AKUAANA President’s Message to Alumni: January 2016

January 1^st, 2016

Thank you for nominating us as the leaders of your Alumni Association for the next two years. We would also like to thank our predecessors who have guided this association and made great strides in organizing AKUAANA.

There are roughly 2000 AKUMC graduates in North America and they represent the fastest growing segment of all medical graduates from Pakistan. Those of you who follow our website and our Facebook page already know how successful our graduates have been in their adopted homelands. We have some of the youngest professors, most successful academicians and brightest entrepreneurs in the country!

The last Executive Council of AKUAANA has made impressive progress; the membership has grown significantly, our tax-exempt status has been reinstated to 501(c)(7) status allowing our holdings to be tax-free, the Association’s constitution has been strengthened and a Board of Trustees has been elected. Over the next couple of years, the new Executive Council will continue working towards the goals set forth by our predecessors. We will continue working on improving our membership, work towards give a clear meaning for our Alumni body, and work towards getting more organized in the US. The new Executive Council have a bunch of new ideas to move our organization to the next level. We will be approaching our membership to share our ideas and also will seek new ideas.

To do so, we have to engage our alumni and give them a platform to bring forth their ideas and then a mechanism to give these ideas life. Clearly, none of these goals can be accomplished without active alumni involvement. This participation has to begin with becoming an AKUAANA member and then active participation in all the decisions that we have to make over the next 25 years. We start the membership drive this month, so please join us, encourage others and get excited about the possibilities!

We thank you again for this opportunity to serve the organization and hope that we can live up to your expectations. If you have any questions, comments or thoughts, please reach out to any member of the team.

Best wishes,

Habib Chotani, 1995
President, AKUAANA (2016-17)