What Have We Accomplished for You This Year?

Do you ever wonder what your Office of Alumni is working so hard all on throughout the year? In addition to the everyday hum of our office, emails, prayers and telephones, we work very hard on some important projects. Allow us to share some of our recently celebrated milestones with you from our fall report to the Board of Trustees:

The Highlight Reel

• The Very Rev. Dr. Stephen Hance became our first ever international President for Alumni Council.
• Rev. Dr. Linda Adams transitioned from being a member of Alumni Council to being named a Trustee.
• The 2020-2021 alumni fundraising initiative will be a project to renovate the bottom floor hallway of Crary-McPheeters, the building which houses the Office of Alumni and Church Relations as well as Advancement and the majority of high-level administrative offices. Included in the renovation are plans to refresh Royal Auditorium.
• Through the Shepherd’s Fund, we have approved 204 applications, and the foundation has approved a total of $1,641,630.25 to be paid out on behalf of our retired alumni to care for their medical needs!
• We have devised a NEW Ministry and Vocation Connections system to help our community network more efficiently between those who are looking for positions and those who are searching for quality candidates to fill them.
• We are pleased to announce that we have grown to 1,199 users on ThriveU with more signing up every day!
• The last edition of the Alumni Link went to over 8,852 unique email addresses, providing you with important content about your seminary. Our open rate increased to 40.28%. It was 38.81% last fiscal year.
• Alumni and Community Formation have continued to offer a renewal retreat so that our Asbury family can come to be refreshed and receive spiritual guidance. Since 1 July 2020, despite the pandemic, we have served five ministers desperately in need of respite.
• Our office is preparing and shipping 326 gift packages with personalized notes to each 2020 graduate, as we are deeply saddened that we were unable to give them their alumni Bibles in person. Included in each package are other small gifts as well as a full description of their alumni benefits and our contact information. (Keep an eye on your mail and update your addresses, 2020 grads!)
• This year, we sent 46 care packages to the spouses of alumni who we heard passed this year. Included in these care packages is a Legacy Bible which is inscribed to the surviving spouse as well as information about the Shepherd’s Fund.
• For more information about any of these awesome projects, email alumni@asburyseminary.edu!

Recap from Alumni Council Meetings 2020

On 14 October 2020, the Very Rev. Dr. Stephen Hance presided over his first Alumni Council Meeting as acting president. There were 17 council members and two Office of Alumni staff in attendance, and three administrators presented to the group. We congratulated Rev. Dr. Linda Adams upon being named a member of our Board of Trustees and wished her well in her continued service to our seminary. During our meeting, the Alumni Council voted unanimously to adopt the 2020-2021 fundraising initiative to create a legacy hallway that showcases the global impact our alumni have had over the past 100 years.

We also heard presentations on the continuing work of the Alumni Office from Tammy Cessna and Patricia Seabolt. Jay Mansur provided updates on the Hundredfold Campaign and fall enrollment numbers and Donna Covington gave updates on Formation and the pursuit of racial equity at Asbury Seminary. We concluded the day with a presentation on the current trends in global Christianity from Dr. Timothy Tennent.

Next year’s Alumni Council Meetings are scheduled to take place 23 August 2021 – 27 August 2021 in Washington, DC.

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