Letter from the President

April, 2008
Dear Fellow Alumni,

I apologize for the lengthy gap between letters from the President. Your officers are trying to stay very "upbeat" as we continue to traverse the ongoing reorganization of our Association. Even though we are the largest alumni association of SGU, we are now under the domain of the Alumni Relations Office (based in Grenada) which oversees all of SGU's alumni associations.

Many of you have already signed on to the alumni relations website (alumnirelations.sgu.edu) which was created/developed by one of our graduates (Dr. Martin Stransky) to give all alumni of SGU a single site to collate information for all our graduates. From there, graduates can link to their specific school for additional information (SOM, SVM, Arts and Sciences, Graduate Studies). Dr. Stransky was brought into the ARO as the Director of Alumni Development and is working with the University and ARO to enhance/ bring together the associations. We will continue to have our own SOM website but are still requesting assistance from our graduates to further it's development into what YOU would like to see/have on this site.

As your officers, we are again reaching out to our alumni for assistance with YOUR association. Unlike other associations, we do not have paid staff to assist in the many aspects of maintaining and building our association. I am listing the various areas below where we need your help with and ask that you contact me if you are interested in being an ACTIVE participant in your association. I can be contacted at bigshot92@excite.com.
We need your help with:
  1. Development and maintenance of our SOM website;
  2. CME - planning and implementation;
  3. Fundraisers;
  4. Memorial Brick Program - following up on bricks ordered, developing a plan toward the possible construction of a Memorial Garden on campus for the placement of the bricks;
  5. Publication - collating/collecting ideas/pics/etc. for a yearly or semiannual publication to be mailed to our graduates along with a detachable card to be mailed back with updated information and your pledge/donation to the SOM AA;
  6. Regional Chapter Start-up;
  7. Hosting regional/area "get-togethers."
These are just a few of the areas that require your support if we are to grow and be the association you want us to be. It is always easy to grumble and complain about what is NOT being done. If there are things you want to happen, get involved!

After submitting a budget and business proposal to the University for 2007 over a year ago, we are basically on our own to make our association "work." The annual "gift" given to the Association by the school for our operating budget at graduation exercises by the University has not received for the past 2 years. Thus, it is up to us to raise the necessary finances for our charities and planned events. Once something is "planned," we can submit an outline to the ARO/University and request their consideration for some financial assistance. Therefore, your input/suggestions/active involvement is VITAL if we are to grow into the association we all want us to become.

Thank you for your support.,

Linda Klokow, MD
President, SGUSOM Alumni Association