IIMB Alumni Association

The IIMB Alumni Association Trust

There is an old saying that the stronger the roots of a tree, the bigger it will grow and longer will it last. Once the seed is sown and it takes shape into a beautiful sapling and then a tree bearing the sweetest fruit, the entire journey of growth requires not only enormous amounts of sunshine, water and food but also care, trust and patience. The IIMB Alumni Association is no different. To ensure the alumni association grows bigger and lasts longer, it needs rock solid foundation. We are very pleased to inform you that for the first time in IIMB history, we have formally registered the Alumni Association as a legal trust under the Societies and Trust Act. In an interview to the IIMB Alumni Magazine, Professor Sankarshan Basu, Chairperson Alumni Affairs at IIMB and Rakesh Godhwani, Head IIMB Alumni Association share some of their thoughts, hopes and aspirations for the IIMB Alumni Association Trust.

What is the purpose of the IIMB Alumni Association (IIMBAA) Trust?

The IIMBAA Trust’s primary objective is to create linkages between IIMB and its alumni, and enable professional networking among the alumni. The Institute has a vision and a clear roadmap of growth ahead of itself and the Trust ensures that the alumni are a key pillar of strength and support for the same. The IIMB Alumni Association has a rich and diverse set of members who are business and thought leaders of today. We owe it to our Institute, which has given us the opportunity to excel in our careers and life, that we stand by it at all times. And by doing so, we all create a strong network of individuals who also benefit from each other’s knowledge, connections and expertise. The IIMBAA Trust provides a legal framework to meet these objectives. The Trust allows the alumni to now operate and function independently, help the common goals and empower alumni drive this further. The Institute then becomes an umbrella for all of us to align our goals and gives us a common identity. One of the most important aspects of this Trust is that it is registered at IIMB, with the Director, Deans, Chairperson and Head of Alumni Association as Trustees and ex-officio members. This ensures that from an administration and governance point of view, the Alumni Association is deeply enmeshed within the IIMB fabric and will give its unique color as well.

Could you explain the structure of the Trust and how it will function?

As explained earlier, the IIMBAA Trust brings the IIMB community of faculty, staff, alumni and students together to a common goal. If you look at our alumni base, we are scattered all over the world and are from across all programs of PGP, PGSEM, FPM, PGPPM, EPGP and EEP. We have 11 Chapters across the world and each member of that city is part of the City Chapter. A Chapter has 3 office bearers – President, Secretary and Treasurer. They are the members who will actually do the day-to-day work for alumni initiatives like networking events, ensuring database of members of that city are updated on the website, periodic communication, management of funds and local bank account for that city and an annual report that rolls up to the alumni office at IIMB. All of these office bearers who are elected democratically every two years will form a Council. This Council will meet every year at least once and have periodic communication to ensure that all activities are aligned to a common goal and they share best practices, work together for Anusmaran, our yearly get-together in May, etc. Two members from current students will join the council too and ensure that student interests are represented at alumni levels and alumni is engaged in student programs. This council of up to 35 members will elect a President and Vice-President of the Council. These two members will be on the Board of the Alumni Association which has 5 members. The Chairman of the Board is the Chairperson of Alumni Association at IIMB. The other two members are the Dean Administration and the Head of IIMB Alumni Association. This Board is the executive of the association and will ensure that the alumni worldwide and the Institute come together in harmony for a common goal. The board will also be responsible to give a broad level guideline of the function of the Association, lay down rules and byelaws in consultation with the Council and the Trustees, and ensure the IIMBAA gets a face and a platform for high level decision making.

We feel that it is critical to bring all stakeholders of IIMB together. We studied close to 25 top schools of the world and found that each has its own way of doing the same. After lot of consultative discussions with various senior alumni and faculty members, we thought this structure is the best suited one for IIMB. Not only does it give autonomy to alumni to manage their own bank account and run their own events, it also ensures that the Institute participates in that event and there is a tie up for a larger goal.

What are the plans of the Alumni Association for 2010 and beyond? And how does the Trust fit in those plans?

We think that these are the best times for IIMB Alumni Association. We have now secured a full-fledged secretariat at IIMB with 5 full time team members including both of us (Sankarshan and Rakesh). Our job is to ensure that there is central co-ordination of the IIMBAA Trust and we drive the following initiatives:

a. Maintaining a website and central website www.iimbaa.org

b. Bi-annual IIMB Alumni magazine

c. Reunion weekend every December

d. Anusmaran worldwide in May every year

e. Managing the Tax and Legal compliances of IIMBAA Trust

f. Assisting the Campaign for IIMB initiative of fund raising for the Institute

The IIMBAA Trust becomes a critical keystone of this entire plan that will help us deliver results for above mentioned targets. A very important message that we would like to give to all our alumni is that this is a participative and democratic trust. The alumni will elect the office bearers who will draft the action plan as per the over-arching goal, work with the individual alumni of their city, and help IIMB Alumni Association a well networked and strong body that serves as a pillar of support to IIMB.