This is important: remember your resources.  Talking to Valinda and having a bit of a whine and cheese party, I stumbled upon a really obvious point: I’m going to be in the same town as a Board of Trustees member for a few days, and I should really try to take advantage of that.  Beyond the fact that I was a student rep on the BOT last year, I am aware of her existence because I worked really closely with Advancement and the Annual Fund for four years, so she’s always peripherally existed for me.

At one of these meetings, I should have introduced myself rather directly to this Scripps Board member. At the time, I found this alum formidable (in the best way possible): she’s razor-sharp intelligent and exceptionally good at her job.  She is executive staff member in Development at a college I’m making a social call to in the coming weeks, and, as Valinda gently pointed out, would be a truly excellent resource if she was both inclined and available.

So I drafted an email, and Valinda is kindly looking over it, and also very politely not teasing me about missing the obvious.

Despite my publicly-declared “whimsical” love of well-decorated cupcakes, I’m a very practical person and like having concrete steps I can take.  This tendency makes it difficult to complete tasks that don’t have quantifiable steps; small talk, for example, is something I have to remind myself to do when I have a concrete goal in a conversation.  I am an INTJ, and it shows.

Emailing an alum, calling their office, or otherwise making contact seems difficult to me because I am unfamiliar and thus uncomfortable with the steps.  This communication difficulty might be a quirk particular to me, but I’ll assume not and share the steps I’ve taken so far in hopes that someone finds it helpful.

1. Had Valinda point out the obvious (optional step)
2. Hunt down contact information.  For current students, that means life connections or social connections.  For me, it means the Online Community.  LinkedIn is also an option, but I feel more comfortable with the Online Community because I’m reaching out as a fellow alumna, and her information is offered as an alumnae community member
3. Draft an email:
a) Greeting (for example: Hi _____,)
b) How I found her contact information
c) Who I am (Alumna of 2009, worked for development and alumnae relations, I was on the Board as a Student Representative, and name dropping the person/people we have in common (Hi K!))
d) Statement that expresses that I hope she’s available to offer advice
e) When I’ll be in a convenient geographic location
f) Thank you for your time
4. Send said email to Valinda to assuage my fears of being brusque (I can be painfully to-the-point when I have a set goal.  Like I said, small talk is something I have to remind myself of as a step)
4.1. Accidentally log onto Facebook chat, chat with former boss who will be seeing said board member and have her offer to mention me when they meet (optional step)
5. Edit with V’s suggestions
6. Send email, ask K for assurances that, if available, the board member would probably meet with me
7. Breathlessly await a response (optional step, at least the “breathlessly” part)

On an unrelated note, I’m this year’s manager of the Scripps Reunion Twitter account.  I’m trying to become more fluent in new media, so I asked Alumnae Relations if they were interested in a Twitter Experiment for this year as part of a conscious effort to learn more (and to be a good Reunion Committee member).  The reunion twitter is my second Scripps-new-media project, though admittedly, Valinda and CP&R did the vast majority of the background work for the first project, this blog.

Update: the alum sent an incredibly kind response.  She remembers me from Board meetings and is trying to find time to meet with me. The lesson, I suppose: alums are generally nice folks and I shouldn’t be afraid of them.