While still in a formative stage, an active Alumni Network can fulfill many needs for both LFHS Alumni and our community. Here are some possible outcomes from a coordinated effort of Alumni working together:

• Maintain an online directory of alumni which allows each person registering to decide how their contact information can be disclosed to other alumni
• Alumni Network infrastructure such as directory maintenance, online announcements, bulletin boards and e-mail distribution being used to assist individual class reunion volunteers in promoting and coordinating successful reunion events.
• Facilitate building of life long relationships among LFHS Alumni, including connecting with former Little Falls residents now living throughout the world
• Communicating needs of today’s LF High School and community which Alumni can assist:
  • Profiling of LFHS success stories that can be role models for current students
  • Coordinating alumni presentations on career paths and life choices
  • Raising visibility to program and facility needs not met by existing budget and local resources
  • Increasing donor participation in Little Falls Community Chest
  • Increasing volunteer participation in LFHS and community organizations
• Serve as a resource for posting of professional employment opportunities in the Mohawk Valley and communicating with expatriate LFHS Alumni that desire to return to the community.

Why the web site is key to building the Alumni Network

Not long ago, the work of keeping large directories current, publishing and distributing updated content, and facilitating contact between members of a large group were all functions requiring huge amounts of labor, printing costs, postage expense and other overhead to perform. So much overhead, in fact, that none of these functions were ever attempted to be undertaken for a school-wide alumni network.

Use of the internet to publish and distribute communications, and more importantly, provide self service maintenance of an alumni directory, combine to create an opportunity for building alumni community that would not be possible using traditional manual methods.

While today’s LFHS Alumni site is still in its infancy, a continual effort towards improvement can increase the functionality and content so that it could become an instrumental communications vehicle for current and former residents of Little Falls. We also note that with each passing year, the technological sophistication of our children surpass that of earlier generations. Many of the more recent and coming graduates are equipped to not just participate in an online community, but lead in the development of web based capabilities that can benefit the entire Alumni Network.

Quite simply, it is creation of an interactive web presence that makes it possible to work towards building a meaningful alumni network for the benefit of our school, community and individual graduates of LFHS.

Representative Near Term Goals:

• Publicize site, drawing in participates to register for access to school wide alumni directory.
• Expand volunteer participation by creating a series of smaller roles requiring limited time commitment
• Identify core team of interested volunteers willing to serve in leadership roles for the overall Alumni Network
• Increase donation levels to expand site functionality for ease in publishing new content and coordinating class reunions
• Charter a non profit organization
• By graduation day, enroll all senior class members in the Alumni Network (starting with class of 2006)
• Share Alumni Network infrastructure to help coordinators of class reunions.
• Conduct Canal Days reception to recognize LFHS Alumni Network donors and volunteers

Learn more about how you can help contribute to these goals and consider volunteering