When Jeff Pilgrim returned to the Williston Northampton School to take over the position as director of alumni relations two years ago, he knew he had a problem—a big one.
As a Williston Northampton graduate, Mr. Pilgrim wanted to reconnect with other alumni, particularly those he knew. For alumni relations, he wanted to schedule fun events for alumni in certain cities, connect alumni with each other, and highlight those doing interesting work in their fields. As part of the Advancement Office, Mr. Pilgrim also wanted to make sure that his colleagues were making the right Williston connections whenever, and wherever, they traveled.
None of that, though, was happening when Mr. Pilgrim arrived—or at least not to the extent that he wanted it to.
“The current alumni directory that we have isn’t very reliable,” Mr. Pilgrim said. “And even the printed version we have is outdated.”
When alumni called, asking Mr. Pilgrim to provide them with a list of Williston Northampton graduates in the Boston area, for example, Mr. Pilgrim had to tell them that he couldn’t create a complete and accurate list.
“I’ve gotten a lot of questions from people asking, Can you provide this information about this alum?” he said. “It would be much easier if they had something that was updated on a regular basis where they didn’t have to reach out to us but they can find those people on their own.”
From his experience in private schools, Mr. Pilgrim knew that there were better ways for alumni to network, particularly on mobile devices. After vetting a couple of options, and talking to peers, Mr. Pilgrim opted for EverTrue, a community app for schools. EverTrue is designed for mobile devices, offers search options by class year, location, and career, and has the added advantage of an affiliation with LinkedIn that lets users verify their information and make connections through the site.
“I’m hoping that Ever True, because of its relationship with LinkedIn, will augment our database so it’s much more accurate,” Mr. Pilgrim said. “And likewise with our alums, I want them to be able to start networking, which they have not been able to do.”
The app will not only allow the school to keep on top of constantly changing information—such as email addresses, mailing addresses, and career changes—it will also help alumni find out about more events and connect with Williston Northampton through social media, Mr. Pilgrim said.
“Now hopefully we’ll be able to tweet something and it pops up for them,” he said.
Since Mr. Pilgrim began beta testing the EverTrue app at the end of September, he’s heard nothing but positive responses.
“Just set this up,” Matt Roberts ’87 wrote after testing the app. “It’s unbelievable when you see who your classmates know on LinkedIn and where they are now.”
As of this week, Mr. Pilgrim opened the app to all alumni. The app is now available for download in the Apple App store or the Google Play store. (Users can download the “EverTrue” app and select the “Williston Northampton School” community to activate their accounts.)
Of course, just like the printed database, the same prohibitions against using connections for solicitations, sales, and other no-nos still apply. In other words, the format may have changed, but the school still frowns on spam and other inappropriate uses of the directory.
So according to Mr. Pilgrim, what will be the sign that the EverTrue app is a success? He says he’ll know that moment when people start to get in touch about events before the invitations go out, or when the manager of the alumni database starts to complain that she has too many records to update.
“I’ll be curious to see how many people actually use it,” he said. “I’m excited…I think that we’re finally going to catch up with a lot of other schools.”
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