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Thank you to Pete, Mike, Leonie, Clare, Katie and Jordan for organising and running a great first meeting for this alumni at SCF HQ London last night.
You invited us to post pics, so here’s mine… four of the former corporate fundraising team: me, a dive-bombing Jan Oldfield, Helen Varma and Alison Pavier.
Hopefully someone else is a better photographer!
Great to see you all, and meet new friends too!
Clare
It was great so see so much support for the Alumni Association, and we had a truly inspirational evening. Now it’s all about the follow-up! Here are some more photos, of Isobel and Pete presenting to an attentive audience… I now await with some trepidation the one of me in the funny hat…
Mike
Hi Folks
I have been smiling all day typing up the notes from our gathering last night and thinking about all our other colleagues around the world.As I said last night, Save the Children has always been about its people, connections, and connectedness to the cause – the ingredients that make things happen. I have always been struck by the fact that every leaving do our people talk about the deep connections they have made with their colleagues and the people they will miss. Some
how being part of the Save the Children family never leaves you (in fact in my case I have never managed to leave it!) ….all around the world I meet people who talk fondly of their time and experiences with ‘Save’ and for many the deep impact this has had on their lives.Last night felt like the start of something that will continue to grow and develop in an organic way ….I am so excited about what we might create together!
LeonieIt was great that we had 10% of the registered alumni in one place. This thread is intended to bring the other 90% in to the discussion ! PLEASE post your thoughts and opinions here.
Here is the presentation we discussed. It gives some context about how we got here, what ‘here’ is, and thoughts on the sort of topics we need to address going forward.
SCUK-AA-Where-Next-09-01-2018-v1.1.pdf
Great turnout 43 attendees (10% of our current members) …plus 2 more joining in the pub!
Communications from lots of others who would have loved to join …but who are not London based – call for the formation of sub groups elsewhere (being pursued already in Scotland and for Wales/Bristol areas) to avoid being London centric … plus idea of sub group in NZ!Format of evening was:
Welcome from Leonie and Clare Conaghan (HR Director SCUK and our sponsor in the organisation)
Introduction and chairing from Mike Aaronson
Presentation – how we got here and where might we go next from Isobel Latchford and Pete Smith (including survey results provided by Fiona Young) – see attached slides
Update on SC plans for the Centenary from Katie Ryce (Project Manager Centenary Events) and Jordan Harris (Community Team) – see attached slides
Open discussionKey Points from the discussion (and Pub):
• We want to keep the membership growing … ideally organically by members reaching out to their own networks of SCUK former colleagues and encouraging them to register. Pete Smith mentioned that according to Linkedin there are potentially 20,000 potential eligible members around the world. Bill Gray mentioned that he was aware of an existing network in Ethiopia and thought they would be keen to join up. Be good to hear of any other such networks globally (can let Leonie know)• We want to spread the load beyond the current group of Mike, Pete, Leonie, Isobel and Fiona – ideas and offers welcome around those who are interested and able to
– Produce a Newsletter for a period of time
– Organise sub branches locally (outside of London)
– Write ‘Where are they now’ pieces
– Identify interesting topics/speakers for future meetings
– Costs of website (approx. £300 – Pete covering currently). Ideas so far included ask SC to pay; charge membership fee (and give any surplus to Save the Children); ask for Alumni Angels to cover cost each year. Other ideas welcome to Leonie• Month of May is 100th Birthday focus – no flagship events planned but lots of Branch activity and recognition events. Alumni interested in knowing more about or joining local branch events can contact Jordan Harris to put them in touch (J.Harris@savethechildren.org.uk)
• Suggestion that we might look at key dates leading to the 100th B’day …and link stories/experiences from Alumni to these (a kind of countdown)
• Mike Aaronson updated on the plans for LSE Conference – ‘Politics, Humanitarianism, and Children’s Rights’ to be held on 8/9 April 2019 details on the site. A number of alumni are already involved by others interested in attending should let Mike know (can private message on the site. Mike will provide the event website details in a separate post.• Clare Mulley updated group on the
– Republication of her book “The Woman who Saved Children” (with royalties going to Save the Children”
– Her speaking engagements related to the book (she is open to doing more on request)
