Dear IHS Alumni,
It's still spring time in this part of the world - the time for new beginnings! I’d like to use this opportunity to inform you about the commencement of some of the exciting ventures by the alumni board.
The board members of the IHSAI alumni international network - Yanu Ramirez, Justin Hyatt, Eduardo Zdanowicz, Charmae Nercua and I met together as a group for the first time in November 2017 in Rotterdam. Over the next days, we developed our planning for our term and we have been working hard on following through on those plans.
One of the first questions that we faced as a board was who are our alumni, what are the challenges they face, what do they need and like. In order to answer those questions we have sent out last week a diagnostic survey (click to fill it in), led by our network and community builder, Justin. The analysis of the reactions will help us to provide those services that you need and those that will make our network stronger. The survey has already got astounding reactions. However, if you have not filled in the survey yet, I urge you to do so because this is your chance to let us know about you!
To aid us in this quest for strengthening our local connection with the alumni and IHS Local Alumni Associations, we have sought help of some very involved and enthusiastic alumni in various regions. These alumni have kindly consented to serve as the boards Regional Advisers. We thank and welcome Randy Wilson (Ghana), Sonia Islam (Bangladesh), Destri (Indonesia), Donia Tawakol (Egypt).
Another thing that you have seen come by recently is the launch for a new call for nominations for our next outstanding urban professional award! This will be the 4th IHS alumni awards to be held in November in Rotterdam as part of the 60 years anniversary of IHS, which will be celebrated through a conference (click here to find out more about the event and call for ideas). In 2016, the award was won by a very remarkable woman: the Mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini. The same year, for the first time, we also introduced a Youth category of the awards, which was won by a Jakarta-based project called “PetaJakarta.org”. There are so many outstanding Urban professionals out there - urban leaders with a clear vision, leaders that have dedicated many years of their life to bringing together innovation, community participation, foresighted solutions. Leaders that have helped develop resilience to fight the many urban challenges that our urbanising world is facing. It is important to recognise these leaders for their efforts and it is equally important to spread the learnings of what they have achieved, so that we can inspire more professionals around the world to make a difference. And in this quest we need your help! We need you to bring forward their names. So tell us who have been the most inspiring urban professionals that you have come across in the last period? Find out here how you can nominate them.
Another exciting thing in the pipeline is that we are beginning a series of webinars. Please reach out to our vice President Yanu (y_ramirez@yahoo.com) for any suggestions and ideas that you have regarding subjects that you’ll like to hear about or if you or a friend would like to volunteer to become a speaker for these webinars. We hope to have a great line of speakers ready to bring their ideas and their knowledge right at your fingertips. Stay posted!
Eduardo, our events and communications expert, has developed a new IHSAI Instagram page, whereby we welcome you to post photos and moments of your urban interventions, glimpses about urban issues that you encounter in your everyday interactions, be it positive or negative. We want to be able to participate in your daily life and learn about new urban projects, new ideas, new solutions and be inspired! Excited to share? Contribute to the IHSAI Instagram page!
Stay posted for a new version of our website and blog makingcitieswork.nl. Stefana Cozan, our in-house IHS media expert is working hard on it at this moment. If you have an inspiring urban story to share, we welcome you to contribute to our blog post! Please get in touch with Eduardo or Stefana.
Wishing you a pleasant time ahead and looking forward to connecting with you (in person or on any one of our social media presence).
Yours sincerely,
Mansi Jasuja
President IHS Alumni International Network