Alumni

Why Does Medsin Need an Alumni Network?

Medsin’s membership consists primarily of students. There is, at present, no formal opportunity for graduating members to continue to contribute to the organisation’s growth. Graduating members offer a variety of resources with the potential to support the organisation and to facilitate its expansion and development. Unlike other charities, Medsin’s members have an extremely limited lifespan and this often means that human resources are significantly stretched, while experienced members are lost.

The development of a Medsin alumni network will provide opportunities for graduating members to remain involved and to continue to offer themselves as resources for the organisation in a number of areas, as well as enabling members to stay in touch with Medsin friends and colleagues beyond graduation.

What is the Medsin Alumni Network and How Will It Work?

The strategy for the Medsin Alumni is outlined in five sub-sections;

  1. What is a Medsin alumnus?
  2. What can we do for the alumni?
  3. What can the alumni offer Medsin?
  4. How will the alumni work on a practical level?
  5. Recruitment to the alumni

The following information comes from the Alumni Business plan, written in conjuction between the Medsin National Committee and the Alumni Director prior to the formal launch of the Medsin Alumni Network. For further information, contact the Alumni Director, Nat.

1. What is a Medsin Alumnus?

A Medsin alumnus is any person who has had a prior involvement with Medsin as a network on any level; project, branch, locally, nationally or internationally. This involvement has since discontinued. Typically, this will be due to inevitable graduation; however we do not envisage exclusion of former Medsin members who have not yet graduated but for some reason are no longer directly involved in the network.

We do not, however, anticipate that persons who have graduated without former involvement in Medsin would gain from membership of Medsin’s alumni and as such this remains the only exclusion factor.

We will provide an alternative option, in terms of donating financially to the work of Medsin, for those persons not previously involved in the Medsin network.

Other contributions to Medsin’s activities by graduates will be considered on their merits, on a case-by-case basis.

2. What Can We Do For The Alumni?

Medsin can offer its alumni;

  • Opportunities for action, both as medical professionals (e.g. at a Marrow Clinic) and in terms of starting individual projects with access to Medical Students, in addition to campaigns and projects under our partner organisation, Medact.
  • A functional website, containing a database of contacts and personal updates on what former colleagues are now doing.
  • Personal email redirects; offering a long-term personal @medsin.org email address to redirect to any chosen personal email address (spam filters functional through Medsin’s website host; email addresses not to be publicly available)
  • Contacts for speakers for events from within the Alumnus, in addition to Medsin’s own speaker database
  • Invitations to Medsin’s conferences
  • Opportunities to further professional development, including provision of training workshops, education and speaking at conferences/events.
  • New members, as the regular cohort of Medsin members graduates
  • The Global Health Magazine, in development as a product of Medsin in the UK
  • A “Where Are They Now?” newsletter, alongside features in the Medsin newsletter, with opportunities to search online by graduating year group
  • A potential Global Health Day annually, possibly in conjunction with partner organisation Alma Mata
  • Social events, including the upcoming 10th Birthday Party/alumni launch
  • Inspiration; an opportunity to see that the work about which Medsin’s alumni are passionate is continuing, and potential to feedback into development of projects and activities.

3. What Can the Alumni Do For Medsin?

We anticipate that Medsin’s alumnus will offer Medsin:

  • Resources, both professional in the context of Medsin’s projects (for example, the Teddy Bear Hospital, Marrow) and practical; accommodation for conferences and meetings
  • Political clout, in subscribing to Medsin’s campaigns
  • Inspiration and encouragement to busy and enthusiastic students
  • Advice on a wide range of issues, from careers to specific Medsin-related problems
  • Trainers for Medsin’s workshops and comprehensive training network, including the annual Training New Trainers programme
  • Speakers for events
  • Articles for Medsin’s Global Health Magazine Project (GHMP)
  • Financial support, ideally in the form of regular committed donation (see financial section)
  • Contacts, potentially for students planning placements and electives abroad and for career advice
  • Demonstration to students that there continues to be a world beyond work and potential to remain involved in organisations such as Medsin past graduation
  • A feeling of being part of a larger, more dynamic and more influential organisation
  • Opportunity to continue involvement in Medsin beyond graduation and usual exit points.

4. How Will The Alumni Work on a Practical Level?

Firstly, there will be an Alumni Director, whose main tasks will include;

  • Maintenance of the alumni section of the Medsin website
  • Data input and maintenance of the alumni database
  • Production of the Alumni newsletter
  • Development and co-ordination of formal and informal social events (formal: annual ball, global health day; informal: reunion holidays, speed dating and ad hoc fundraisers)

The Alumni Director will also work closely with the Medsin National Committee, in particular in the following roles;

  • Webmaster: to maintain the email list of alumni
  • Treasurer: to co-ordinate the financial contributions of alumni members and ensure transparent comprehensive accounts to an auditable standard
  • The National Committee: to produce a newsletter containing relevant Medsin Network news to keep alumni informed of activities within Medsin
  • The National Committee: to liaise on opportunities for alumni to attend Medsin events and to act as speakers/trainers as dictated by the needs of the network
  • GHMP: potentially, distribution of the Global Health Magazine

In essence, the Alumni will form a further tier of the existing Medsin network. Activities may eventually include the development of specific alumni-run projects, but this should be driven by members as opposed to the Alumni Director.

5. Recruitment to the alumni

We anticipate this will happen on multiple levels, primarily with a push to identify and target existing alumni who as yet are not affiliated to Medsin.

How Can I Join the Medsin Alumni Network?

  1. Login, then go to Change your details, check the Alumni box then return here.
  2. If you are not signed up to the site, sign-up, check the Alumni box and return here.
  3. Add your details using the link which will appear at the top of this page.
  4. Any questions about Medsin Alumni? Email alumni@medsin.org.
  5. Any problems signing up to Medsin Alumni on the website? Email webmaster@medsin.org.

Last updated on Thursday 08 May 2008 at 17:04.