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Soliciting Feedback regarding Proposed Amendments to the AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws, 2024

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Dear AKUAANA Members,

As the Executive Council of AKUAANA, we are requesting the approval of the revised Constitution and Bylaws of AKUAANA reflecting the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Aga Khan University signed on February 4th, 2023.

The Executive Council has unanimously approved these revised Constitution and Bylaws of AKUAANA. The revisions were deliberated upon and incorporated with unanimous recommendations from the Constitution and Bylaws (CABL) committee, chaired by Dr Atif Shafqat ’93 and Board of Advisors (BOA), chaired by Dr. Faisal Qureshi ’93. The Executive Council sincerely appreciates their active participation and is also very thankful to Dr Shafqat’s and Dr Qureshi’s input along with that of all other members of the CABL and BOA for their advice and expert input during this process.

Primarily the main objectives of the proposed revisions are to:

  1. create an alumni association that partners with our Alma Mater, The Aga Khan University to help promote the collaborative vision, mission and objectives in North America
  2. AKU will provide operational and administrative assistance to AKUAANA
  3. AKU alumni who reside in North America will automatically become members of AKUAANA
  4. AKUAANA will create autonomous regional chapters under the umbrella of AKUAANA
  5. AKUAANA will become a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and will also continue to work with the Aga Khan Foundation USA to promote the welfare of the alumni

Please review the revised CABL and we aim to get your vote for approval on July 5th, 2024, at the Alumni Annual Meeting. It will also be shared via Facebook and on email. Your participation is essential in building our Alumni Association.

Regards,

Executive Council, AKUAANA
Faisal Wasi, President | president@akuaana.org
Hina Hussain, Secretary | secretary@akuaana.org
Aqueel Hussain Pabaney, Treasurer | treasurer@akuaana.org
Abdul Waheed, Immediate Past President

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Proposed Amendments to AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws get approved

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Assalam-u-alaikum, AKUAANA family. I would like to update you regarding the approval process of several proposed amendments to the AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws.

Process

During mid-April 2016, the Executive Council sent out the proposed amendments to all active members for comments. In addition, we simultaneously posted the proposed amendments on our website and Facebook Page for review by as many AKU Alumni as possible, to improve transparency.

Secondly, we emailed all active members with voting status on June 06, 2016, a list of the proposed amendments and instructions on how to vote electronically.

Additionally, the Executive Council reached out to individual alumni to get their feedback and requesting them to vote. The reaction and participation by the alumni was very impressive. As a result of this pro-active approach, we were able to collect the needed votes (30% of active membership) within a week!

Results

Eventually, we inactivated the Google Form collecting responses after 30 days, as per our Bylaws, on July 7, 2016 at 12:08 AM Eastern Standard Time. At the time of closing:

  • we had 131 active members with voting status.
  • a total of 63 responses were received, 62 in favor, and 1 against. This was way more than the required voting by 30% of active membership (40 votes, with a two third majority to carry).
  • our voting rate was 48%.

In conclusion, I am pleased to inform the alumni body that the motion to approve the proposed amendments to the AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws has passed successfully.

Thank you for your support, feedback and recommendations!

Sincerely,

Habib Chotani, ‘95
President, AKUAANA (2016 – 17)

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Soliciting Feedback regarding Proposed Amendments to the AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws, 2016

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Dear AKUAANA Members,

On behalf of the Executive Council of AKUAANA, I am soliciting your feedback/comments on proposals to make amendments to the current Constitution & Bylaws of AKUAANA.

These proposals were deliberated and sent to the Executive Council with unanimous recommendations of the Constitution and Bylaws (CABL) Committee. They have subsequently been approved unanimously by all members of the Executive Council. The newly formed Board of Trustees has also reviewed them and voted unanimously to proceed with these changes.

The process now requires a minimum 30-day period to solicit comments from the Active Membership on the proposed amendments.

