4th Biennial Great Ife International Re-union, Hilton DFW Lakes, September 1st – 3rd 2006

Great Ife Alumni from all walks of life and all corners of the globe trooped into Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolis during the Labor Day weekend, Friday September 1st to Sunday September 3rd for the 4th Biennial Great Ife International Reunion. The theme for this year’s Reunion was “Back To Road One: Gateway To Excellence”

The 3-day Ceremonies were kicked off with a variety evening/night party (boogie down) on Friday September 01, 2006 at the Rotunda-style Austin Ranch on the  beautiful grounds of Hilton DFW hotel (No bouncing at the gate). There were dances to the music from your decade of matriculation as well as jokes centered around Ife campus terminologies and lifestyles.  It was a splendid night for everyone present.

Saturday, September 02, 2006 - The 2nd which was the main day of the 2006 Reunion activities started with the Alumni Convention/Breakfast Meeting at 9:35am.

As early as 8.00am, on site alumni registration and Reunion 2006 souvenir bags were handed out to participants at the well coordinated registration desk. Souvenirs of previous Reunions were also readily available for sale throughout the day.

Several alumni members from the following cities and countries were represented at the table – California, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New Jersey, New York, Canada, Tunisia, Nigeria, and United Kingdom.  The lavish Cap Rock business meeting suite at DFW Hilton, venue of the event was filled to capacity.

The plenary session of the 2006 Reunion Convention was declared open by the Chairman of the Reunion Planning Committee; Mr. Dolapo Ajayi who introduced the Presidents of Houston and DFW chapters, Mr. Adeolu Esho and Mrs. Yemi Koyejo respectively,  as co-moderators for the important meeting session. The Presidents, in their respective speeches, in turn recognized many notable alumni and important University officials present at the Alumni Meeting. Specifically, the presence of the National President of the OAU Alumni Association in Nigeria, Comrade Wole Olaoye and the Deputy Vice Chancellor of OAU, Professor Kwashie AkoNai were acknowledged.

The following are the major decisions, resolutions and recommendations or suggestions taken at the end of the 2006 Alumni Reunion meeting;

Roles of the Alumni Association in the development of our alma Mater

1. Financial and Material Assistance:

Although our relatively young Alumni Association has performed creditably in this area of our mission, we resolved to strive to do even more in the years ahead, through the following programs and activities;
-     Adopt a Room Program - This is a program that enables an alumnus to donate $200 (or it’s equivalent in local currency for the renovation and maintenance of each for the Residence Hall rooms that the alumnus lived while in the University.

Action Item: Create Endowment Funds and use the monetary interests generated to offset cost of projects on an on-going basis. This was considered a much better arrangement than focusing solely on periodic fund raising activities. Members acknowledged that this is the practice of well-established institutions across the globe that are worth their salt. Members were also encouraged that the Non-Profit status of the association could be maximized to the benefit of the institution in terms of fund-raising.

1. Contributing and financially supporting the National Alumni Association to complete the following projects that are in different stages of completion- Alumni Center Facilities and Alumni Hall (2nd phase). Alignment of Alumni activities across the globe in this regards was emphasized. Instead of each alumni branch picking disparate projects with limited resources to execute, resources should be harnessed under one banner with concentration on projects/activities that yield maximum results.

1. Giving and Facilitating Research Grants & Awards towards different pursuits in the University curriculum. Alumni members need to tap into various research funds being disbursed by financial institutions and grant bodies.

Action Item: Encourage the University and faculty to apply for African Development Bank (ADB)’s grant, which supports researches into Developmental Economics and related research areas.

1. Giving generous Academic and Moral Scholarship awards to indigent and other categories of students in the University. Faculty-based Alumni Associations should be encouraged to spring up for complementary projects that benefit the larger Association as well as the Alma Mater

2. Volunteering to give Campus wide organized lectures on relevant topics to the development of the University students and staff.
Action Item: In conjunction with OAU authorities, create a yearly Calendar for Alumni to go to OAU for student mentoring activities.

3. Choosing to do their sabbatical and research periods at OAU, by the academicians among the alumni.

4. Volunteering to serve as mentors to current students on a regular and consistent basis.
Action Items: Create an International Register of Alumni with as much information as possible on those registered. Plan for a Home Coming Reunion. This should be planned at regular intervals so that alumni across the world could converge at our Alma Mater

5. Volunteering to serve as worthy OAU ambassadors on different assignments as may be assigned by the University authorities.

