Barker College has always been known for its strong sense of community — a place where connections don’t end at graduation. With more than 18,000 alumni stretching back to the 1940s, the school’s motto that former students are “here for life” isn’t just a sentiment, it’s a living network that spans generations.
But managing that ever-expanding network hasn’t always been easy. Before Veracross, Barker’s alumni team was juggling multiple databases, spreadsheets, and outdated systems to piece together a single picture of each person. Often relying on manual fixes just to send a simple piece of communication. The challenge was clear: they needed one system of truth to manage every relationship, from enrolment to old scholar.
In this conversation, we speak to Karina Drummond, Director of Alumni and Community Relations at Barker College, on how Veracross has streamlined their work, improved engagement, and given new life to the school’s “here for life” promise.
Can you tell us a bit about the alumni program at Barker College?
We have a really strong sense of community, and our alumni association tagline is that they’re “here for life.” When students graduate, we encourage them to stay connected throughout their life. We offer career mentoring and other benefits for keeping in touch.
Many go on to become parents or grandparents one day, so we’re a multigenerational school. We don’t have contact details for everyone, but we’re regularly able to contact around 18,500 alumni, stretching back to the 1940s.
We treat our VIPs — our OBA (Old Barker Association) seniors — as very special. These are people who graduated 50 years or more ago. At our recent luncheon, our oldest attendee was from the class of 1948, and he’s been a regular attendee over many years. We have classes at those events right through to the class of 1975, and we add a new year group each year.
We also hold events for our most recent leavers. We offer career and mental health support too, including free sessions with a psychologist if needed. Whatever you need in life, we try to support our alumni.
Besides local events, we also run events all around the world. Wherever our alumni are, we try to create a network for them. Recently, we held five events in the US, and in November we have Canberra and Perth events planned. We always rotate the locations.
I had a breakfast session with a group of alumni people in my role at different schools recently, and people are asking about Veracross. They want to know because we’ve all felt the pain before Veracross.
What were some of the challenges you had with your previous alumni tech stack?
Before Veracross, we were cobbling together data from three different systems. We were accessing an archive version for older alumni, a current student database, and an online networking system originally set up just for alumni to connect with each other, but we ended up having to rely on it because we had no other way to track relationships, which is so important in a multigenerational school. It wasn’t pretty. We were relying on exporting data spreadsheets, checking we didn’t have duplicates, and making sure we were contacting the right people. It was quite a challenge.
During talks about looking for a new SIS, were there any non-negotiables?
Vital to us is the one record per person. So wherever someone is in the student journey, if they’re in the application being enrolled as a baby right through to alumni, they’re in the system once, regardless of what role they have.
Many alumni are also current or former staff, or current or future parents or grandparents. We need to see, at a glance, that one person and all the roles attached to them.
The second big thing for us — aside from contact details — was relationship tracking. We want to know how a current student might be connected to other alumni and track all those relationships.
Were there operational or administrative improvements you were hoping to achieve with the new SIS?
We’ve already noticed the speed with which we can get data. We’re still implementing some data, but the power of queries in Veracross is such an improvement over what we had before. You can drill down and be very specific about what you’re looking for, that helps with the many different types of events and data needs. So Veracross has been a gamechanger.
We can now do the queries ourselves and find people. We don’t need support now that we’ve learnt. It might be the grandparent of a current student, or find people by location, and that they’re from a particular year range. We can drill down by postcode range. For regional events, that’s quite handy.
Have you found efficiencies in other areas too?
Definitely in not dealing with spreadsheets. Being able to go straight from a query to communications and being able to track who’s opened the communication, and really target what we’re saying through personalisation. We don’t send the same message to every alumni. We think about what’s of interest to them, what age they are. The queries make a world of difference.
Do you feel Veracross is enabling Barker College to lead the way in alumni relations?
Yes, I really think so. The school values its alumni deeply and provides so many opportunities for them. The goal is to be the leading alumni association, and all these initiatives point to that.
I had a breakfast session with a group of alumni people in my role at different schools recently, and people are asking about Veracross. They want to know because we’ve all felt the pain before Veracross.
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Book a demo with our team to learn what’s possible with a Veracross SIS.
