SUIHAA Annual General Meeting 2012

Presidents Report

2012 marked a year of consolidation and reflection for SUIHAA. It was a year in which old traditions were honed and revived: a year of re-engagement with residents and alumni alike, yet also a year in which we looked to the future and, perhaps more so than in any of the past decade, begun to take positive steps towards tackling the very real challenges facing SUIHAA both now and in years to come. Reconnecting and re-engaging: our focus throughout the year It would not be unfair to say that we began the 2011-12 term with the inheritance of an organisation still struggling to find focus and relevance. Three key problems rapidly emerged: first, a profound loss of organisational knowledge since SUIHAAs 2010 transition to a committee largely made up of more recent alumni; second, a large subset of members who were either uncontactable or had lost their interaction with SUIHAA; and finally, the fact that residents of the House were by and large ignorant of the fact SUIHAA existed, much less willing to engage with alumni activities. As a result, our primary focus throughout 2012 has been on reconnecting and re-engaging with the International House community. We have sought to achieve this through increased events for alumni and residents, innovating and revamping our communication strategies to re-engage the community, and through careful consideration of a number of options for SUIHAAs future. Throughout the year we have made great progress on each of these fronts but there is still a big job ahead. From cocktails to cupcakes: the year in events The year began with the revival of a tradition which had previously been placed on hiatus: SUIHAAs annual Calendarfest, an event connecting new residents with alumni through the giving and receiving of calendars. While some questioned the need to give out calendars in this age of smartphones and automated reminders, none could question the response from both alumni and residents, with over 100 calendars from across the world distributed in an event which set a new tone for SUIHAA amongst the resident population of the House. With Calendarfest and two Cupcakes with SUIHAA events held during each semesters O-Week, we sought to rebrand ourselves as a vibrant, dynamic alumni association, engaged with the life of the House, bringing new opportunities and alumni experience to residents. Throughout the year SUIHAA organised several events and activities for residents, from the extremely successful return of the annual Stargazing and Log Cabin trip to SUIHAA management through to our active engagement in resident activities and initiatives from IHMA events to the newly-formed IH Round Table. By far the biggest highlight of 2012, however, was the celebration in April of the 45th Anniversary of International House, an event which drew several hundred alumni from across the world for a weekend of activities. SUIHAAs cocktail event on Saturday 31st March was widely hailed as a success for
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appealing to both recent and older generations of alumni alike, and it was a pleasure to see these two long-estranged groups of alumni mingling and sharing stories at this event. The formal celebrations of April 1st were perhaps even more impressive, with 200 people packing the Wool Room for an afternoon of speeches and tributes to the wonderfully diverse community that has flourished over the past decades at the House. The 45th Anniversary celebrations were the largest and most successful reunion event SUIHAA has organised in many years, and we hope to continue this tradition of successful large-scale events well into the future. SUIHAA continued to be actively involved with the Bo Childrens Hospital Project, which finally opened in June this year with several alumni travelling to Sierra Leone to take part. SUIHAA played an active role in promoting the project to residents of the House at the Faculty and Alumni Dinner in Semester 2 another successful event connecting alumni and current residents. The keen interest in Bo which this event has fostered has led to this years resident Charity Night, to be held on Friday 5th October, being held in support of the project. SUIHAA has also been granted a seat on the Board of the Bo Childrens Hospital Foundation, a position in which we hope to bring new ideas and initiatives for fundraising and support into the future. We firmly believe that this strategy of spreading awareness and encouraging events as opposed to straight-out donations is the way forward for this extremely worthwhile alumni project. From newsletters to new media: the year in communications One of the key pillars of SUIHAAs strategy for 2012 was to change the way alumni communicate and interact with each other. This saw the establishment of an official Facebook page for SUIHAA in late 2011, with over 350 alumni liking the page and hundreds more engaging in some way with the uploaded content. Integral to the success of our Facebook communication strategy has been the uploading of past newsletters and group photos of the House to the site a move which has seen sub-communities of alumni form around the uploaded photos from their year at the House, each of them commenting, tagging and reminiscing about years gone by. The decline of print media in the age of technology finally hit SUIHAA with full force in 2012, with the last full-sized paper edition of Alumni News being published in June. Whilst the issue itself was praised by alumni, the shift in publication of our newsletters to a primarily online model supplemented by an opt-in, lite print edition will be a major challenge for the future. Nonetheless, we continue to see increased levels of online engagement from alumni: we now have over 2000 alumni able to be contacted via email, up markedly from recent years. Honouring the past; looking to the future: SUIHAA scholarships and prizes 2012 saw two key scholarships and prizes added to the House, honouring the past contributions of two legendary SUIHAA members. The Graeme de Graaff Fund, formerly a SUIHAA bursary, was greatly augmented and relaunched with the view to providing a full scholarship for a resident to study at the House, whilst still providing existing support for current residents to attend conferences and workshops. The year also saw the establishment of the Cormack Rowlands Award, an award encouraging residents to undertake grassroots projects throughout their community. SUIHAA has played an active role in the establishment of both funds, and while the Committee was pleased to provide some the initial funding
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to set up both funds, we also remain committed to engaging with the wider alumni community, encouraging former residents to give back through renewed fundraising efforts. Other SUIHAA scholarships and prizes continued to be awarded: the Rosalie McCutcheon and Graeme de Graaff Bursaries allowed four residents to attend conferences both local and overseas in their area of study, whilst the annual Rosemary Berrick Photography Competition saw a record 102 entries submitted by residents, a task which was no mean feat to judge. The future: University Alumni Relations and SUIHAA Over the past few years, SUIHAA has been increasingly looking to the future attempting to find new ways and solutions to not only reignite interest and engagement in our activities and initiatives, but also to place us in good stead for the expansion of the House and our alumni community in the short to medium term. Central to this in recent years has been consideration of the possibility of adopting the University of Sydneys Alumni Charter a concept which was explored this year in much greater detail. 2012 saw a series of high-level meetings between the SUIHAA Executive, Alumni Relations and the University Office of General Counsel with the view to determining what a possible partnership between SUIHAA and Alumni Relations might look like seeking to allay the fears of alumni that such a move would diminish SUIHAAs independence whilst scoping out the potential benefits of such a partnership to the Committee and alumni alike. Negotiations were held over weeks and months and many compromises reached ultimately resulting in the creation of a draft Charter which would allow SUIHAA to leverage the Universitys alumni database and records management expertise, benefit from public liability insurance, reduced mailing costs and auditing services, whilst retaining member privacy and the right to opt out of non-SUIHAA University communications along with our ability to charge membership fees, fundraise for external projects such as Bo, and carry on proceedings largely free from University interference. It remains the view of the current Executive that in the long term, adoption of this draft Charter will be ultimately beneficial for SUIHAA as our alumni community grows and we increasingly rely upon volunteer resources which are being stretched thin. However, progress towards adoption of the charter has been placed on a hiatus for the present whilst issues regarding the relationship between the House, Council and the University are discussed and resolved issues relating to the Universitys change management process which alumni were notified about earlier in September. While we feel that at the present time it would be inappropriate for us to pursue closer relations with the University, it is not our intention that the progress made this year be set aside or forgotten, and we hope to resume negotiations with Alumni Relations as soon as these external issues are resolved. A mandate for continued change Whilst on all accounts 2012 has been a vastly successful year for SUIHAA, on a personal note I feel the job of turning around SUIHAA has only just begun. We have seen re-engagement on record levels, both on and offline, from residents and from alumni alike but at the same time there is much left to do. Scholarship levels, especially for our newly established funds, remain low, and a renewed fundraising drive will be required to bolster the Graeme de Graaff fund. The Alumni Charter proposal, whilst initially

