The UIAA’s Awards Committee is seeking nominations for our 2025 alumni awards program. As important UIAA partners, we would welcome any nominations you and your fellow volunteers would like to put forward. In particular, we are seeking nominations for the Distinguished Service, Illini Comeback, Lou Liay Spirit, and Honorary Alumni awards. The nomination form is available at https://uiaa.org/alumni-awards/, and we will consider nominations received by March 1. As a reminder, any nominations submitted during the previous two years (2023 and/or 2024) will remain active for this nominations cycle. If you have questions about the nomination process, please do not hesitate to reach out to Sheila Wenger (srwenger@illinois.edu) or Casey Arnold (caarnold@illinois.edu). 

Greetings Club Leaders,

I-L-L!

We are looking forward to seeing you on November 22, 2024 at 11:00 AM central time for our monthly Zoom meeting. If you need to access our Zoom meeting on Friday, November 22 you can join by clicking this link.

Our special guests for the November meeting are Jennifer Creasey, Assistant Vice President of State and External Relations, and Marissa Brewer, Director of Advocacy.  Jennifer and Marissa will provide insights into the ongoing initiatives of the University of Illinois System’s External Relations team, highlighting their efforts to strengthen community engagement and foster alumni connections. Additionally, they will offer a comprehensive overview of the Illinois Connection program, detailing its objectives and outlining how you can get involved to support the university’s mission and advocacy efforts.

Our special guests for the November meeting are Jennifer Creasey, Assistant Vice President of State and External Relations, and Marissa Brewer, Director of Advocacy.  Jennifer and Marissa will provide insights into the ongoing initiatives of the University of Illinois System’s External Relations team, highlighting their efforts to strengthen community engagement and foster alumni connections. Additionally, they will offer a comprehensive overview of the Illinois Connection program, detailing its objectives and outlining how you can get involved to support the university’s mission and advocacy efforts.

Thank you for your continued engagement and fundraising efforts on behalf of our beloved University and the Alumni Association.

Greetings Club Leaders,

If your club wishes to receive QR code postcards to capture your gameday event attendees, please complete this form.

Participating clubs are encouraged to pass out postcards with the QR codes individually to gamewatch attendees for them to sign into the event. Individuals who sign-in will be entered into a monthly drawing for a prize pack courtesy of the UIAA and Illinois Athletics. A list of your gamewatch attendees will be sent to clubs on a montly basis as the season progresses. If you plan to submit a request for reimbursement for a gamewatch event, there must be a confirmed attendance list for your gamewatch event. Additionally, if you need your attendance list prior to the end of the month to submit a reimbursement request, please e-mail Tyler Gagai.

Beginning on July 1, 2024, the following adjustments will be made to the Clubs Program/Tier System for participating Illini Clubs:

– Main Quad level clubs will be eligible for up to $1500 in reimbursements annually. The maximum reimbursement amount per event will still be $750. To qualify for reimbursement, your club must submit the post-event evaluation form, an itemized receipt (showing what was paid for), and a list of attendees for the event (if your club accepted registration via Magnet or a gamewatch QR code, you do not need to submit an attendance list with your post-event report). Illini Union level clubs and Morrow Plots level clubs will still received $500 and $250 respectively in reimbursement support per year.

– All clubs (Main Quad, Illini Union, and Morrow Plots) will be eligible to receive a dues-free checking account and FEIN support from our partners at the University of Illinois Community Credit Union. Interested clubs will need apply for an FEIN from the IRS website and then work directly with the UICCU to open a checking account. Please note that an FEIN is required in order to open a club checking account with UICCU. Additionally, you will need an FEIN to create a Stripe account if your club wishes to utilize the paid event registration and paid membership features available through your club’s Magnet node.

– A Professional and Personal Development Constituent Journey event category has been added as a new event type for FY25. Please note that these events are separate from the Networking event category. PPD event types include but are not limited to: Webinars with a PPD focus; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion events; Mentorship; Workshops, and Skill Development.

– The QR code resource for gamewatch (football and men’s basketball) attendee sign-ins will be a postcard-based program for FY25. If your club wishes to participate in the program for football season, please complete this form by August 16, 2024. Participating clubs are encouraged to pass out postcards with the QR codes individually to gamewatch attendees for them to sign into the event. Individuals who sign-in will be entered into a weekly drawing for a prize pack courtesy of the UIAA and Illinois Athletics. A list of your gamewatch attendees will be sent to clubs on a weekly basis as the season progresses. If you plan to submit a request for reimbursement for a gamewatch event, there must be a confirmed attendance list for your gamewatch event.

We hope that these expanded resources will help your club with your engagement goals for the upcoming year. As always, thank you for your continued partnership!

The University of Illinois Alumni Association’s new clubs program (aka tier system) will launch on July 1, 2022.  Beginning on that date, domestic regional, affinity, and identity clubs may begin to participate in the tier system by following the established guidelines and leveraging the offered resources.  For those clubs who have already notified the UIAA of their intention to participate in this new clubs program, we thank you for being tremendous partners to our organization and we look forward to working with your club to expand your audience. 

For clubs who plan to participate, please notify Tyler Gagai at gagai@uillinois.edu of your club’s intention to participate.   Conversely, if your club has decided to not participate in this program, please notify Tyler of your club’s intention to opt-out.

If your club is located outside of the United States, please note that the UIAA is unable to extend tier system resources to your club at this time.  However, the UIAA does encourage international alumni clubs to utilize our events information resource as a means of gathering ideas for events that will reach different constituencies.

Thank you for everything that your club does for our beloved University. We look forward to working with you to connect Illini alumni from all walks of life.

Foremost, welcome to the Illini Club Leaders Resource Website!  Moving forward, this website will be updated regularly with announcements from the UIAA that may impact your club in addition to important information and news from the University.  We highly recommend that you bookmark this site as it will not be accessible from the main UIAA website. Any important updates will be highlighted as announcements (as you are reading now).   Please note announcements will include but not limited to the following:

• Updates and changes to tier system resources and guidelines
• University of Illinois athletic schedules as they become available (this includes all DIA sports)
• Special announcements from the UIAA
• Monthly UIAA Club Leaders Zoom Meeting information
• Information related to major on-campus events, such as Homecoming

It is our intention that this website serves as a means of keeping all our clubs updated with timely and relevant information and helps strengthen your connection to the UIAA and the University of Illinois. We hope that your club utilizes this website on a regular basis.