Dear Friends,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying spring.

I wanted to update everyone about a few issues. As you know, preparation for the Summer Alumni reunion during the APPNA meeting is well under way. We will be celebrating milestones for the Classes of ’88, ’93, and ’03. I am hoping that everyone will make an effort to attend, especially our Alumni in Florida.

To this end, I would encourage all planning to attend to purchase tickets for the AKU Alumni dinner to be held on July 5. There has been a change in APPNA policy and unlike previous years, we will be unable to purchase tickets on-site. Please buy your tickets from the APPNA website if you are an APPNA member. If not, please purchase them from the AKUAANA website.

This December will also mark the end of the 2-year terms of the current AKUAANA office bearers. We have put in a call for nominations and look forward to an election at the Reunion. We have received several nominations and will post the details up on the website after the deadline of April 20. All dues paying members and Reunion attendees will be eligible to vote. We will arrange voting for Members who are unable to attend the Reunion, hopefully before July. We will inform you of the details as we work through them.

We continue to work to improve the website. However, your participation is absolutely essential to provide interesting content. Let your creativity loose and share your thoughts and ideas!

In related news, the Steering committee for the Pakistan and Middle-East chapter of AKU alumni is gearing up for its first election. Once this chapter is functional, it will comprise the largest group of AKU alumni and, I hope will facilitate our interaction with the University and Pakistan. We look forward to a productive relationship with them.

I will end with a final request. Please check the status of your dues. If they have lapsed, please renew so that you can take part in the election and help keep AKUAANA afloat!

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,
Sadaf Khan, ‘92

Dear Alumni,

Ramadan Mubarak!

I am happy to report that Reunion 2012 was a great success, with the largest attendance to date. There were 170 attendees. We were joined by guests from AKU that included Dr. Farhat Abbas, Dean AKU Medical College Karachi, Mr. Lou Ariano, Registrar AKU, Ms. Carol Ariano, VP Human Resources and Mr. Karim Jan Mohammed, Director Resource Development. Our guests provided the Alumni with updates relating to the medical college, as well as Aga Khan University campuses across the globe.

The theme of the evening was ‘Giving Back’. We had speakers from the i-Care foundation, who detailed their undertaking, and Asad Ansari ’95 introduced the project that his class undertook in association with the Citizen’s Foundation.

The AKUAANA website (which I hope you are exploring now!) was officially introduced. We hope that this will be used as a launching pad for many projects spearheaded by alumni. I invite all of you to actively participate in the development of this project.

The Class of ’92 celebrated its 20^th year, and the Class of ’02 its 10^th year. Congratulations to them on their continuing collective achievements.

Following the reunion dinner, we were able to conduct a very successful business meeting, voting on several issues that will have a bearing on the future direction of AKUAANA. The minutes are posted on the website.

Our goal over the next few months is to try and increase membership and engagement. Please use your networking prowess to encourage people to join up and volunteer for AKUAANA projects. To jump-start communication, we have recently initiated a 6-month period of free access to the Discussion board. Please join up and say what’s on your mind!

For those of you who were able to join the reunion – I hope you enjoyed the gathering. For those who were not able to join, I look forward to seeing you in Orlando in July 2013!

Wishing you a peaceful and blessed Ramadan,

Sincerely,

Sadaf Khan, ‘92
President, AKUAANA