Recommendations & Suggestions:

1. OAU to staff the alumni Relations Office with high cadre professional personnel.
2. Harmonize and streamline the activities of both the Alumni Relations Office and the OAU Linkages Office, in relation to alumni matters.
3. University and National Alumni Association Website to be professionally created, hosted and maintained. Zero tolerance for offline times and outdated information on website.
4. OAU to revamp the transcript application and processing to make it easier to obtain. The progress already made in this area was acknowledged.
5. Endowment Fund institution and Fund Raiser should go on in parallel until there is substantial funds in the Endowment. A strategy to be developed to enable alumni in all regions of the world to participate. A committee to be constituted to develop recommendations on the modalities of the Endowment Fund.
6. OAU Alumni Association to articulate the reason for people to make donations/contribute to the Endowment Fund
7. The need to have trained professionals to oversee the implementation of Alumni projects on campus and ensuring high standard in execution and ensuring projects are completed on time and to budget.
8. The need to have structured communication among all Alumni Chapters
9. A committee to be established to look into the structure of Alumni Association in the United States and recommend the most effective and efficient Alumni Association format.

Concerns:
-           Nigerian National Alumni website has been down for a prolonged period:
(The website is to be redesigned and maintained professionally)

-           Death of Great Ife alumni lecturer at Bisi Onabanjo University
(The Nigerian National body will try to exert some influence to progress the investigation of the lecturer’s death).

-           Maintenance of existing and newly donated alumni infrastructure to the university:
(The Alumni Association solicits funding, identifies and executes projects and donates same to the university. The alumni body is not responsible for maintaining donated structures; that  is the university authority's responsibility).

-           Efforts made to attract and retain quality faculty:
(There is a strategic plan developed by the university to prioritize and train faculty. Endowment is essential for continued faculty training and development. Endowment of chair for certain professorship is encouraged and solicited).

-           Rehabilitation of hostels:
(The federal government wants to privatize the hostels with a "Build, Occupy and Transfer" (BOT), strategy. With this financing option the private sector builds the hostel, re-coup their cost and profit and transfer to the university at the end of the lease period).

Committees:
Endowment Funds Committee: Come up with how the funds will be raised, managed, secured, accountability, reporting, communication, etc. The committee was given 6 months term of reference with initial draft due by December 2nd, 2006.

Alumni Association Restructuring Committee: Come up with recommendations on the structure of the Alumni Association in the USA for maximum effectiveness. The committee was given 6 months term of reference with initial draft due by December 2nd, 2006

The climax of the Reunion activities was the Banquet Diner event which took place in the evening of Saturday September 02, 2006, at the grand ballroom of Hilton –DFW Lakes. It was a grand show of finesse and class that Great Ife alumni were noted for in their days at Ife. There were fantastic raffle draw prizes, as well as awards and recognitions for the selfless efforts of some alumni towards the success of the 2006 Reunion. The alumni with the oldest and latest matric numbersin the gathering were recognized. So also was the alumnus with the highest number of degrees obtained from Great Ife was keenly contested for, and awarded to the highest cash donation bidding alumnus. The fund raising part of the evening show was very successful with an estimated amount of $10,000 in cash, check and mostly pledges realized. Before the year runs out, we shall be following up with reminders for the payment of the donation pledges and also solicitation for more donations, especially from alumni who were not at the venue of the banquet. The diner food and drinks were sumptuous, the jokes and reminiscences were hilarious, and the groovy, thrilling dance moves were exhilarating. It was a night of great fun for everyone.
On Sunday, September 03, we had breakfast and various activities like privately organized shopping, golf and tennis, worship service and of course departures to our various stations.

Where Next: At the Banquet Diner, the following chapters were chartered;

1. New Jersey/New York chapter
2. California (Oakland/San Francisco) chapter

The expectation is that the 2008 Great Ife Alumni International Reunion will be hosted by either of these newly chartered chapters. The hosting chapter will be communicated to all alumni in due course of time.

Great Ife! Great Ife!! Grrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaat Ife!!!