– Her Husbands work on a bust of Eglantyne Jebb which will be unveiled in the Royal Albert Hall in May
– Discussions with a TV Company to make a documentary on the life of Eglantyne Jebb
(All this is on the site)
• Attendance at the Royal Albert Hall is limited but the idea of an event to welcome the bust back to Farringdon was greeted with great enthusiasm and will be explored• Paulette Cohen summed up the feeling of the meeting by quoting Eglantyne Jebb
“We have to touch the imagination of the world. The world is not ungenerous, but unimaginative, and very busy”
and identified3 key areas which seemed to be emerging from the conversation:
– Experiential – the Alumni are part of Save the Children’s legacy and institutional memory – a huge potential resource (for example for the LSE conference and beyond);
– Intellectual – the intellectual capital of the Alumni is extraordinary and could be drawn on to support both the organisation and academics etc This is not only about the past but could also be about helping to shape future direction;
– Emotional – the Alumni also embodies the extraordinary warmth of the organisation and its people – we have a strong connection with the cause and a desire to help and support that can be tapped by the organisation• A number of those present (Harriet Dodd, Maggie Brown) were keen to emphasise that with the sector under threat it would be important to use the opportunity of the centenary to not only look back into the past but how to take this learning into the future – to be critical as well as celebratory and to think about how such a powerful organisation and contribute meaningfully in the future in a changing world. Isn’t it time 100 years on to relook at Children’s Rights frameworks and see what’s needed for the future? The Alumni could contribute to this. The LSE event will be an important part of this (and includes a workshop on Children’s Rights).
• Jenny Etty-Leal talked about ‘Gradlink’ which is deployed by another Alumni Association that she belongs to. This provides a short searchable profile with key words that people in the organisation can tap into for advice, mentoring, career guidance, institutional knowledge etc There was support for this idea and a number of attendees said they would be happy to offer this. An important point was that Alumni were not only the sum of their experience/roles at Save the Children but the experience, knowledge and connections they had developed since – a huge potential source of skills, talent and new networks for the organisation.
• As part of this Frieda Schicker mentioned some issues she was involved in now – and how it would be great to explore with Save the Children if they might like to get involved. Clare Conaghan responded that the organisation was getting more strategically focussed but having the exploratory discussion to see if such things fit with the strategy (or could be positively directed elsewhere) was certainly possible
• Alumni as ambassadors for the organisation was also explored … to be more effective Alumni would need to be kept up to date with key messages and up-to-date stories about the work. People would welcome information about how they can best engage and continue to support – other than simply through donating. “Voice and contribution”
• Mike summed up that the call felt like moving from a one-dimensional model to more interactive 2-way model … that is forward as well as backward looking. He also felt it might be worth articulating our objectives (suggested by Bill Gray and articulated by Paulette Cohen) around an intellectual strand – alumni had expertise based on past involvement in the organisation’s work, which they wanted to be able to pass on; an experiential one – we were united by a shared experience and we wanted to keep that memory alive together; and a celebratory one – we wanted people to appreciate what the organisation had achieved and to encourage it to achieve even more.
• Clare Conaghan responded that this was exciting – the alumni is ‘by the Alumni for the Alumni’ and the organisation didn’t want to push an agenda onto it………to get the 2 way flow going suggested we try a few things out and get feedback. We would need to work out the mechanism for this as SC can’t post. For example, in addition to the ideas above Clare could see a strong role for the Alumni in filling key posts (ie Leadership posts and Trustee roles etc). We could also test a way of providing key messages and perhaps some focus group type activity. There was support for this.
Here is a presentation given by Katie on the SC Centenary plans. Centenary_alumni-meeting.pdf You can also see a thread that includes the SC calendar of centenary activities, and the SC Branch volunteer centenary briefing here. https://www.scukalumni.org/forum/general-discussion/72/
LL/10.1.19 updated with MJA comments 11.1.19
Thanks to everyone who was able to join the SC UK alumni meeting in Farringdon. Here’s some photos of the event, including one of Mike in his hat! Photos from the pub social to follow…
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