Tips and Troubleshooting Tricks

Please check back for more tips and troubleshooting tricks as I continue to add them / receive new questions about the portal. 

If Alumni Are Not Receiving Portal Emails

If you cannot find an alum who you know is locally based in the “Ross Alumni in the Area” filter, or if an alum has told you that they are not receiving club emails, a few things may be going on. Read on to setl-troubleshoot: 

Scenario 1: The Alumni’s Information Is Outdated In Our Internal System, and Thus Is Not Reflected as Living In Your Metro Area.

The alumni clubs’ regional email distribution lists automatically pull in anyone listed in our CRM system with a mailing address from that metro area. For example, if Jane Doe updates her address in iMpact to 1100 First Avenue, Chicago, IL, she will be automatically placed on the Michigan Ross Alumni Club of Chicago email distribution list.

This means that recent graduates who provide us with their new address are automatically added/subscribed to the appropriate regional  club’s distribution list. 

However, if an alum moves and doesn’t update their information with the University, our system doesn’t know that they’ve moved and can’t add them to their new alumni club’s email list, if there is one nearby. This is why it’s very helpful if club leadership can briefly but consistently remind alumni to be sure to update their contact information in Michigan Ross’s system! 

Alumni can update their information directly at this link, click on “Update My Information” on the Michigan Ross Alumni homepage, or can email any changes to their address or contact information to RossAlumni@umich.edu

Scenario 2: The Alumni Has (Knowingly/Unknowingly) Opted Out of Some/All Ross Emails. 

Alums can opt out of receiving emails from the club at any time. (This is why we are careful about the number of emails we sent as a School, and why we encourage clubs to take care in the number of emails they send to alumni as well.)

Historically, if alumni opted out of ANY correspondence from Michigan Ross — like annual fund requests, updates from the dean or eNewsletters, for example — they would also automatically stop receiving club emails as well. However, this has recently changed, and alumni can now opt out of one type of Michigan Ross email while choosing to continue to receive others — like alumni club correspondence, for example. But individuals who have already unknowingly opted out of the clubs before this change took place may still not be receiving messages, and not understand why. 

In this scenario, a club officer with portal access will need to pull up that alum’s information in the portal using the “Members” tab and change their email settings to “Opt In.”  

Scenario 3: Some Web Tweaks Are Necessary to Avoid Spam Flags. 
  • Alumni Club emails, especially if sent to a large email distribution list, can occasionally be filtered into a Spam or Promotions folder by your email platform before they ever reach an alum’s Inbox. Please ask the alum to check any such folders in their email account. 
  • Club emails with a ‘reply to’ email address that is not an @umich.edu address have a much greater likelihood of being flagged as spam or otherwise having trouble navigating to inboxes. We encourage you or your Communications officer to utilize their @umich.edu email address whenever sending correspondence from the portal’s email tool. 
Scenario 4: The Alum’s Permanent Address is Not In Your City; Must Join Club Manually.

Alumni can be members of multiple alumni clubs. Any Ross alum, whether or not they reside in your club’s region, can add themselves to your club’s distribution list. This is especially applicable if an individual doesn’t live full-time in a city but travels there for work or lives there part of the year, and would like to receive the alumni club’s updates.

An alum can manually join an alumni club by selecting the “Join Club” option on the right hand side of your club’s homepage. At this point, the individual can also choose if they would like to “Opt In” to receive email correspondence from the club as well (I expect all will if they are joining the club).

Adding Non-Local Alums As Members: Alumni Club Officer Method

Alums designated as club officers on the portal can also manually add Ross alumni who do not have Chicago addresses to their club’s distribution list. To do this: 

Go to the Alumni Club Portal –> Members tab at the top of the page –> “Add/Edit Members” button –> Search for name of alum to be added –> Click on name when it appears, and select “Opted in” from the “Email List Status” drop-down menu. Then save. 

You may see multiple entries appear for one person. If this happens, the entry that includes the alum’s degree information is the one that should be added to the email list; DO NOT add both. 

If you have investigated each of these scenarios and the alum is still not receiving club emails, please email MiRossAlumniClubs@umich.edu for assistance. Changes will take 24-48 hours to be active in the system.