The Kansas University Alumni Association could be compared to a giant Post-it Note with the words “Call KU” scrawled on it.

Kirk Cerny, the association’s senior vice president for membership services, said that at its core, the 45,000-member association is about making sure all Jayhawks keep in touch with the university.

Kirk Cerny, senior vice president for the Kansas Alumni Association membership services, displays the Kansas Alumni magazine. The magazine in January marked its 100th year.

“We really want to help them stay connected with their university,” Cerny said. “We do our very best to remind people of their lifelong relationship with KU.”

The most visible reminder comes in the mail every other month in the form of Kansas Alumni Magazine. The publication focuses not only on what’s happening on campus but also features profiles and news concerning alumni members from across the world.

“It is read not unlike the New Yorker or the Atlantic Monthly,” Cerny said. “It always has great stories whether you walked the Hill or not.”

The association also sponsors about 150 events ranging from meet and greets with KU coaches to discussions about the future of higher education.

“That’s another real benefit,” Cerny said. “As a member, you receive automatic invitations to lots of KU events.”

The events aren’t just limited to the Lawrence area. The association has 70 chapters across the country and 13 others located outside the country.

The association also sponsors a Kansas Honors program that ensures KU has a presence in all 105 Kansas counties. The program honors the top 10 percent of all Kansas high school seniors and features an award banquet in each county.

“We try to make it very hard for anyone to forget the university,” Cerny said.

And although not an official agent for the university, the association is heavily involved in helping the university get out some of its most important messages. The association is involved in spreading information to its members about the university’s current capital fund-raising campaign, KU First.

“The association serves as a conduit between alumni and the university,” Cerny said. “When the university is in need of communicating a specific message to the alumni, or when the alumni is in need of communicating a message to the university, we have been there to fill that role.”

More and more people want to be a part of the association, Cerny said. The association’s membership has seen a steady increase over the years, and not all of it comes from former KU students.

Cerny said the organization continued to see an increasing number of parents who weren’t KU alumni but who did send their children to KU.

“One of the things that really interests me is the number of parents we see at new student orientation who want to become members,” Cerny said. “They want to know what is going on on campus. They want to know maybe what their students aren’t telling them.

“My parents were the same way. They graduated from Nebraska but sent me to KU and they wanted to keep up on where they were sending the checks.”

The association allows parents to join the association, even if they never attended KU, but they only are allowed to become associate members, which means they are not allowed to vote on association issues.

Cerny said membership also was increasing in the association’s Jayhawk Society, which goes beyond the basic membership by providing discounts at the KU Bookstore and other places that sell KU memorabilia.

“It’s becoming real popular because when people start to do their holiday shopping, they realize it is pretty easy to recoup their whole membership fees by taking advantage of the discounts,” Cerny said.

But most people, Cerny said, don’t join the association to save a few dollars on their favorite KU T-shirt or paper weight. Instead they join because they know it can benefit them and their university.

“The key to all of this is that a person’s education hinges upon the reputation and quality of the institution they attended,” Cerny said. “That means they have a vested interest in the institution not only for the four or five years that they were here, but for the rest of their life.

“Most people understand that if you can help ensure that your degree remains as valuable as possible by helping make the university as strong as possible.”