Sa’prem Namaskaar Academites !

This year, we finally did it. We finally established the Alumni Body for our college!

It’s been a long journey since the college started in 1960, and certainly an impatient wait to get the Alumni show on the road. But this isn’t about patting our backs on a job finally done. This is about getting all Academites, onto the road to a strong Alumni. And we want your support by joining the “AOA Connect Association” and building this alumni body with us. So that, the next time we say “we”, we can mean all of “Us”!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sending out fliers, missives and announcements to keep you updated regarding developments and to keep the conversation going.

Do keep a lookout for these fliers, and if you have any questions, and we haven't answered them yet, feel free to ask.

Okay, So - AOACA stands for the “AOA Connect Association”. It is a Section 8 company registered under the Companies Act 2013.

This company is the official Alumni body of the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai.

It is an independent body, and run directly by its own Board of Directors, It will run its own separate accounts, and will chart its own course as an alumni body of the AOA.

This is what we see the Alumni group achieving

We want to be able to connect everyone in the Academy at a professional level. We want all the Academites - to get to know each other and hang out. We are so serious about this, that we’ve entrusted this job to the current president of the AOACA. 

Think about that, The President of the AOACA’s main job is to throw a party and get you to mingle!

We want the Alumni to harness the cumulative power of the Academy of Architecture graduates, so that we can help the Academy in ways we see fit. Be that through Student scholarships, Faculty resource management, Job placement platforms, Academic research, or any other need that may arise.

We want the Alumni to become a platform and a tool that all Academy graduates can work with to help themselves professionally and, ideally, help them help others and the college as well.

Now, having a vision is great. But the real magic comes when all of us, even part of the time, are looking in the same direction. That's the real vision for the AOACA.

Our fundamental thesis is that - We are all stronger when we pull our resources together. We all benefit when we can reach out to each other more easily. And that We are, all of us, better off when we stand together.

Two points to make here-

We want you to join because we want a strong and robust Alumni. A strong alumni will give AOACA (as a body) enough teeth to get things done.

We have already talked about helping needy students, offering resources to the Academy, Job placement and the like. But the power of the Alumni lies in what's beyond these.

“You want to run a stationery collection drive among professional of ices and distribute them to needy Academy students?” - Awesome Idea! Tell us how we can help you. We have the necessary infrastructure to help you run this project.

“You want to do something about the current situations of Hostel conditions for out of town Academites?” Great! - Join us and tell us how we can do this.

"You want to run a Newsletter for the Alumni. and also replace the guy who is writing these notes?" - Yes! Please! - Help Us!!

It is said that “A Professional Career is Ninety percent Relationships”. Whether you like it or not, you will be spending a lot of time building relationships and trust with the people around you. Joining an alumni will give you access to all Architecture professionals that passed out of the Academy of Architecture. That's a sizable number and stratospheric collection of professionals.

Imagine being able to reach out to, and connect with, any Alumni member knowing that being an AOACA member is three / fourths of an introduction already. 

Imagine being able to ask specific questions to your alumni colleagues - like “who’s a good outdoor sculpture in the Lonavala region?” - and getting a near immediate answer.

Imagine being able to find that one senior you’ve been meaning to connect with.

We have only been able to do this, so far, by word of mouth and recently through the whatsapp group. But now you can have this resource , verified and more powerful and more efficient, at your fingertips, literally.

Hey! That's one thing we have in common. We don't love scary corporations either. Which is why we made an iron-clad rules and regulations document that holds everyone accountable, keeps objectives very transparent and gives power to the people (the general body , i.e. - YOU).

We're a fairly diverse group of ex students who came together to set up this alumni body. Some of us didn't really know each other till we sat for the first constitution meeting.

But do stay tuned for some visual introductory fliers (hopefully). And of course, do catch us at the first get together !!

That's the easy part. We are in the process of deploying an app that becomes the heart of the Alumni mechanism. You will have to download the app and register after paying the requisite fees. Do note that there is a verification process that will take place at the backend. As soon as that is done you are good to go.

Don't worry about your information. You will have control over how much of your information is seen by others. We have a pretty strong NDA and data protection clause with our app vendor. And the ideas and principles of data protection are baked into our rules and regulations from the very start.

Oh sure, we understand. The details are being detailed out. But the idea is that, you can access the website version of the app and have limited access on this website and see what's going on and what the Alumni is up to. Then, if it suits you, you register and pay the annual subscription fees.

When you decide to get registered, you will have full access to the app and the Alumni. Its network, initiatives, events activities, announcements and much more.

Well, to be honest, this is a somewhat technical question. So we went straight to the President, and senior member of the Board of Directors, Mukund Athale 1989-1994 to get a clear answer.

After he explained it to us, for the fourth time, we felt it was best that we simply write down his points as he sent it to us.

And they are as follows

Don't worry about your information. On the app you will have control over how much of your information is seen by others and you can edit and update the settings and information any time. We have pretty strong NDA and data protection clauses with our app vendor. This covers onboarding and off-boarding phase of the contract.

And, most importantly, the ideas and principles of data protection are baked into our rules and regulations from the very start.

Believe us when we say that data protection is really important to us too. Each and every Founding member worries about this as well. We discuss it every time anything related to online stuff comes up.

Hi M. Thanks for writing in. We love this idea !!

We are currently working hard on an app that will be the heart of our alumni activity. We are in the process of tweaking this app to make it possible for us to have the same level of robust conversations that we have had on the whatsapp chat for the past 5+ years.

To be honest, it’s an uphill walk, but we are determined to get there eventually. We are hoping that when the app rolls out members will be able to make separate chat thread for conversation. Its WIP but fingers crossed.