Dear Alumni,
I want to start this inaugural message by saying that I am so humbled and greatful by the opportunity to serve as the President of our Alumni Network for the next two years.
As I greet you for the first time as the Alumni President, there are a million things going through my head, two of which are:
a) What impact and legacy do we as a leadership team want to leave on the Sports Skills for Life Skills Programme and me personally as President of the Alumni Network?
b) Arguably more importantly, how do we build on our plans to drive greater engagement from our alumni?
It’s crazy when I sit back and reflect on the journey that we as a group have been on for the last ten or so months. If you recall from the earlier post on our new #ss4lsalumninetwork website, you will have noticed that this is no small accomplishment.
We mobilised a small group of volunteers through our WhatsApp group who have invested unselfishly of their time; juggling work and childcare commitments and making sure our partners don’t file for divorce at the thought of another two-hour meeting on a Thursday night in lockdown, discussing design principles, our mission and objectives! That being said, we have developed a robust governance framework, strategy and high-level objectives aimed at serving this group of men and women who share a collective fondness of our beloved SS4LS program.
I often find myself thinking what would make people want to do this?
To sacrifice. To contribute. To serve. The answer I land on each time is always the same. Because we care. Our challenge for the next twelve months is how we engage and harness that same level of affection for our brothers and sisters and tap into the breadth and depth of your experience, to grow our Network and make it a success.
Interesting word that – “success.” Collins's dictionary defines success as, “The favourable outcome of something attempted.” I like the ending. “Something attempted.” It implies that if you don’t start it, how will you ever achieve it? We are attempting to build a network, based on something so unique in South African sport. It transcends what others are trying to or claim to be delivering themselves. I am not naïve to think that there will be stumbling blocks along the away, people will want more, participants will want things we might not be able to deliver just yet.
My commitment to you is that I will give this my utmost focus, time and effort to make sure that we build something that you all can be proud of. Something sustainable that the next group can take forward. I know the rest of the leadership team (i.e., Craig Govender, Lloyd Flanagan, Nuraan Pipers, Edward Small and David Selepe) share the same passion and commitment.
There are lots of things we have done and continue to do in the background. We know you’ve shared feedback around timely communication on progress, so we will respond in the coming two weeks accordingly. I won’t steal the rest of the team’s thunder and divulge more but you can look forward to some good updates, content, news and events as and when it launches.
In closing I want to thank you all for your patience to date. There are ongoing lessons being learned but rest assured there are a small group of people treading water like crazy to develop something that we ultimately can enjoy both during and after this crazy pandemic is over. I want to encourage all of you to please make sure you engage, tag, like and propose content that you think we can all benefit from as a group.
Please do take care of yourselves and your loved ones and never forget your part of something special and have a significant part to play … “two, three, irie!”
Yours in Sport,
Craig
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