Dear Members of the Harvard Club of France,
It is not common for me to write to you from snowy Cambridge (this month being February, and Cambridge being Cambridge) but I thought the annual Harvard Alumni Leadership Conference or ALC would make a nice opportunity.
Your club was this year represented this year by two of its officers, Jonathan Kamler and myself. It has been a useful occasion to meet fellow club leaders as well as university officials.
The meeting started on February 3rd with an interesting encounter between club leaders and Harvard students. I was glad to discover that many undergraduates are attracted by France as a country to pursue either an internship, a summer job or even a career.
Harvard has more connections with France than one might think. We met many students with either family or academic links with France, some of them planning a visit in the near future. In the course of my stay, I will also build connections with French students in Harvard (more on this in the next newsletter).
On the night of Feb. 3rd, a get-together was organized for all 200 ALC participants which included representatives of US domestic clubs, international clubs and special interest groups (the famous "SIGs"). The key-note speaker was a professor well-known to all of us : Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard Library, who was very recently in Paris to speak about digital libraries.
The next day was aimed at translating into words the ALC's annual theme (invented by HAA president Bob Bowie, who is -like incoming president Ellen Reeves- a friend of ours): "Make the Network Work!"
In the first set of panels, you could choose between "building your volunteer toolbox" and "reaching new audiences" - I picked the second one, and was particularly interested to learn about SIGs such as Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance or The Signet Society (Books & Arts). The Signet is chaired by Prof. Thomas Kelly, former Head of the Music Department, and has among its stars Yo-Yo Ma and Natalie Portman...
There are many resources within Harvard that we in Europe don't necessarily benefit from and I suggested to our SIG colleagues that they could consider sending their artists to us. I also spoke to Jon Aibel of the "Gin & Tonics" (a choral competitor of the Harvard Krokodiloes who came last summer to Paris) and extended an invitation.
One issue is how to approach members and make sure they take some time off from their busy lives to join Club events. One surprising suggestion came from a SIG President : "write letters rather than emails"!
After the break, I attended another panel on building organizational capacity. Don Guiney of the UK Club explained how he was trying to engage younger members - including young graduates - something the HCF has also tried to do over the past few years. Don and I agree on one thing: a members' survey could occasionally be used to find out more about what YOU want from your club (we will work on this asap).
The last morning session was aimed at "the power of the network" especially when it comes to engaging students and alumni through mentoring programs, student organizations, and January experiences; and gaining support for programming from the Office of Career Services.
Besides, the Philadelphia club organized a "dinner of the decade" with Harvard celebrities, and making sure people are seated with classmates from the same year.
Key-note speaker at Lunch was HBS Prof. Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Her theme? "Great Leadership and Advanced Leadership".
In the afternoon, a number of tools were suggested to clubs. I am happy to report that most of them (such as Facebook, a website, a membership committee...) are already working fully within the HCF...
Lastly, HAA will once again promote "Harvard's Global Month of Service", in April. I am looking forward to receiving ideas from you in that department. Feel free to recommend any project or charity you might know of, and our club will try to implement/help them in April.
Back to the Harvard Club of France, I could not possibly end this letter without sending you the link to the fantastic feature article which appeared in the French newspaper "Les Echos" on Friday 4 February.
http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-politique/france/actu/0201108910449-harvard-un-monde-a-part.htm This very positive piece reflects the recent flurry of activities of this club in recent months (President Drew Faust dinner, Jeu de Paume, Holiday party, Harvard au Feminin....)
I hope it can serve a purpose for those of you who have not renewed their membership dues yet. Please feel free to recommend the club to any fellow Harvard alumni who want to get closer to this community. It's certainly worth a click or two on our
www.harvardclub.fr website!
Warm regards,
Philippe
Philippe Le Corre - President of the Harvard Club of FranceFrance Amériques
9, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, Paris
Web: http://www.harvardclub.fr/
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Our esteemed club, the Harvard Club of France, has made the press! If you didn't catch the "L'Enquete" on us in the Friday February 4th, 2011 edition of the economic newspaper 