Letter from the President
June, 2007
Dear Fellow Alumni,
Several months have passed since I last wrote an update, so I will try to catch you up on what has been going on. Following the "kick-off" 30th celebration of SGU in Grenada in January, your officers submitted to the University a 2007 Business Plan and budget (a first for the Alumni Association!) outlining our goals and expenses for 2007 and what assistance we would need from the school to help us implement them. Unfortunately, the University's Budget Committee did not meet until the end of April. Last month I was informed that the University will be giving an "allowance"/allotment to each of SGU's Alumni Associations (SOM, SVM, Graduate Studies and Arts and Sciences). At this time, we are still waiting for further clarification of support.
To better understand what has been going on "behind the scenes", I will try to briefly explain. Though it may seem like nothing is being done, we are in a process of total reorganization and it has not been easy. For years, everything was done out of Bay Shore. Now, all Alumni matters have been moved to Grenada. Secondly, the SOM AA was the only Alumni Association of SGU and now we have 4. To better coordinate all Alumni activities, they were brought under one entity, the Alumni Coordinating Board. All aspects of our association are being restructured.
The Office of Affairs/Relations asked Dr. Martin Stansky (Director of Alumni Development in the ACB) to design a website for all of the Alumni of SGU. Your officers made the decision to keep our own SOM website and work on it's further development for our specific needs. Dr. Nilay Shah still needs assistance with our website, but no one has come forward. Thus, we are considering "outsourcing" for assistance in development and maintenance of our site. We are hoping to add multiple areas to this site including, but not limited to, a SGU Logo items Store, Message Board for grads to post jobs available or ones they are seeking, Class notes/updates and CME opportunities. We are also working the school in updating our database of graduates so it is important that you keep us informed of changes. You may do this by filling out the "Contact Us" section on our website.
In the last few months, we were able to get the Grenada/Caribbean Chapter of our association underway. They have had monthly meetings and will be an asset to our association (as we hope all upcoming chapters will be). Additionally, we purchased scrub suits (4 sets for each of 5 therapists) for The Soothing Touch Clinic which we helped to provide the visually impaired with a profession. The Clinic is doing well and the University helps with supplying them with the building on Grand Anse campus as well as paying the wages of the sighted persons helping out with day-to-day management. The personnel working in the clinic are the "Significant Others" of med students and they are doing a wonderful job. We also paid the yearly liability insurance premium for the therapists again. Please check our site for a recent photo we received taken in front of the Clinic.
We are also in the process of getting together a shipment of needed supplies for the GAP (Grand Anse Pre-School which again is under the direction of an SO). The GAP assists in providing a wonderful educational resource for the students, staff and faculty of SGU. The University will be assisting us in this endeavor by paying for the shipping costs of these supplies to Grenada.
I know some of you have expressed an interest in CME activities and we will be working on opportunities for you once we have finished with the reorganization process. We have been in contact with SGU personnel in England and will be working to bring about a CME opportunity for our graduates to attend (possibly co-sponsored with our School of Veterinary Medicine). Some of you may not be aware that the SOM began a Charter Class in England (Umbria) in January 2007. We are also looking into a variety of other sites/avenues to provide CME opportunities for the alumni (including Grenada).
Finally, we were unable to pull things together for a post-graduation alumni event as hoped. We were waiting for feedback from the school as to the Plan/Budget we submitted. We also polled the 2007 graduating class and there was no apparent interest. I think it is important for each of you, as an alumnus, to realize that your input, support (financial and otherwise), assistance with projects, ideas/suggestions and interest are VITAL to the growth and success of YOUR Alumni Association. A number of Alumni have contacted me offering assistance with hosting and planning events to get our Chapters started in their areas. We will be working with them and hopefully, will be able to finalize plans for the fall. We are also putting things together for our Pledge Drive this fall. If you are interested in working with your officers, please contact me at bigshot92@excite.com. We are not the association.. YOU are!
On behalf of the other officers and myself, we thank you for your patience and support as we work together to build a stronger association to benefit all involved. We wish you a healthy and pleasant summer.
Sincerely,
Linda Klokow, MD
President, SGUSOM Alumni Association
