Dear Fellow Members of Ipoh ACS Alumni,
REPORT ON THE FIRST 90 DAYS OF ASSUMING OFFICE
1. Following the AGM on 24th March this year, your Committee assumed office in April. Since then, we have implemented our Alumni Website Launch on 29th April and other than the hectic preparation which is ongoing for our largest Joint Alumni Dinner to be held on Saturday, 4 August this year, there has been a number of activities on different fronts.
OUR ALUMNI WEBSITE LAUNCH
2. The event has been covered in this Website through the photographs taken and uploaded onto our Website. Readership has escalated quickly. As at this morning, we have 3,853 unique visitors from 35 countries and 17,892 hits which reflect to some extent a pent-up demand for information on our Alumni and our Alma Mater. We hope that more of our Old Salts and ACSians will log in to share our nostalgia and aspirations. All these must be followed by a coming together at the various forthcoming events to re-connect and bond with old and new friends.
3. At the Launch, we signed up 16 new members and an Associate Member who paid his annual subscription 10 years in advance. A good start (5% growth in membership) but obviously we need to replicate the results at each and every opportunity including the Alumni Dinner.
4. We will sustain all efforts to make our Website appealling and relevant. We will post a fair number of “Latest Updates” each month including photographs and accounts of current and future activities, catering to both nostalgia and current bonding efforts.
WEBSITE FUNDING
5. The initial funding of RM4,000 contributed by the 5 Website Project Team members, the Immediate Past President, the Patron and an anonymous alumnus, was only sufficient to fund the setting up costs and the monthly operating expenses up to May this year. We are very grateful to Mr. Lim Fook Hin for responding in June to our funding appeal with a generous donation of RM 10,000. We hope to raise another sum of RM14,000 within the next few months so that our Website’s existence over the initial 3 years will not be imperilled by a lack of funds.
ALUMNI DINNER
6. Preparation for this long awaited function is coming along well. We have received indications that a good number of Old Salts will be making their way back to Ipoh from overseas to be present at the Alumni Dinner. We are seeing cohorts of more Graduating Years participating in this event including a number who have conspicuously not attended past dinners. As at 23 June, we have only 7 tables left for subscription out of a targetted number of 105 tables. Please reserve your seats now if you have not done so. Do not procrastinate any further.
INFORMAL GET-TOGETHER
7. The first get-together session in Kuala Lumpur this year was held at the Batek Bar Terraces, Royal Lake Club on Friday 22 June. It was well attended by some 20 Old Salts from 6 Cohorts, many of them “new” faces (one came all the way down from Penang) in an atmosphere of fun, fellowship and camaraderie. Photographs taken will be uploaded shortly. This event will continue every month at the same venue on the 4th Friday of each month starting at 4 pm. All our Old Salts from overseas and other parts of our country are welcome to drop by. You will certainly be warmly greeted and do not be surprised to see many familiar faces.
8. The Ipoh monthly get-together will commence on Friday, 20 July (next month) and will be held on the 3rd Friday of each month to coincide with our monthly Alumni EXCO meeting. This will give our Committee members the opportunity to interact with our fellow alumni in Ipoh as well as those from outstation or overseas who happen to be in Ipoh that day.
CHAPTERS
9. We are now liaising with some identified Old Salts in several overseas locations to set up Chapters. We will brief you on the outcome as the project progresses.
UPDATING MEMBERSHIP DETAILS
10. Our Honorary Secretary will be using our Website to contact the registered members with a view to updating correspondence details such as house and email addresses and mobile numbers. Please respond promptly to him. Those of you who are familiar with the identified members on the list, please inform the concerned members to get in touch with our Honorary Secretary so that the exercise may be completed early.
11. We are compiling an email directory of all those alumni whom we are in contact with and may not be Alumni members as yet. SMS broadcasts will be sent to engage more of our alumni in our integration activities.
TREASURE HUNT
12. Our Website has recently posted information on this event. The closing date is Tuesday 10 July. Please sign up early for an interesting experience.
SUB-COMMITTEES
13. As you will be able to surmise, we have activated 3 out of our 7 Sub-Committees, namely:-
Alumni Website, Communication & History
Membership Drive, Outreach, Liaison with Other Chapters & Affiliation Sports & Interaction.
We will devote more attention to the others once the Alumni Dinner is out of the way.
14. Once again, I would like to reiterate my call to all those interested alumni to come forward to work with us in the Sub-Committees.
GIFTING & GIVING
15. Thavaratnam s/o S. Kumarasamy (Upper 6 Arts, 1979) and Chuah Kee Beng (Upper 6 Science, 1977) donated RM12,570 and RM5,000 respectively to our Alma Mater in June to upgrade the air conditioning system in our school library. Another Old Salt, Lai Chan Fah, donated a sum of RM6,000 also in June, to instal 4 new air conditioner units and wiring points in our School Auditorium. Thank you to all of you for your generosity.
APPOINTMENT OF HONORARY LEGAL ADVISERS
16. We are pleased to advise that the following Old Salts who are eminent legal practitioners have been appointed our Alumni Association’s Honorary Legal Advisers with immediate effect:-
Mr. Romesh Roy
Mr. Lee Seong Yan
We are honoured by their acceptance of the appointment and we look forward to their invaluable service and advice.
17. I will continue to keep you updated.
Yours sincerely,
Lean Meng Seong
25 June 2012