WAAAUB held its second North American Regional
Gathering in Montreal, Canada on October 9-11, 2009.
WAAAUB President Dr. Khalil Makkawi and
Vice-President Genane Maalouf oversaw the proceedings.
The weekend kicked off with a welcoming reception on Friday night.
Saturday's business meetings began with an overview and welcome from WAAAUB
President Dr. Khalil Makkawi. The day included updates on the work of the
various Standing Committees which were presented by:
- Acting Chair Chapters Committee & Nominations Committee member - Dr.
Tewfik Zein
- WAAAUB Board member& Outreach and Nominations Committee member - Maha
Zabaneh
- Al -Jame'a editor - Elie Moussalli
- Programs Committee member - Ghada Rihani
The attendees - comprised of North American
chapter representatives and alumni at large - also participated in several
lively and fruitful sessions moderated by VP Genane Maalouf which assessed
WAAAUB's progress to date with recommendations for the future. The group
also had a roundtable exchange focused on the successes and difficulties of
alumni chapters on the ground. Chapters represented in this discussion
were: Montreal , New York , Ohio River Valley , Ottawa , Philadelphia ,
Southern California, Toronto, Washington DC .
Saturday's sessions closed with young alum Habib Haddad, BE 2002, sharing -
with passion and wit - the milestones of his entrepreneurial journey as
co-founder of Yamli, the Arabic language keyboard.
A gala dinner with nearly 200 guests in attendance that evening featured a
keynote by Raghida Dergham, UN bureau chief for the London-based Al-Hayat
newspaper.
Sunday's wrap-up sessions featured news from campus, including updates on
the university's outreach efforts via echannels such as youtube and facebook.
A summary of recommendations and observations raised by alumni over the
weekend was presented to and reviewed by participants.
The recommendations will be helpful to WAAAUB as
it continues in its mission to serve AUB alumni worldwide. The weekend ended
with a traditional Lebanese luncheon.
For a photo gallery of the various events, cli
ck