Letter from the President
January 15, 2010
Dear Fellow Alumni,
It has been a challenging term for your officers with the majority of time spent "behind the scenes" restructuring and bringing all of SGU's Alumni Associations together under "one roof" to be overseen by the Alumni Coordinating Board (ACB). It has been a difficult and very long journey for all during this transition. It has required patience, endurance and keeping a positive attitude. As most of you are aware, the alumni "office" in BayShore became defunct and a new office of Alumni Affairs was created in Grenada (on campus) which is primarily overseen by Rona McIntyre.
Though most of our time and efforts concentrated on bringing all the associations together, we did not forget you nor lose sight of other goals we had planned. We continued to support our charities and were successful in getting the VMS underway. Other plans were forced to be tabled as we received little assistance from the University or from our own graduates. Your officers are volunteers with practices of their own. There are no "perks"....just hard work, multiple phone calls, dealing with setbacks and frustrations.
ELECTIONS: Your current officers term will soon expire. All elections for all the SGU alumni associations will be held through the ACB. You will soon be receiving a mailing (yes, snail mail) with information as to nominations and election proceedings. A major drawback we have encountered over the past years is the LACK of current updated email addresses for our graduates. The University database only has about 10-15% of email addresses. As a prerequisite, you will be required to register and submit a contact email address on the ACB site (alumnirelations.sgu.edu) in order to offer a nomination and/or vote. I will keep you posted as further information is received.
MEMORIAL BRICKS: Many of you may have purchased Memorial/In honor of bricks in the past. We have been working to get this program up and running again. Dr. Al Pensick has been scouting various locales on campus where we hope to set up special "sites" for placement of these bricks. The cost is indeterminate at this time as many factors are still being finalized (actual cost of brick, shipping and handling charges from USA to Grenada, possible "premium " added should alumnus want to specify exact site for placement, etc.).
HAITI: Plans are currently being finalized for a Relief Fund to Haiti from the SGU community. As you are aware, they recently were hit by a devastating earthquake. As soon as I receive word of the format for contributions, we will post the information here. You can also check the alumnirelations.sgu.edu website for updates.
OTHER AVENUES: Due to the concentration these past years on collating all of the associations and internal restructuring, many of the initial plans we laid out were put aside in order to build a strong foundation for SGU's alumni associations. We have now reached a time where we are able to work with you toward these goals. We would like to expand our own website to include things like a professional board for those seeking or offering opportunities for other alumni, perhaps a bookstore for SGUSOM logo items and whatever ideas you, as alumni, would like to see on the site. In addition, there is a need to create more CME opportunities for our graduates. Regional chapters and outreach programs are also needed to connect with our alumni. There is much that NEEDS to be done and CAN be done, but only if YOU, as an alumnus, gets INVOLVED to volunteer your time and area of expertise to your officers and fellow alumni.
On behalf of the other officers and myself, we wish you a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year.
Warm regards,
Linda Klokow, MD
President, SGUSOM Alumni Association
