Part 3. Modules

3.15 Alumni

Version 1.0 ·Updated 2026-10-07

Next reviewed by 2027-04-07.

Written for a school's staff learning how Kestrel works, the trainers who teach them, and the families using the portal.

The school's former students: their details and leaving year, the ones who cannot be reached, the association and its office bearers, and the reunions and functions the office runs.

Written forAdvancementDevelopment managerEvent volunteer

What it is for

Alumni is where the development office keeps in touch with the school's former students. A former student is the same person Kestrel knew at school, so their name, contact details and the year they left come with them. The office records what they tell it since, runs the association and its committees, and plans the reunions, functions and meetings it invites them to.

Kestrel works out the year each former student left from their enrolment. When a former student tells the school they belong to a different year, their word wins.

Who uses it

Role	What they can do
Advancement	Read and record former students and their details, keep the associations and their office bearers, plan events, send invitations and tick guests in.
Development manager	Everything the Advancement role can do here.
Event volunteer	Read the guest list by name and tick a guest in at the door of the events the office put them on, with no contact detail.

In plain words, the capabilities are: reading former students and events (advancement.constituent.read), recording them (advancement.constituent.write), reading an event's tickets and an association's members (advancement.gift.read), selling tickets and recording members (advancement.gift.write), sending invitations (advancement.appeal.send) and checking guests in (advancement.event.checkin). The Alumni entry appears in the console for a person who can read former students and events, and for a person who can check guests in, who sees only At the door.

Key ideas

Former student: A person whose enrolment at the school has ended. They keep the record they had as a student.
Leaving year: The year a former student left, worked out from their enrolment. A year they give themselves replaces it.
Alumni detail: Something a former student told the school, such as where they work, with where it came from. A detail is closed when it stops being true, and the record keeps what they said before.
Cannot be reached: A former student whose email has bounced, whose mobile or phone has failed, whose letters came back, or who has no address recorded.
Association: The association of former students, and its chapters and committees. Each has roles, such as president, that a person fills from a first day to a last day.
Event: A reunion, a function or a meeting, with its venue, its places and the fund it raises for, if any.
Class representative: A former student who drafts an invitation for their year on the portal. The office reads it and sends it.

Screens

Former students
/app/advancement/alumni
The school's former students, searched by any name they have had and narrowed by leaving year, house and campus on their last day, membership, or those with no working email, phone or postal address.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
New sign-ups
/app/advancement/sign-ups
Each public alumni sign-up still to be settled, newest first, with what they wrote and the records the school already has that may be the same person. "Compare and merge" opens the merge with the record the school had, and "Keep as a new person" takes the sign-up off the list.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Events
/app/advancement/events
Reunions, functions and meetings, with how many were invited and how many are coming. "Plan an event" is here.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Event
/app/advancement/events/[id]
One event: its responses, "Invite", "Record an answer", and links to its Arrivals, Seating and Tickets.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Tickets
/app/advancement/events/[id]/tickets
The ticket types an event sells, who has bought one, and who is waiting.
Needs advancement.gift.read
Seating
/app/advancement/events/[id]/seating
The event's tables and who sits at each, with links to its name badges and caterer's list. Adding a table or seating a guest needs advancement.constituent.write.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Name badges
/app/advancement/events/[id]/badges
Each guest's name badge, ready to print. Open it from Seating.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Caterer's list
/app/advancement/events/[id]/caterer
Each guest with a ticket and their table, ready to print for the caterer. Open it from Seating.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Arrivals
/app/advancement/events/[id]/arrivals
The door on the night: scan a ticket with the camera or type its code, or find a guest by name and "Tick in". Under Walk-ins, "Add and tick in" records a guest who was not invited, and needs advancement.constituent.write.
Needs advancement.event.checkin
At the door
/app/advancement/door-events
The events still to come whose door you are on, soonest first. Choose one to open its Arrivals.
Needs advancement.event.checkin
Associations
/app/advancement/associations
The association, its chapters and its committees, with how many office bearers each has today. "Add an association" is here.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Association
/app/advancement/associations/[code]
Its office bearers on a chosen day and each role it has had. "Record a role" and "End the role" are here.
Needs advancement.constituent.read
Members
/app/advancement/associations/[code]/members
Who has paid to join, whether each is financial or lapsed, and what their membership covers. Open it from the association.
Needs advancement.gift.read
Meetings
/app/advancement/associations/[code]/meetings
The association's meetings and the papers filed for each.
Class invitations
/app/advancement/class-invitations
Each invitation a class representative drafted for their year. Open it with "Class invitations" on Events. "Send to the year" sends it by email and needs advancement.appeal.send.
Needs advancement.constituent.read

Run a reunion

Open Alumni from the console, then Events, and choose "Plan an event". Give its name, the kind Reunion, when it Starts and Ends, the Venue and its Places.
On the event, choose "Invite". Tick the groups, such as a leaving year, each showing how many contacts it names, or type others under Other groups, one to a line or with commas between. Choose to Send by Email, SMS or both, and write the Subject and Message. The button then says how many contacts the invitation reaches at most. Choose it, and Kestrel tells you how many it was sent to and how many were not sent it.
As answers come in by phone or on paper, choose "Record an answer", the guest, and Coming, Not coming or Maybe.
Before the night, set the tables on Seating, then open the name badges and the caterer's list from Seating and print them.
Under "On the door" on the event, choose who checks guests in and "Put on the door".
On the night, open Arrivals on a tablet at the door and tick each guest in.

Find former students who cannot be reached

Open Alumni, then Former students, choose "Cannot be reached" under Reach, and choose a Leaving year.
Open a former student's record and update how to reach them.
When a former student tells you something new, choose "Record a detail" in the Alumni section of their record, and say What it is, What they said and Where it came from.

What a former student sees

A former student who signs in to the portal sees "Your alumni details", "Your invitations", "Your giving" and "Your memberships". A member of the association's council also sees "Your council", with its meetings and papers. While the school shows the directory, they see "Alumni directory", where they can join, choose what shows beside their name, find a classmate and send them a message through the school.

A former student the school has lost touch with can sign up on the public alumni form the school designs in Forms, with the key "advancement-alumni-signup". The form asks their date of birth under the key "date-of-birth", and Kestrel refuses a sign-up from anyone under 18. Kestrel records them with their date of birth, the year they say they belong to, the way they can be reached and their yes to hear from the development office. Each sign-up is a new person until the office reads it on New sign-ups and either merges it with the record the school already has or keeps it.

Tasks

Find the former students of a year who cannot be reached.
Record a detail a former student told the school.
Add an association and record its office bearers.
Plan a reunion, invite a year and record the answers.
Set the seating and print the badges and the caterer's list.
Tick guests in at the door.
Send a class representative's invitation to their year.

Settings

The Development office settings page has the alumni directory. "Show the directory" turns it on or off, and each listing is kept while it is off. A listing someone raises a concern about can be taken down, then shown again or removed. The association's membership types are kept on the same page.

Training notes

Who needs it: the development office. A door volunteer needs five minutes on Arrivals.
Suggested length: thirty minutes.
Practise on the test school: plan a reunion, invite a leaving year, record an answer and tick the guest in.