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promising, proved to be a temporary letdown, and we will need to consider new options, including perhaps the prospect of taking out separate public liability insurance, in order for us to be able to continue holding the much-requested Alumni Mentoring Program for residents of the House. Communications, whilst greatly improved through Facebook and our website, will need to be strengthened as we move to an online newsletter distribution model, and care taken so as not to leave behind those alumni for whom we only have postal addresses. Another pertinent issue is how to follow up the enormous success of the 45th Anniversary reunion events with similar reunions in 2013 to engage alumni and keep them involved with the House. To this end there are a number of proposals which I look forward to seeing implemented in the future including a move to holding two major events per year: one at the House early in Semester One, possibly held alongside plans to hold a classical music evening for residents early in the academic year, and another at an external venue late in Semester Two, along the lines of the successful 45th Anniversary cocktail event. Either of these proposals would fit well within current strategies to fundraise for scholarships and/or promote initiatives such as Bo. Some final words and thanks It has been a privilege to have taken a part in the gargantuan task of revitalising SUIHAA over the past year a task which I perhaps vastly underestimated, but one in which I feel we have taken great steps towards achieving this year. With the support of the AGM, I seek a mandate to continue that change into 2013: to help continue the sterling efforts of the Committee this year to making our alumni association relevant in these times of change. Yet, as with all such things, this progress would have been nigh impossible without the enormous efforts of the Committee members and volunteers who have worked tirelessly for SUIHAA over the past years. Whilst a full list of them would be impractical, I do want to especially acknowledge the work of both Dominick Ng, who served as Secretary until July and worked tirelessly on negotiating and drafting the Alumni Charter, and Karen Rowe-Nurse, without whom the 45th Anniversary would likely not have happened. Again, my thanks to all involved, and I look forward to exciting times ahead for SUIHAA! The journey has only just begun.

Joshua Lee President, 2011-12 Sydney University International House Alumni Association Saturday 29th September 2012

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