MU alumni who served in the military might soon have a new group to network with. Retired Army SMG Richard Grant is leading a movement to create a new organization: the MU Veteran Alumni Club.
This club would provide benefits to veterans if it becomes a recognized MU alumni group. [A Facebook page](http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Missouri-Veteran-Alumni-Club/134223809987093) with the same name was created to gain attention and garner a following.
The page posted in its information section exactly what an alumni club can offer: opportunities for networking, events, potential funding for scholarships and preserving friendships. The group hopes to draw on the unifying experience of serving in the military to gain members.
Alumni Relations Director Jayson Meyer said the MU Veteran Alumni Club has an interesting, challenging and unique road ahead of it.
“The creation of this group is new ground, and I have nothing to compare it to,” he said. “This group is outside the traditional Mizzou experience. It’s unique. Not everyone became a veteran at Mizzou but still have the common interest and shared experience.”
Meyer also said since this is a unusual undertaking it faces challenges a normal alumni group wouldn’t face.
“We have an obstacle of information,” he said. “We have to have some way to verify that the people who want to be a part of this group are indeed veterans. We don’t have those kinds of documents readily available like we do with other regionally-based or constituent-based groups. We’ll need to do some research.”
The other major challenge to face is one that any alumni groups faces — the level of interest in the group.
“We have to stay relevant,” Grant said. “Word of mouth is good but we need more. We need people to ‘like’ the University of Missouri Veteran Alumni Club’s Facebook page. We may not be able to reach my generation as easily through something like Facebook but we’ll hit the next generation for sure.”
Grant said once the group has a decent number of followers, he is confident it will thrive.
“Then, once we have a decent following and become an actual alumni group through MU we’ll be able to get more publicity from the school itself and gain more members,” he said.
This group would be the fourth affinity-based alumni group. The other three are groups for the marching band, varsity athletes and Army ROTC. In addition to these three groups, there are more than 100 regionally-based alumni groups, as well as 16 constituent groups, already recognized.
Grant and Meyer both talked about potential timelines but have yet to work out those details.
Jim Gwinner, an Army ROTC alumni group board member, said he is confident in the group’s future.
“Although any affinity group has a challenge, as they don’t have a common place all the time, Rich is very successful in everything he does,” he said.
