Alumni Relations Launches MyRider
Looking to capitalize on the prevalence of online social networking, the Rider University Office of Alumni Relations has introduced MyRider, a network-based, interactive online community for Rider University and Westminster Choir College alumni, current juniors and seniors, as well as faculty and staff.
Launched just this week and accessible at alumni.rider.edu, MyRider provides a free, safe place for alumni to reconnect with classmates and friends from their days on campus, as well as receive news and updates about alumni events.
“MyRider will enable us to provide alumni with a vehicle for interacting with each other on an informal basis,” said Natalie Pollard ’93, ’98, director of Alumni Relations. “The entire Alumni Relations team is very excited that MyRider has gone from concept to reality. The capabilities of the site are amazing, and we truly hope that our alumni will utilize it on a regular basis.”
Membership includes features such as an alumni directory, discussion groups and class notes, where users can post interesting personal news and milestones such as engagements and marriages, birth announcements, job promotions and more.
MyRider members can also edit their personal information online, track their own giving history to Rider or Westminster, and use the MyRider e-mail forwarding service, which allows Alumni Relations to forward e-mails and other inquiries from other members to the e-mail address of your choice without divulging your actual e-mail address. It also allows Rider to accept event registrations and online donations from alumni.
Because MyRider requires some personal information for registration, it was built on an e-commerce platform similar to what an online business would use to protect credit card numbers. “Secure online registration was a vital consideration when designing MyRider,” Pollard said. “Our users can feel safe on MyRider because they can make their entries as public or as private as they want. This is really social networking that puts you in control.”
While Alumni Relations is actively recruiting new MyRider members from its existing alumni base, the office is getting an early jump on future alums. “Current juniors and seniors from the Lawrenceville and Princeton campuses are eligible to join MyRider,” said Pollard. “Our intent is to cultivate our students before they leave campus and encourage them to make full use of the online community as future alumni.”
Because many alumni identify more closely with their former classmates from various student groups – fraternities and sororities, residence halls, clubs, majors, for example – than by class year, MyRider allows alums from these groups to stay linked through Affinity Chapters. Alumni Relations, which has already established affinity chapters for Alumni of Color, Graduate Business, Hand Bell and Music Education, hopes to create many additional affinity chapters through the networking capabilities of MyRider.
Alumni Relations also hopes to augment its existing regional alumni chapters through MyRider membership, as well as establish new ones wherever pockets of interested alumni reside. Currently, there are chapters representing Central New Jersey, the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area, and the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.
To join MyRider, click on the alumni and friends link on the Rider home page or simply go to http://alumni.rider.edu. Then click “login” in the top right corner of the page and follow the instructions. Your registration will be verified within 48 hours. For more information about MyRider, call the Office of Alumni Relations at 609-896-5340.
Submitted on March 13, 2008
