Danielle Palmer, '92, director of alumni affairs and special events

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Coming Soon in Alumni Affairs

The tragic events of September 11 have left the GSB community stunned and heartbroken. Our prayers and heartfelt thoughts are with those who have suffered the devastating loss of a loved one. Many hundreds of you contacted us to ask how you could help or to inquire about the welfare of friends and colleagues. Thank you for coming together as a strong community.

Last summer, I accompanied former dean Bob Hamada on a farewell tour that included nearly 30 cities worldwide. In his last months as dean, Bob wanted to visit as many chapters as possible to thank alumni for their support and to urge their continued participation. We traveled down the Atlantic coast from Boston to Miami and then to Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo (accompanied by 25 current students exploring South America on spring break). After a reception in Chicago and a tour of the West Coast, we went to London, Brussels, Madrid, and Barcelona, as well as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. It was a special treat to join alumni at receptions hosted by George Conrades, XP-28 ('71), and his wife, Patsy, in their Boston home; by Janet Ortega, '81, and her husband, Jim, in their wonderful flat in Sao Paulo; and by Teresa Parker, '90, and her husband, Michael, at their apartment inside Buckingham Palace. Thanks to everyone who planned and attended these receptions.

A few issues ago, I asked for feedback on our GSB Web site—what's working and whats missing, and many of you provided us with valuable insights. We plan to implement most of the ideas voiced, in addition to some of our own. Here are our immediate plans and time frame:

June 2001: Online GSB Store. Dedicated to an exclusive line of GSB logo products including clothing, desk accessories, sports accessories, and childrens wear, this searchable site can be found at gsb.uchicago.edu/gsbstore.

October 2001: Automate Email4Life password process. Before this fall, each time you tried to activate your e-mail account but forgot your e-mail password, tech support manually looked it up and forwarded it to you. Now, you can create your own password online.

Coming soon: Create an opt-in mentoring list. As you may remember from your student days, networking with alumni can be "hit or miss." Since address changes are self-supplied (please do update your information), there are frequent lags, particularly in work information‹the information most important to our networking students or alums. In addition, only a small percentage of alumni that are successfully contacted are willing to provide career assistance. A searchable list of mentor volunteers will greatly reduce frustration for everyone. If you are interested in participating in this program, please contact our alumni career services office at 312.464.8677.

Coming in 2002: New GSB portal. We plan to purchase or develop an industrial-strength portal that will allow us to introduce threaded conversations, multimedia streaming, chat forums, and many organizational tools to make the lives of our chapter presidents easier. Our system will be equivalent to portals used by major corporations and will give us the power and flexibility to introduce services currently impossible to offer. We will keep you informed as this project progresses.

Best wishes to Gil Beyen, '90, as he steps down from his dedicated work as head of the active Belgium alumni chapter. He is succeeded by Benoit Tas, '95. Welcome, Benoit! Thanks, Gil!