Students can request that they be matched primarily by discipline, institution/company, and/or location. The program coordinator will query the database and select one or two alumni contacts matching the student’s request. If this is not possible, the program coordinator will determine a suitable match or matches coming closest to the request. Students will be given the contact information via an email from the program coordinator(s). It will be left up to the student to initiate contact with the alum. No formal follow-up from the program coordinator(s) will take place, however, an evaluation submittal form will be available on the request & registration web page to allow both students and alums to give feedback about their experience with the program.

In order to ensure that no alumnus member is overloaded with students, registration into the database will include a field for alums to specify how many times their contact information may be given out per 6 month period. The database will then include how many times their information has been disseminated and will be checked against their specification before their information is given out again.

As the program expands, it will be necessary to automate this system to minimize the workload of the AlumNet coordinator(s). The National Electronic Industrial Mentoring Network for Women in Engineering and Sciences (www.mentornet.net) uses a “complex matching program, written in Visual Basic through Access . . . to automate the task of determining the best possible matches.” These matches are then checked manually. Such a system will be implemented as the AlumNet program grows. Volunteers from IL-A and CIAC will be responsible for writing and testing the automation procedures in advance of turning over program coordination to Nationals.

It may also be necessary to investigate a way to ensure that information is disseminated to Tau Beta Pi members only for the purposes supported by the AlumNet program. However, at this time there is no obvious way to do this, and it is probably not necessary while the program is still small.

Task 4: develop AlumNet supporting materials
In order to facilitate communication between AlumNet student and alumnus participants, supporting materials will be developed explaining the program in detail and advising participants on how to establish a mentoring or networking relationship. Such materials will be provided on-line as part of the AlumNet web pages. There are many resources available to use in the preparation of these supporting materials, such as mentoring guides prepared by other programs, and a multitude of publications on mentoring and related subjects. Developing these supplemental web pages will be accomplished by the AlumNet coordinator(s), volunteers from CIAC and other interested parties.

Personnel and Management Approach

It is expected that during the trial phase of the program, to last for a period of no longer than three years, the program coordination can be accomplished by volunteers from the CIAC and utilizing the resources of the IL A collegiate chapter. As the program expands, as we hope that it will, it will be necessary to create a more formal program management structure. The entire program should be taken over by the national headquarters and administrated much like the Engineering Futures program, with a coordinator to oversee the program.

Supporting Facilities and Equipment

As mentioned in the above section, computer and database facilities at the University of Illinois can be used for the duration of the trial phase. The national Tau Beta Pi web site, www.tbp.org, should host or provide a direct link to the submission request page. The submission page could submit data to a storage page either at tbp.org or at IL A. Information can be downloaded from there to the database operated by CIAC-IL A. If tpb.org provides a link to the program page residing on the IL A web site, it should be done as a frame within the national site so as to provide the appearance of connection between nationals and the program.

With expansion of the program, it will be necessary to acquire better equipment and server space. An itemized list of hardware and software recommended for the program is given in the budget section.

Transition to Operation By Headquarters

Because the crucial information contained in the AlumNet database (email address employment information for a subset of the total membership) is different from the information in the membership database kept by the national, it would be simpler to keep these databases separate. This will allow automation materials to be developed by CIAC-IL A volunteers prior to transition of program operation to headquarters, because the system can be developed to be self-contained. Allowing these volunteers to develop automation materials in advance and for its own system will also mean that once program operation is turned over to headquarters it should require only minimal additional programming or manipulation to transfer and install the database and accompanying programs themselves to the server. Upkeep may then be done remotely by the program coordinator(s)

Budget

It is difficult to estimate reasonable numbers for the growth of this program. IL A response to emails asking graduating members to register with the database has been quite high (well over 50%), however, these persons were responding to an email from someone they recognized and in many cases knew personally. Responses from other schools in District 8 were less numerous. A reasonable estimate of eventual alumni participation might be 20% of the readership of The Bent. An estimate of student participation is likewise hard to make with any certainty. A reasonable guess might be that the service would actually be used by at least 15% of the graduating members each year. However, even for students that do not use the AlumNet program personally, it is likely that the existence of the program will foster a sense of connection between alumnus and collegiate members.

Budget

Supporting Hardware and Software:
For a Dell Server Computer:

Pentium® III Processor, 500-600 MHz, Entry-Level Server $4,871

MS Office 2000 (includes Access & Visual Basic): $449

Windows 2000 Server edition (includes ASP): $1,199

TOTAL (ONE TIME): $6159

This is an overestimate since the server computer, although strictly low-end, still has over 100 Gb of hard disk space. This is probably much more than is necessary. Furthermore, the system need not be purchased for another couple of years, at which time the cost of the system outlined above will likely decrease. Less expensive alternatives at present would be using a cheaper (perhaps used) computer and Windows NT 4.0 instead of 2000. A low estimate of the total cost would be around $2000. The actual cost of the system will likely be somewhere in between.

Advertising:
Mailing announcement letters: $73

Announcement in The Bent: $0

Basic accordion style b&w brochure $25

Email reminders: $0

Announcement at National Convention: $0

TOTAL (FIRST YEAR): $98

(THEREAFTER) $25

Work Plan

A general overview of the implementation plan for the trial phase of the program is outlined briefly below:

Year 1: Establish the final format for web submittal forms and for the database. Begin publicizing the program through the means outlined above.

Keep track of the usage by alums and students to chart the growth of the program.

Year 2: Continue to maintain the tasks of year 1.

Begin to develop and test automation procedures for database management and request processing.

Year 3: Finalize automation procedures.

Evaluate the success of the program by analyzing usage statistics and by contacting a number of participants to get feedback.

Prepare a report for the executive council on the program thus far; include instructions for turnover of program operation to headquarters.

Establish a convention committee to evaluate the program and weigh its success against the costs and resources required to maintain or expand it.