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Dear Alumni, For those of you who came to the Spring Alumni/Friends day I want to say that it was great seeing you and sharing a stimulating program and pleasant social gathering. For those of you who could not attend you were missed, but I hope you were able to catch up on the day's events by visiting our website. The Alumni Board did a terrific job in planning the program and festivities and SIS is grateful for their service and support of the School. At the end of the formal program the Alumni Board met to have a business meeting at which time it reviewed the findings of the alumni survey which some of you participated in. The findings were very helpful in shaping the thinking of the board and the SIS administration about the future of alumni relations and affairs. An important aspect of the survey related to the implementation of an SIS Alumni Society. For a number of years I and others at SIS have thought it odd that while we had an SIS Alumni Board we had no SIS Alumni Society. The SIS Alumni Board has worked diligently to improve alumni activities and the discussion has included how to further improve alumni activities and how to best utilize the relationship that could be established with UT alumni activities. Discussion led to the idea of needing an SIS Alumni Society, but the question was how this would fit with the SIS Alumni Board. Hence, the board in consultation with the SIS administration decided that it would dissolve itself allowing the School to start from scratch in helping shape a more solid foundation for Alumni to be better represented and associated with the life of the school-it's students, faculty and friends. Based on this decision from the Board, I am in the process of appointing a steering committee which will be made up of some members of past Alumni Boards and other alumni at large. The charge to the steering committee will be to create a charter for a new SIS Alumni Society which will include bylaws and a process for electing its officers. I believe that with the new Alumni Society in place the alumni of the School will receive stronger representation, be better informed about the affairs of the school and most importantly feel that they are contributing back to the school in tangible ways. More details of this plan are provided for in the upcoming issue of the newsletter (Interface). In addition I will be giving periodic updates as to our progress during the summer months. In the meantime our traditional alumni events which usually occur around homecoming and in the spring will remain in place. If you have any questions or comments as always they are welcomed and much appreciated. Best, Ed Cortez Edwin-Michael Cortez, PhD Director & Professor School of Information Sciences University of Tennessee 451 Communications Bldg. 1345 Circle Park Drive Knoxville, TN 37996-0341 Phone: (865) 974-2148 Fax: (865) 974-4967 E-mail [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To join/leave the list or browse the ISALUMNI archives, please see: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/isalumni.html