As we shift into implementation gear, we want to pause for a moment to thank our fellow AIESECers for their participation and support during our work together these past months.  So many of you have helped in so many ways to help Budapest ’12 build on an alumni effort that began in Hungary in ’86 and was then strengthened with the Budapest reform declaration in ’06.  The following list (in alphabetical order since you are all so important) is just a start.

AAIM ’12 Organizing Committee and Chairpersons
We want to extend our thanks to Tamara Tischler and her fabulous team for organizing this extraordinary conference.  Our thanks also go to Anikó Magasházi and Dale Martin for their expert job chairing our sessions and helping us get so much out of our time together.  We would like to thank the alumni of AIESEC Hungary for inviting us to celebrate with them in Budapest on the occasion of their 40th anniversary and for their participation in Tapolca as well as well as for the excellent speakers.  Our thanks also go to Susanne Pfeuffer for her effective representation of AAI at the event and to Akber Pandor for his skilled chairing of the AAI Congress amidst spirited dialogue.

AAIM attendees in Hungary
We want to thank the more than 150 alumni attendees including Jean and Catherine Choplin who honored us with their presence and participation.  Many senior alumni figures and national alumni leaders were in attendance, with some participants flying in from half way around the world to celebrate and to debate our future.  We are grateful for the intensity they all brought to our discussions, for their strong endorsement of our proposed direction, and for their specific input that will lead to refinements as we push ahead.  Many thanks also go to the alumni who wrote up their experiences in Facebook and LinkedIn.   In addition, we want to thank the many MCPs and other student AIESECers whom we got a chance to meet during our joint sessions and provided fantastic insights to the alumni effort.

“AIESEC Alumni of the World Unite” Steering Committee
Our thanks go out to Victor Loewenstein, Tatiana Mykhailyuk, Luca Keresztesi, Hugo Pereira, Fatima Rocha, Susanne Pfeuffer and Jochen Wiegand for their counsel on the project steering committee (with extra special thanks to Luca for her extremely helpful day-to-day support and to Victor and Hugo for setting us on this course).  We really cannot thank you all enough for your participation and for the support of AIESEC International and AIESEC Alumni International.

“AIESEC Alumni of the World Unite” Working Group
I want to express my personal gratitude to Andrew Rowe, Arnould de la Boulaye, Bernd M. Thomas, Carolina Laitan Galan, Frank Beuselinck, Hiro Kinashi, Joram Mwinamo, Juan Manuel Ferron and Kuba Karlinksi for their contributions over the past several months as members of the Working Group.  Each of them contributed in his or her own way with the Hungary meetings looming as our deadline.  I greatly appreciate the skills, patience, determination and dedication they showed in the face of a relentless flow of emails and some ill-timed conference calls.  This was one very determined group.

Alumni-at-large
We want to thank the multitude of alumni-at-large who joined us in this effort.  Alumni leaders from 46 countries completed country-level surveys.  More than 600 alumni completed detailed surveys and made heartfelt comments.  Alumni viewed pages of our blog nearly 15,000 times.  Many alumni, including AIESEC pioneers and former PAIs of all eras, worked directly with the team or made more than 200 comments on the blog.  AIESEC alumni of the world really did unite and step up to contribute to this effort.  We will need each one of you going forward.

Executive Board
We are all indebted to the outgoing EB for their numerous and very significant contributions to the AIESEC alumni effort over so many years.  We are especially grateful for the tireless efforts of outgoing AAI President Victor Loewenstein who has contributed so much to the AIESEC alumni movement over many years of dedicated service. Many thanks also to the incoming EB, some of whom have the challenging task of joining a train that is already fast in motion.  We are excited to be working together.

We want to thank ALL OF YOU for your support during these past months and at our February AAIM.  We are thrilled to be on the case, and we look forward to working closely with you in our shared quest to unleash AIESEC’s global alumni potential.

AIESECly yours,
David
(on behalf of AAI’s new Executive Board)