The main objectives of the proposed changes are to:

  1. Change the authority and title of the Board of Trustees to a Board of Advisors. The purpose is to give primary authority to the elected Executive Council and to remove ambiguity in the role of the Board.
  2. Clarify the nomination and election criteria of the Board of Advisors to ensure a more diverse group of members.
  3. Clarify the mechanism to resolve any ethical issue or grievance addressed towards AKUAANA, its members or its Officers and to give the Board of Advisors an independent authority to approach directly the Active Membership of AKUAANA if such a need arises.
  4. There are also some clarifications and changes to the formation of committees, timeline of nomination/election process and timeline of the amendment process.

Please review the document and send your comments or concerns directly to my attention. The deadline to submit any comments is May 18th, 2016. Your participation is essential in building our Alumni Association. Please submit your comments to president@akuaana.org

Thank you,

Habib Chotani
President, AKUAANA

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Alumni Reunion, 2015: AKUAANA Grows

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Dear Alumni,

Congratulations on a very successful AKUAANA Reunion in Orlando, Florida on Friday August 14th, 2015. We hosted the largest gathering ever in Orlando, with 170 participants and graduates from every class from 1988-2006. The classes of 2005, 1995 and 1990 celebrated their class milestones and in true “Mighty Ninety” fashion, the most senior class stole the show.

The reunion was very well attended by University leaders including Dr. Farhat Abbas (Dean, AKU Medical College), Mr. Zahir Janmohamed (Director General, Resource Development) and Mr. Louis Ariano (Associate Vice Provost & University Registrar). In fact, Dean Abbas had just been chosen as a recipient of the Sitara-E-Imtiaz and received a standing ovation.

The General Body meeting was separated from the Reunion Dinner for the first time and took place on Friday afternoon (minutes available). This was done to allow for alumni-only discussions and crucial decision-making. Constitutional changes were approved after a vigorous discussion; elections results were announced and finally financial and membership details were examined (financial report available). We then spent an hour hosting a round table with Dean Abbas, Mr. Janmohamed and Mr. Ariano. The roundtable meeting allowed for an open discussion between University leaders and alumni.

We are now the 4th largest component society at APPNA and the fastest growing in terms of numbers. The leaders of APPNA highlighted our continuing influence on the larger society when they visited with us during dinner. Our guest speaker Alex Kronemer, Founder and Executive Producer for Unity Productions Foundation spoke to us about tolerance and the importance of dialogue.

The AKUAANA Executive Council, 2015

The AKUAANA Executive Council, 2015
L to R: Atif Shafqat (Secretary), Shazia Hussain (Treasurer), Faial Qureshi (President)

After a lively dinner, we sang and danced the night away with Atif Aslam. The classes of 2005, 1995 and 1990 hosted their private celebrations on Saturday the 15th. The evening banquet was very well attended, where Umer Sharif and Ali Haider entertained us. Please visit our Facebook Page to view pictures from the reunion, tag yourselves and like the page as well.

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The next reunion will be held on August 12th at the Gaylord Resort in Washington, DC. Our new Executive Council will be Amber Syed (1994) as Treasurer, Rehan Khan (1994) as Secretary and Habib Chotani (1995) as President. They will be hosting us in DC where the classes 1991, 1996 and 2006 will be celebrating their respective milestones.

We look forward to seeing you there, and remember to buy tickets and book hotel reservations as soon as they become available.

Thank you again!

Our best regards,

Faisal Qureshi, President
Atif Shafqat, Secretary
Shazia Hussain, Treasurer

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Online Approval of Proposed Amendments to the AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws, 2014

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Dear alumni,

The ‘Executive Council’ and the ‘Constitution and Bylaws Committee, AKUAANA’ recommend that the General Body approve several proposed amendments to the AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws, 2014.

The main objectives of the proposed changes are to:

  • form a Board of Trustees to oversee the Association
  • clarify the duties and separation of authority of Board of Trustees and the Executive Council
  • have an oversight mechanism for monitoring the assets and finances of the Association
  • have a mechanism to resolve any ethical issue or grievance addressed towards AKUAANA, its members or its officers
  • have a mechanism to address a vacancy for any officer of the Association

The document listing all proposed amendments is available for review by the members for at least 30 days, with voting being open to dues paying active members of the Association only. As per the current Constitution, at least thirty percent of the active membership must participate in the voting and two thirds of the votes must be in favor of the proposed amendments for them to be passed.

