WAA wins national recognition

When the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) redesigned its Web site in early 2001, it was hoping to strike a chord with UW graduates. It managed to strike gold, as well.

The American Society of Association Executives honored WAA’s Web site with a 2001 Gold Circle Award for excellence in the area of total site redesign. ASAE also honored Grandparents University, a WAA-sponsored event, with a second-place certificate for achievement in the area of educational programming. More than 10,000 organizations with budgets of more than $2 million may apply for Gold Circle Awards, national prizes that recognize the accomplishments of volunteer associations.

“These are tremendous honors,” says WAA President and CEO Paula Bonner. “Some of the country’s most prestigious organizations compete for Gold Circle Awards, and taking two of them shows what high-quality work our staff is doing.”

“We had a great team working on this redesign,” says Matthew Breen, WAA’s Web specialist. “Our staff examined every aspect of the site, and we brought in volunteer alumni to test the site’s structure and content. Their input refined our vision of what uwalumni.com should be.” Launched in early 2001, the redesigned Web site has risen to more than 100,000 in the number of visitors per month.

Grandparents University, too, generated high alumni participation. In its inaugural year, the program enrolled its maximum 160 grandparent-grandchild pairs came to Madison to learn from university faculty.

“Many hands worked together to make Grandparents University a success – not just WAA staff, but also the event’s co-sponsors at the UW Extension Family Living Programs,” says Jeff Wendorf, WAA vice president of programs and outreach. “We’ll work to build on that success in the coming years.”

The American Society of Association Executives is an advocate for the nonprofit sector. Known as the association of associations, ASAE is dedicated to advancing the value of voluntary associations to society, and to supporting the professionalism of individuals who lead them. It represents about 10,000 associations serving more than 287 million people and companies worldwide.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) has been serving UW–Madison and its graduates since 1861. WAA provides an array of services, including On Wisconsin, a quarterly alumni magazine; an international travel program; a career database program; and an extensive student relations program.