October 10, 1996

News from Development and Alumni Relations

Open House '96 was proof of the power of volunteerism: more than 2,100 people, including faculty, staff, students and alumni, donated their time to this massive--and successful--undertaking. This month's column pays tribute to the many volunteers who work with the University's Development and Alumni Relations Office.

When Don Hogarth, BSc'85, was organizing his first McGill Volunteer Phonathon in Toronto this past spring, he was a bit preoccupied. A scant few weeks before the event, his wife Terri had given birth to their first child, Marshall.

But Hogarth somehow managed to juggle new fatherhood--and his job as Deputy Press Secretary to the Premier of Ontario--with the Phonathon. After all, he says, "a commitment is a commitment."

With help from the Development and Alumni Relations Office, Hogarth pitched in to recruit the dozens of McGill graduates who hit the phones to encourage classmates to give to their alma mater. Hogarth was also on hand on Phonathon evenings to motivate the "troops" and, as a veteran caller, answer questions from newcomers.

Hogarth is only one of thousands of graduates of varying ages and backgrounds around the world who give their time to raise funds or create goodwill for McGill. The University can also count on faculty and staff, parents of McGill students, businesspeople (through the McGill Associates) and others as volunteers. Not to mention the 400 or so students who each year participate in Class Action, the graduating class's initiative to raise funds and start networks of contacts among students that will last long after Convocation is over. And the students who do their part for McGill through the Scarlet Key Society or SOAR (Student Organization for Alumni Relations).

McGill's new Vice-Principal (Development and Alumni Relations) Derek Drummond, BArch'62, says volunteers are essential: "We absolutely rely on them. We could not do any of the things we do without them." Drummond speaks from experience: he was a very active volunteer in The McGill Twenty-First Century Fund Campaign, as head of the Campus Community Division. More than 600 of the campaign's 1,267 volunteers were McGill faculty and staff.

The graduates who are McGill's 800 or so Class Agents sit for hours writing the personal notes to classmates that accompany the Alma Mater Fund's spring solicitation. And more than 800 Class Representatives put together reunions for special anniversaries and often send out newsletters updating classmates on each others' comings and goings. As well, Alumni Association Branch Leaders and contacts in 85 locations from Belgium to Boston organize events for local graduates. The Alumni Association also has three affiliated groups--the McGill Society of Montreal, the McGill Young Alumni and the Alumnae Society--organizing activities for Montreal-area graduates.

Perhaps the most high-profile volunteers are those--including faculty and staff--who serve on McGill's Board of Governors. Governors take time from extremely busy schedules to attend one meeting per month as well as meetings of smaller committees of the Board.

Volunteerism is an old and noble tradition at McGill. The Alumni Association, for example, was formed in 1857 as the Graduates' Society of McGill University; Scarlet Key was formed in 1925; and the McGill Associates, the longest-standing non-alumni group supporting a University in Canada, was created in 1938. The McGill Alma Mater Fund came into being in 1948.

So why do volunteers do what they do? Aside from the obvious reasons--a love for and loyalty to McGill--it's fun, says Hogarth. "It's great to be with a bunch of McGill people, most of whom you've never met, and wind up chatting about your memories of the University."

Seth Katz, BA'83, the new Branch Leader for the Alumni Association in Boston, agrees. Katz has been involved in both fundraising and friend raising and this year has organized events ranging from scuba diving to an outing to a hockey game. What he finds exciting and encouraging is the emergence of a new generation of graduates eager to help out. "They are coming out of the woodwork" in response to his call for conscripts, he says.

Hogarth and others recognize that the enthusiasm of the next generation is essential to McGill's continued success. With government support for universities diminishing, he says, "It will really be up to individuals to help more and more, so that students will keep having the great experience we did."

From the Office of Development and Alumni Relations.