Thursday, February 14, 2008

Duane Coombs, (l) Public Relations Officer Excelsior Alumni Assoc(USA), Althea Robinson,  Vice President Excelsior Alumni Assoc.of Florida and Christopher Honeywell, President of the Excelsior Past Students Association at the Founders Day Brunch.

The Excelsior Alumni Association (USA) Inc, the Excelsior Alumni Association of Florida and the Excelsior PSA have made another attempt at forging closer ties in order to better assist the alma mater.

After many failed efforts over the past decade to fashion a formal agreement, the groups again met during the recent Founders' Day celebration at the school to try to formulate a working agreement.  

The meeting, chaired by Christopher Honeywell, President of the Excelsior Past Students Association and attended by Althea Robinson, Vice President of the Excelsior Alumni Association of Florida and Duane Coombs, Public Relations Officer of the Excelsior Alumni Association (USA) Inc., as well as various members of the local executive, was another push to help to secure the future of the school. The dormant Excelsior Alumni Association of Toronto was not represented at the meeting. 

If the Memorandum Of Undersatnding (MOU) which resulted from the meeting is ratified, it will represent another step forward and replace the more formal and ill-fated Excelsior Alumni Council which died a natural death without ever getting off the ground since its launch amid much fanfare two years prior.

After more than ten years of efforts led by the Excelsior Alumni Association (USA) Inc. to try to coordinate assistance to the school, the groups will make another go at hammering out a pact acceptable to all stakeholders. 

Terms of the agreement are still being debated, but included in the preliminary discussion is the need for a clear understanding that the groups would embark on a partnership of equals; and each group would be regarded as independent and not  be viewed as a sub-group of another group or entity.

It was the prevailing hope of all the attendees that this latest push to partnership would finally bear fruit.