Over 600,000 Pieces of Mail Handled Each Year By Alumni Directory to Keep Graduates Posted

Handling over 600,000 pieces of mail a year directed to all corners of the earth is one of the main duties of the Office of the Alumni Directory. It is in this office that all the data about graduates is kept.

Information stacked in numerous files, makes it possible to obtain any data about an alumnus immediately. What is more, two separate metal plate files enable the office to make out lists of graduates by class or by geographical location with only an hours notice. This information can either be obtained on galley sheets or envelopes within that time.

At present the Office is engaged in mailing ballots for the election of the new members to the Board of Overseers, Directors of the Alumni Association, and the Harvard Fund Council. These will have to be sent out to the 69,000 alumni in all parts of the world.

During the Tercentenary Year the Alumni Directory Office had to send out more than a million pieces of mail, which is the largest amount that they have had to handle in recent years. One of the largest problems of the Office is making sure that all the information on alumni is up-to-date, and every time that a correction comes in for a graduate's address or occupation, all the file cards that contain his name have to be changed, while new metal plates have to be made for the mechanical files.

The Office is responsible for publishing all the class reports and directories, and while as yet the House alumni activities have not reached any large extent, they are steadily increasing, and all their mailing has to go through the same place.

When some alumnus allies, his date of decease is entered on the card which has contained all the information about him up to that point and an obituary as pasted on the back of the file card.