July 2004

What a difference two years can make! It’s hard to believe my term as president of the American University Alumni Association (AUAA) is coming to an end. Although I’m very excited to work with incoming president, Carey Earle, SOC/BA ’88, who will be assuming the role this fall, I am also really proud of taking a leadership role in the accomplishments of the alumni board of volunteers who make up the Alumni Association. Here are just a few of the highlights:

• We worked with Alumni Programs staff to steadily increase the quality of programming and the number of attendees at Homecoming & Reunion (from 496 in 2001 to 925 in 2003).
• We organized alumni focus groups to find out what sort of things alums like you are looking for from your alumni association.
• We helped to launch and implement the new Student Alumni Association (SAA).
• We worked with the Admissions staff to get more than 100 alumni volunteers involved with recruiting future AU alumni.
• We worked with affinity alumni groups, like the Greeks, to get them more involved with our programs.

While each of these accomplishments is worth bragging about, the thing that makes me most proud is discovering the tremendous professional and personal achievements of my fellow alumni. Your efforts to give back to AU – and to society in general – are truly admirable.

Thank you for making this a wonderful two years. Even though I won’t be president of the Alumni Association much longer, I’ll always be a loyal alum.

Sincerely,

Don Knapp, SPA/BA ’81, SPA/MA ’83, WCL/JD ’87

P.S. I look forward to seeing you at future events. I’m already starting to contact my friends to make sure they’re at Homecoming & Reunion. It’s October 15-17 this year.

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