President's Message
Fellow Harvardians-
We all share a deep commitment to Harvard, and to the Harvard Alumni Association of Utah. Permit me to introduce myself to you as your new President for the 2017 - 2018 year. We have a most interesting schedule of programs taking form, and I invite your membership and energy!
The acclaimed and highly sought speaker Clayton Christensen has agreed to lead off on November 16 at 6 PM in the Little America. His previous programs have been sellouts, and we encourage you to fill out the attached membership form as this program will be a members and members-guests only event.
We will then have County Mayor Ben McAdams speaking at the Alta Club on November 30 at 6 PM. I was personally inspired by his vision for addressing key local issues, and look forward to his report on progress and additional initiatives. His schedule is quite tight, so we were pleased to get on his schedule several weeks ago. Subsequently, Mayor McAdams announced he will run for Congress, and, while we do not invite political candidates, Mayor McAdams was already scheduled as a speaker when he announced his candidacy for U.S. Congress. Mayor McAdams will be speaking on the Salt Lake County issues. (HAAU does not endorse candidates and tries to give voice to both major political parties. In the past four years, we have heard from a variety of speakers, including Senator Orrin Hatch, Governor Gary Herbert, and Representative Jim Matheson.)
“The Game" between Harvard and Yale will be on view at Buffalo Wild Wings in Sugar House on November 18. I have been assured me that this game will launch another streak with a resounding win over the Bulldogs. We will begin warming up at 10 AM, so tape your ankles and support our team when the game starts at 10:30! Our traditional Holiday Party will take place this year at the Kennedys-Yoon home, and we will announce a date as soon as a speaker has been confirmed.
In order to register for any of these four events, please look for an email sent by HAAU.
HAAU has quite a number of additional events that are in various stages of planning. HAAU President-Elect Steve Aoki is leading the planning of our calendar. All the events will be noted in direct emails, and posted on the website https://harvardutah.clubs.harvard.edu/events.html. We appreciate the efforts of Brad Rockwell in bringing the website up to date and of John Yoon in maintaining our membership and overseeing our emails. We are actively soliciting young volunteers to help with our website and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/harvard.alumni.utah/?ref=ts.
HAAU provides a range of services to Harvard and to our community. The chief example of the former is the Schools & Scholarships Committee where Katherine Kennedy and Erika Finlayson will be taking over for Randall Mackey. Randall compiled an admirable record over a couple of decades but continues to be active in interviewing.
We serve our Utah Harvard community in a number of ways. Each summer, HAAU and its members provide a summer fellowship to a deserving Harvard student who wants to pursue a worthy project in Utah. We have begun to consider possibilities for a HAAU-driven service initiative for supporting our community, and I would be most interested in seeing your suggestions for such a project. We have some members who have already paid 2017-2018 dues. Thank you sincerely. If you have not yet paid dues for this year, please pay via the enclosed form or go online to https://harvardutah.clubs.harvard.edu/. HAAU members accrue many benefits, including lower prices for some events and admission to some events: our first dinner is a members- and members’ guests-only event.
Thank you so much in advance for your support, and I look forward to meeting each of you!
-Ron White
President, Harvard Alumni Association of Utah
HBS Section E 1967
ronwhite799@gmail.com