I am proud, honored, and privileged to be entrusted with the enormous responsibility of leading the Alumni Association of Vaughn College. I consider the nomination to this post to be a call to duty and an affirmation of the new course the institution and the association have undertaken. This academic year brings with it many challenges and many questions yet unanswered. How do we increase our membership? How can our organization best serve its cause? That is, what can the organization do to help the current students, prospective students and its constituency?

To answer these questions, in addition to many others, we'll look to utilize our greatest resource-our members, current and prospective. We will endeavor to increase our membership through traditional means by increasing awareness and non-traditional means by partnering with other, parallel organizations.

To be sure, fellow members, we will need everyone's help and cooperation to accomplish our goals. This means that the relevancy of our organization, and the benefits realized by those we serve, will depend on each individual member's contribution. And each individual will be charged with responsibilities appropriate to his/her background, experience or preference.

As I looked around the room at our last meeting, I realized that we are standing at the threshold of opportunity: our membership-experienced and diverse, our leadership-strong and open to all possibilities. The goals we've set for our organization are grand and will require the College's cooperation. So it is imperative that our interests and those of the institution are in-and stay in-perfect alignment. To succeed, we will need frequent and effective communication by all members; and this is precisely the reason why each member's presence at all meetings is essential.

And while I am happy to see an increase in the number of graduates joining the Alumni Association each year over the past three years, I sincerely hope that all alumni will continue to make their important contributions to the College's Annual Fund in order to increase opportunities for today's students.

This year hold lots of promise and lots of challenges for our organization. As your President, I think you're worthy of the challenge! Please contact me at steve.mikhlin@vaughn.edu. Help us reach our goals of maintaining an organization we can be proud of.

Steve Mikhlin '99