With Karen Ganschow stepping down as Chairman, I was delighted to be elected to this role at the November 2019 Board meeting. I look forward to building on the vision the Board has set under the leadership of Mark Pinder, our Founding Chairman, and the subsequent leadership of Karen Ganschow, who was our Chairman during most of calendar year 2019.
We are the Association of MGSM Alumni: By Alumni, for Alumni. It is pleasing to report that your association is in good shape, providing a great foundation for us to work together with alumni to build your association.
We currently have a critical mass of Foundation Members, who have each contributed $150 to help fund the development of their association, plus a fast-growing database of interested alumni.
Foundation Membership will continue to be open for a few more months and will then close off – with Foundation Members retaining their pioneering status in perpetuity. All alumni, including Foundation Members, will then be invited to join as annual members, to share the benefits of new alumni programs. If you are interested to become a Foundation Member before this class of membership closes off , please act now by going to https://www.mgsmalumni.com/become-a-member or contacting us at admin@mgsm.com.au.
Since the creation of the MGSMAA on 9 March 2018 as an unincorporated entity, the focus of the Board has evolved. Originally set up to advocate on behalf of the MGSM graduates regarding the preservation of the value of the MGSM brand and quality of the ongoing MBA programs provided by MBS, our focus is now expanding to also provide valued services to our local and global alumni. We also plan to aggressively grow the association, so that the benefits of membership are spread more widely, and alumni benefit from both deeper networking and more personal and professional growth opportunities.
To this end, we plan to work constructively with Macquarie University and the MBS to build MGSMAA alumni services, while continuing to advocate on behalf of our alumni regarding any issues which may detract from the value of the alumni’s significant investments in the MGSM brand.
Because of the workloads involved in running a volunteer association with significant growth objectives, we are restructuring the Board to have committees supporting directors responsible for critical functions, such as membership services development, MBS relationship, chapter support, events, membership growth etc.
I encourage any interested alumni to talk to me or other MGSMAA Board directors regarding joining a committee. Committee work for the MGSMAA is a delightful opportunity to work with fellow alumni for a common purpose, hopefully reminding us of some great MBA syndicate group experiences! Apart from the benefits of reconnecting with fellow alumni, the benefits to alumni of joining a committee include increasing the diversity of inputs into the planning and execution of alumni services, reducing the workload on directors, and identifying and training future board directors.
As a result of contributions from Foundation Members plus small surpluses from our events, we are fortunate to be commencing our growth focus with a bank balance which will ensure financial viability as we move into the new calendar year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hard-working directors of MGSMAA, who are balancing busy lives to contribute to our new association on a voluntary basis. Current directors are:
· Karen Ganschow
· Lindsay Munns
· Randal Tame
· Richard Curtis
· Alan Macdonald
· Piers Morgan
As in any volunteer organisation, we sadly lose great directors as a result of their job or other life changes, so a big thank you also to directors who have retired off the Board since we commenced:
· Mark Pinder
· Kate Gunn
· Trent Daniel
· Bill Beerworth
· Anne Terry
· Richard Kimber
· Michael Morgan
· Ryan Cho
· Kristin Rogers
These past directors remain close to the MGSMAA and we look forward to involving them in different ways as the association grows.
Special thanks are due to our outstanding Board Secretary, Pat McDonald, who has supported the MGSMAA on a voluntary basis from the very start, providing a range of invaluable services - including knowing so many of our alumni. On behalf of the Board, our biggest thanks must go to our Foundation Members who have provided our initial funding plus ongoing input into the future services we will be developing.
Your continuing input is essential to ensure that the services we develop are aligned with your needs, and we really urge you to stay in touch with me and other directors as we build the association you always wanted. To this end we are currently building a program of ways of engaging with Foundation Members and other alumni in the year ahead, and we look forward to this engagement with you.
Rebecca Murray
MGSMAA Chairman
24 November 2019