August 1, 2016
All Hound Alumni in our Global family
Dear Hounds,
Hope you are all well and enjoying the start of your summer.
At the National Alumni Association Annual General Meeting, President David
Kirkup’s term limit was reached as per our Constitution. Through our process I
was nominated and successfully elected to the office of President. I thank all those
that attended the meeting and participated in the AGM.
Our new executive board of the NAA is:
Past President: David Kirkup ’90, Manitoba
President: Trent R. Thomas ’90, British Columbia
1st Vice President: Barry Leslie ’83, Alberta
2nd Vice President: Scott Van Der Linden ’04, Rhode Island
Secretary/Treasurer: Brennan Turner ’05, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Chapter President: Angi McGarry ‘80
Director: Stephen Buffalo ’90, Alberta
Special Advisor: Greg Owttrim ’82, Ontario
Our new directors for the National Alumni Association are Shauna Sherven '82, Saskatchewan, Angi McGarry ‘80, Saskatchewan, Shiayli Toni ’14, Saskatchewan, Rod Faith '88, Saskatchewan, Bobbi Pow '93, Saskatchewan, Christos Kalogirou '05, Alberta, DJ Phillips '81, Manitoba, Stephanie Kolla '99, Ontario, and Alexander Breunig ’15, British Columbia.
First of all, I would like to congratulate all those that are newly or re-elected to
office. The Association appreciates your time and commitment to our common
love for the College and its continued prosperity.
We have an aggressive agenda for this year. We are collaborating with the alumni office to launch a mentoring program beginning with a pilot version in Calgary this Fall of 2016.
This is a continuation of our on-going efforts, started by Past President Kirkup to work with the College on connecting all hounds globally. Part of our own improvement strategy will be in moving towards a much more organized and pre-planned meeting schedule. With the help of our Alumni Coordinator Robert Ducharme ’98, from BC, we are leveraging new technologies, most importantly being the launch of our website last year: http://alumni.notredame.ca/nd_national_alumni_association . With the aid of this website we have been building and connecting hounds all year. Check it out. We are also planning a large gathering for the last weekend in May 2017 in Edmonton. Further details will be announced at the end of August 2016. It will be our continued goal to support the work being done to strengthen chapters of the Association and start new Chapters.
As August is at hand, I would like to encourage all hounds to reconnect with their fellow
Alumni by planning to get together. Many Chapters are planning formal and informal get-togethers with long time and recent Alumni in their area and you can look forward to us helping to organize more Alumni events in the Fall and the coming year.
It is important to remember that we are only as strong as our collective voices
and actions in our communities. When we gather and converse we grow strong
and more connected over our experiences and common understanding of the
goal of the Notre Dame Man and Woman. So, I encourage everyone to make time to get together over the summer and in the following year- and we are here to help facilitate that.
Lastly, I would like to recognize the tremendous effort and time that past
President Kirkup has put in during the last three years. He has lead us back to relevance on Campus and throughout the Notre Dame community. Thank you sir for all that you do for the Alumni and the College. I look forward to continuing the long and honoured history of our Hound Nation.
Hounds Forever,
Trent R. Thomas ’90
President
AMCND National Alumni Association