Board of Directors

McMaster Alumni Association Board of Directors: 2011-2012

Bill McLean BCOM '90 President	David Adames BA '92 Past–President
Mark Stewart '06 First Vice-President
Don Bridgman BPE '78 Financial Advisor	Jennifer Kleven BA '90 Executive Councillor (Volunteer Management)
Candy Hui BKNH '04 Executive Councillor (Alumni Outreach)	Sean Baker BA '09 Executive Councillor (Student Relations)

 

McMaster Alumni Association Representatives to the Board of Governors

Brian Bidulka BCOMH '87	Quentin Broad BA '86 MBA '88
Lauren Cuddy MA '80 MBA '84	David Lazzarato BCOM '79
Howard Shearer BENG '77

McMaster Alumni Association Representatives to the University Senate

Ian Cowan BSCH '71 MBA '76

Peter Tice '72
Suzanne Craven BACH '73
Dennis Souder BA '70

 

2012 Constitution Draft

Message from the President
Bill McLean '90

This Spring, each of the over 5000 new graduates, as of right, became members of the McMaster Alumni Association (MAA). In doing so, they join the over McMaster 150,000 alumni living around the world. Whether you’re a brand member of the alumni family, or have celebrated a milestone reunion of your graduation, I invite you to learn about how your Alumni Association can offer you opportunities to continue your connection to McMaster, to learn, to experience, to meet new friends and keep you in touch with old friends.

The Association's mission statement addresses a number of goals: support McMaster University, involve alumni, recognize alumni achievements, provide alumni services and benefits, communicate with alumni, and involve current students. We strive to achieve the points of the mission with a varied and extensive schedule of events and programs that meets the needs of alumni. To be sure we understood your needs, we conducted an alumni engagement survey in 2009. We learned McMaster alumni have strong pride in their alma mater and good awareness of McMaster’s reputation today. We also learned we could do a better job of getting alumni to participate in events and facilitating their involvement with McMaster. Building on the learnings from the survey, we are pleased to share our new Strategic Plan that outlines four strategic priorities that we will be focusing on in particular over the next three years. Action plans have been developed for these areas: Keeping McMaster Relevant, Student Engagement, Young Alumni Engagement and Pride and Participation. Please feel welcome to send me your comments on the plan and look for updates and progress reports on the website in the coming months.

Whether close to McMaster, or further afield we hope to keep you connected. Our alumni branch programme creates connections in geographic areas like Brantford, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hong Kong. Still other branches create connections among Mac grads who share a common interest or affinity, like the M.S.U. Alumni Branch, or by faculty like the Engineering Alumni Advisory Committee.

Closer to campus we offer a wide variety of programmes. The Albert Lager Event Series expands your educational relationship with the University into a lifelong affair by providing fun and unique opportunities to enjoy lectures, trips and seminars. Our Women's Series offers educational and informative talks with a particular focus on issues facing women. MAC Reads is our book club featuring discussions led by McMaster faculty. The Family Series gives grads an opportunity to connect with the kids through fun and educational events both on and off campus. Each June we welcome hundreds of alumni back to campus to celebrate class reunions and enjoy traditional events such as the President's Dessert Party on Alumni Weekend. Homecoming each Fall is a great chance for alumni to come back and get a sense of student life today in the new Ron Joyce Stadium while they cheer on our McMaster Marauders.

The Alumni Association is proud of its members and offers a number of awards to provide recognition to its most interesting and accomplished alumni. The Alumni Gallery, the Arch Award and the Albert Lager Prize for Student Initiative Award all aim to shine some lime-light on these outstanding individuals whose stories serve as inspiration to us all. This year we will also introduce a new award, the McMaster Alumni Hamilton Community Impact Award recognizing outstanding contributions by our grads to the Hamilton community.

The Association also gives its members the chance to obtain unique or discounted products or services through its Services and Benefits portfolio. Alumni can experience fantastic trips, get unique McMaster merchandise, receive high-quality home and auto insurance at group rates, or investigate the other services offered through the MAA.

With alumni representatives on the University Senate and Board of Governors, the McMaster Alumni Association also acts as your advocate. These representatives, along with other elected alumni, comprise the MAA Board of Directors which, along with hundreds of other alumni volunteers, provide alumni programming through the Office of Alumni Advancement.

I look forward to an exciting year as McMaster Alumni Association President and to meeting many alumni at events both in Hamilton and beyond. I encourage you to come out to one of our many events, to enquire about volunteer opportunities and to keep your address and your email current with us so you don’t miss out! Both the Office and the Association can be contacted by phone at 905-525-9140, ext. 23900 or 1-888-217-6003, by fax at (905) 524-1733, by e-mail at alumni@mcmaster.ca or by visiting Alumni House.