From our Alumni Relations Officer: Karen Sage

A little about me

Hi.  My name is Karen Sage, and I began working three days a week in June 2009, based at the School. I started my working life as a trainee journalist on engineering trade journals, having gained an electrical engineering degree from Imperial College, London. Having reached the dizzy heights of Editor at the age of 26, family commitments and a move from SE England to Aberdeen saw me change direction and move into public relations, a career which I continue to pursue, now back in London. I have worked in the communications field in a chamber of commerce, a PR agency, an oil drilling company and now a school!

My email address is aro@jcc.org.uk and you can phone me on 020 7489 4766. 

Latest post: 5 February 2010

Yesterday's gathering of Old Citizens in the finance profession saw OC undergraduates from as far afield as Durham coming together for the evening to network with former pupils already established in the finance sector. More than 50 OCs attended the event and, judging by the feedback, the evening was a success. 

All of the undergraduates I spoke to were really pleased to have been given the opportunity to make contacts from within the School's alumni who could one day make the difference in helping them secure gainful employment in their chosen sector. The established OCs found the evening worthwhile as it gave them an opportunity to see the school and teachers again or, in some cases, for the first time, as well as enabling them to give the benefit of their experience to our younger OCs.

Our next professional gathering is for OCs in the creative industries on 25 February, which I imagine may have a slightly different feel to it but which, hopefully, will be equally successful.

12 January 2010

A new decade has dawned and I am looking forward to a busy 12 months when hopefully the development of alumni relations at CLS will continue to move onwards and upwards. I was greeted by hundreds of emails on my return to work, most of which were positive, relating to forthcoming events, new contact details, or enquiries about getting in touch with former class mates.

Some of the new ideas I touched on in my 7 December blog have already come to fruition, with the introduction of a blog by the School's Second Master, Gary Griffin, which will give Old Cits a flavour of what is happening in the School. Next on my list is setting up groups for at least some of our main OC professional groupings on the LinkedIn networking site.

As promised, I did set up an experimental YouTube channel to give OCs an idea of what CLS OC 'talking head' videos might look like, the idea being simply to use the YouTube video footage on our own JCC site, as it allows us to stream the video straight from the website. A few OCs have already said they would be happy to either be videod or provide video footage taken by family or friends of them talking about their school days or other incidents which might be of interest to other OCs.

If anyone would like to be recorded on film for posterity and the JCC archives, please email me at aro@jcc.org.uk, giving me an idea of what you'd like to talk about. I plan to do most of these over the quieter summer months.

16 December 2009

This is my last day in the office until 11 January so to all of you who read this blog:  

Season's greetings and a happy and healthy New Year! 

As well as trying to squeeze into one day all of those jobs on my 'to do' list I haven't had a chance to do for weeks, my thoughts have turned to the 'practice' videos of 'Old Cits talking' which I shall be taking over the festive period. My mother, who is 80, has agreed to be the 'dummy OC', talking, in her case, about her childhood in Jarrow, among other things. As well as testing the quality of my video camera in terms of vision and sound it will keep one old lady very happy over Christmas.

7 December

Following a training seminar I attended last Friday about improving online alumni communications, I am now fired up with new ideas relating to how we currently use Facebook, and introducing videos, podcasts, more blogs etc. to our website, so watch this space! I'm pleased to say that our activity in the Web 2.0 arena compares reasonably well with that of the other schools whose alumni relations officers attended the same seminar.

The 1991/2/3 leavers' reunion last week was enjoyed by everyone who attended, although the numbers were lower than anticipated. I have noted suggestions relating to (lack of) coat racks, school tours and the timing of the event, all of which will be taken on board for our next round of reunions in the 2010/11 academic year.

Although Christmas approaches, I am focusing on the 1987/88/89 leavers' reunion taking place on 25 January, to which only 17 OCs have responded positively. So I'm going to be busy trying to contact other OCs from those years to see if I can bring the numbers up to a more satisfactory level. Friends Reunited isn't going to know what's hit it! Hopefully I won't get temporarily banned for sending too many messages to individuals, as I did on Facebook the other week!

18 November 

It's nice to receive so much mail of both the 'snail' and 'e' variety, as well as a few phone calls, following your receipt of The Gazette. Many thanks to all of you who have sent me messages of welcome, updated details for the database and pictures for the Rogues Gallery - which should be fully functional very soon. Quite a few of you also sent in the names of the OCs and teachers who appeared in the photo on page 15 of The Gazette. I have passed these on to the Editor, Brian Millo, who will no doubt publish your findings in the next issue.

The ether has been positively buzzing with hundreds of emails flying in relating to attendance at the eight events we have scheduled between now and June next year (see forthcoming events). Keep them coming and don't forget to send me your news as well, for inclusion in the members' news section of the website and The Gazette.

The four careers workshops in medicine, law, finance and engineering during October and November went extremely well with Old Cits on hand to give good advice to the 60 or more boys who attended each one. This format of the workshops, where introductions were followed by Q & As and then an opportunity for one-to-one discussions in an informal setting, seemed to work well and we plan to hold more workshops next school year.

I visited the House of Lords a few days ago, along with Dickie Jones, our Treasurer, to meet the banqueting manager and look round the venue in preparation for the Annual Dinner on Wed 10 March 2010. We were given a brief tour of parts of the building, which promises to be, once again, a splendid venue for this event.

I look forward to meeting some of you at our AGM next week.

7 October

Communications with Old Cits in Australia and Canada, sending out table host invitations for the School's Tate Modern Dinner bursary fundraiser, and emailing, Facebooking and sending letters to 1991/92/93 leavers about our reunion in November (see 'forthcoming events'), have been keeping me busy over the last few weeks.  

I am now embarking on a weekly search for interesting facts, figures and anecdotes about alumni to include in a regular column of the School's 'The Citizen' newsletter to try and raise the profile of the alumni association among younger boys in the school. In this endeavour I am being ably assisted by Terry Heard in our archives department.

I recently attended a venues exhibition just along the river in Old Billingsgate, where I picked up some ideas for activities and venues, with a difference, that might appeal to the younger generation of Old Cits.

The School's careers workshops in medicine, law and engineering are coming up this month, which I shall be attending, along with some Old Cits, whom I understand will be advising and mentoring the School's lower and upper sixth formers. I'll let you know how they went in my next blog.

17 September

Three months into the job and it's full steam ahead! Reunions, dinners and careers workshops all loom large on the horizon. The database is my constant companion and has so far brought some solace to an Old Cit who left in 1952 in search of his old class mates, a former pupil based in Israel looking to set up an alumni association there, and a 2009 leaver in search of an engineering placement. Facebook has proved a real boon for communicating with some of our alumni, although I have yet to figure out whether Twittering will help or not.

I recently touched base with the Chairwoman of the City of London Old Girls Association and some of her colleagues to swap stories on how we organise our alumni relations. The meeting was very convivial, and we both came away with some useful contacts and a promise to stay in touch.

Encouraging the younger generations of alumni to keep in touch and participate in events is one of my key objectives in this role and the idea of an under-35s club seemed to go down well with the 2,600+ alumni I emailed a few weeks ago. I received lots of good feedback which I hope to translate into a get-together early next year.