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Clubs/Associations: Examples of Successful Events

The following is a partial sample of events that have proven successful for various Clubs – more events can be found on the Alumni Event Calendar and the calendar Archive. These events don't have to be restricted to the season listed below.

Fall Events

  • Kick-Off Party: New York does this three-hour event every September/October. Admission ($25) also gives free one-year membership to most recent graduates who haven’t already joined with free membership. Open bar and hors d’oeuvres. Advertising is through e-mail blasts.
  • Faculty Speaker: Many Clubs do this on an annual basis. Clubs can choose from the list of faculty members (updated annually) who have indicated to the Manager of Faculty Programs that they are interested in visiting alumni Clubs as a featured speaker. Once a faculty member has been chosen by a club and has accepted an invitation extended to them by the Manager of Faculty Programs to speak, the Club can apply for program funding to cover the faculty member’s travel costs.
  • Sports Event: For Brown sports teams, a tailgate party, a satellite broadcast, or post-game party. Check with the Brown University Sports Foundation and the Athletic Department to see if Brown teams are coming to your area. In addition, many clubs have enjoyed attending both minor league and major league baseball games, which can be a fun family event.
  • Interview Party: Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and other Clubs have had success with this format. The BASC interviewers, interviewees and their parents all meet at a local coffee house, office, or bookstore. While the applicants socialize and the parents commiserate, the interviews are carried out, followed by the opportunity for the BASC interviewers to socialize.
  • Theater/Dance/Music/Museum/Botanical Garden Event: Group tickets purchased, with possible after-performance address to group by director, playwright, dancers, composer, actors; or a guided tour by a docent at a museum or botanical garden, well known or not. A gathering at a nearby restaurant or bar following the event is also possible. Often, Brown music groups will travel over the holidays, winter or spring break and arrangements can be made to perform for alumni Clubs.

Winter Events

  • Family Ice-Skating Party: Chicago does this: an e-mail blast is sent out, inviting all to appear at the local rink at an appointed time. People can skate or not, socialize or not.
  • Switch-Seating Dinner: New York has done this, sometimes focusing on alumni of only one decade as opposed to a total alumni population. The seating arrangements are fixed and then changed after each of three courses, so that everyone gets to know everyone else. Nice prizes (donated by alumni businesses) are offered as rewards to the winners of silly games played table by table or by individuals.
  • Wine/Cheese Tasting: New York has done this through a fine cheese store; or it could be done through a wine store or an individual. The Paris Club did a whole weekend in the French wine country!

Spring/Summer Events

  • Acceptance Party: These take place in mid-April, once students have received their admission decision and are making matriculation choices.  The parties are organized by area chairs with support from the BASC office, and students and volunteers are invited. Brown Clubs are often help out as well.
  • Family Picnic: Portland and Seattle have hosted many of these annual traditions. The location can be at a home of an alumnus or a local park.
  • Send-Off Party: Fairfield County, among others, does this party annually in August. All matriculating students and their parents are invited, as well as all current students in the area and their parents, in addition to all alumni in the area. In some areas, an alumnus or alumna will donate the use of his or her house and provide the food and drink. In other cases, the Club provides all.

"Recurring" Events

  • Book Club: Monthly or bi-monthly meetings can happen at members’ homes or at a restaurant – which could, for total immersion, relate to the ethnicity of the book being discussed.
  • Pub Crawl/Happy Hour/Networking Hour: Monthly cocktails at the same location or at a different location every month. In cities where this is possible, it is nice to meet at an alumni-owned bar or restaurant.

This is only a partial list! If your Club has an event that works, please let Jennifer Williams Ketay '63 know so it will be added to the list.