This is a perfect opportunity for AKU alumni who are not AKUAANA members to sign up and help determine the goals and direction of the Alumni Association. Alumni can join as AKUAANA members or renew their membership dues through the website and vote via our online survey on the AKUAANA website anytime prior to the Annual General Body Meeting which is being held on August 14th, 2015 at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center, Kissimmee, Florida. It is advised that you use a laptop or desktop to visit the website for signing up and casting your vote.

In case of any comments or questions related to the proposed amendments or the Constitution and Bylaws, please email them to .

Atif Shafqat, MD
Chair, Constitution and Bylaw Committee

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AKUAANA Annual Alumni Meeting, 2014 is a huge success

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Dear Alumni,

Congratulations everyone on a very successful AKUAANA Reunion in Washington, DC. We hosted the largest gathering ever, with 190 tickets sold. There were 117 alumni at dinner, with the classes of 1989, 1994 and 2004 celebrating their class milestones. We are now the 4th largest component society at APPNA and the fastest growing.

AKUAANA Reunion, 2014

L to R: Shazia Hussain (Treasurer), Faisal Qureshi (President), Sadaf Khan (Immediate Past President), Habib Chotani (Local Host)

Dale Shaw, Immediate Past President of the Duke Medical School Alumni Association, was our guest speaker. We had a surprise faculty visitor in the form of Dr. Nasir Ahmed, one of the founding surgeons at AKU.

Our biggest accomplishment of the night was successfully ratifying the new constitution. We also surveyed the group about the direction they wanted their association to head in and the top three choices were:

  1. Philanthropy for healthcare projects in Pakistan/Medical School
  2. Philanthropy for education related projects in Pakistan
  3. Development of programs in Pakistan that can engage our offspring, such as exchange programs, volunteering opportunities

After a lively dinner, we sang and danced the night away with Shazia Mansoor and Kumar Sanu. The banquet was very well attended the next evening, where Shreya Goshal entertained us and dancing was strictly not optional. Please visit our Facebook Page to view pictures from the reunion, tag yourselves and like the page as well.

The next reunion will be held on August 14th at the Gaylord Resort in Orlando. Elections will be held that year, so consider running for office as President, Secretary and Treasurer. The classes of 1990, 1995 and 2005 will be celebrating their respective milestones.

We look forward to seeing you there, and remember to buy tickets and book hotel reservations as soon as they become available.

Thank you again!
Our best regards,

Faisal Qureshi, President
Atif Shafqat, Secretary
Shazia Hussain, Treasurer

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Ratification of re-written AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws, 2014

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Dear alumni,

The AKUAANA Executive Committee has recently felt the current AKUAANA Constitution and Bylaws document to be outdated and no longer able to serve the functioning needs of our growing Alumni Association. This is especially important since the main Aga Khan University has grown and has multiple campuses and multiple schools now.

The Constitution & Bylaws Committee, chaired by Sadaf Khan (’92) has worked on and re-written this document, considering the needs of the Alumni Association as it moves ahead. The Executive Committee and the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, both, are advocating that this re-write be ratified and adopted as the current Constitution & Bylaws for the Association.

As per the current bylaws, a copy of the proposed draft has been circulated to all dues-paying/lifetime AKUAANA members with voting privileges, 30 days in advance of the AKUAANA Annual General Body Meeting scheduled for August 15th, 2014. A mechanism to solicit online ratification/votes has been put in place and solicitation begun. Online voting will stop 2 days before the Annual Meeting on August 15th, 2014. However, voting can still be done by members in person on site at the Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

This is a perfect opportunity for AKU alumni who are not AKUAANA members to sign up and help determine the goals and direction of the Alumni Association. Alumni can join as AKUAANA members or renew their membership dues through the website.

We look forward to meeting everyone at the Annual Meeting on August 15th, 2014.

Sadaf Khan, MD (Past-President and Chair, Constitution & Bylaws Committee)
Faisal Qureshi, MD (President, AKUAANA)
Atif Shafqat, MD (Secretary, AKUAANA)
Shazia Hussain, MD (Treasurer, AKUAANA)

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