Points from Jeevitha

- Library:
Not for the academic books alone.To start with each of us can donate some of our books to this library.

- Soft Skills:
We ll talk to the management and arrange for sessions, classes etc.,

- Career Connections:
Create a soft landing for our juniors, before they enter the big whole world!!!

- Reunions & Culturals:
The most interesting part, i guess :). Do we have reunions and culturals happening in our coll???

- Online Community:
Stronger the better. Alumnis will be the members

- Volunteers:
We do need volunteers from the students and staff of TCE.

My Visions for the Organization

Guiltiness of yesterday fills our mornings and fear of tomorrow shadows our nights,
Gloominess of our work and emptiness of our actions loads our day,
We try hard to know the purpose of life and reasons for our existence,
Alas! We could never understand the secrets of Nature's philosophy.

We need an action to change the boringness of our lives,
We need a connection to fill the hollowness of our isolation,
We need a passion to break the inertia that stops from doing our best,
And, We need a vision to remove the chaotiness of our psychology.

Amazed are we, when we know the potential of our minds,
Astonished are we, when we know the passions of our friends,
Appalled are we, when we see the conditions of our poor nation,
Is it not a shame, that we still find it hard to solve the problems of sociology?

Let us pray God to give us the vision to solve our problems,
Let us worship Lord for giving us power to overcome the obstacles,
Let Him empower us to take on our dreams on seeing social prosperity,
God! We request you to be with us in our race towards secular theology.

Diverse are we in our regions and origins,
Varied are we in our missions and ambitions,
Together we stand at the crossroads of our common destiny,
Let no force stop us from making history.

-- Balaji Viswanathan

Founding Members

Schedule I
List of Founding Members
Abdul, Ananth, Anandavally, Anbarasan, Anisha, Anithamani, Aravind, A.P. Arun, Ashok, Boopathy, Balaji, Hemavathi, Jeba, Jeevitha, Kalaiselvan, T. Karthikeyan, Kayalvizhi, Lalitha devi, Muthuponmozhi, Nidya, Noorul Islam.

Oath

Schedule II
Oath of Admission: "We the alumni of Thiagarjar College of Engineering are proud of its rich history and the values of its constitution. We seek to fulfill its mission and strive hard to make it a beacon of enlightenment. With the sincerest and earnest of our efforts, we hope to build it into a world class instituion and it is our duty and pride that would keep us emotionally bonded with our alma mater in perpetuity".

Preamble

Kindly comment on the following vision statement:

We the students, both former and present, of the Department of Computer Science in the Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, having solemnly resolved to constitute the TCE Fraternity (TCEF) as a service organisation with the objective of building our institution as a torch bearer of research, an upholder of a free spirit in the quest of knowledge and a source of social upliftment of the entire region and to promote among the members a sense of unity and belongingness. Our vision is to see our TCE grow as a renowned center of research and teaching in the International arena and fulfill its commitments to the society and the nation.

Name

We could name it as TCE Fraternity. But, we have to prepare on answering how different it is from the existing TCE Alumni. TCE Alumni org is more ad-hoc without much of organizational structure and dynamism. So, we have to have a separate organization to start out with, but what name should we give and avoid people comparing it with curent TCE alumni organization?

Guys, give your suggestions on the name. We want the organization to be eventually college-sized and so it should avoid being too specific. At the same time the name has to be innovative to avoid any initial comparison with TCE Alumni Organization. If we cant produce a different name, people would ask us to join the incumbent Alumni organization (whose source, office, organization & objectives are all unknown....)

We can neither change the existing TCE Alumni organization for now (red-tapism all around) nor we could allow our organization to merge it with TCE Alumni for now. So, we need a proper organizational name to carry us till our organization becomes powerful enough to change TCE Alumni organization.

Give your opinion on this.

Constitution - rough draft

TK has presented an excellent constitution, which I'm putting over here along with small changes from me. We'll soon have an informal consitutional committee to go over the details and frame it.

The Constitution of TCECSF

Preamble

We the students, both former and present, of the Department of Computer Science in the Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, having solemnly resolved to constitute the TCE CS Fraternity (TCECSF) as a service organisation with the objective of buildin our institution as a torch bearer of research, an upholder of a free spirit in the quest of knowledge and a source of social upliftment of the entire region and to promote among the members a sense of unity and belongingness. Our vision is to see our TCE grow as a renowned center of research and teaching in the International arena and fulfill its commitments to the society and the nation.

In our constituent assembly this ______________( date ), do hereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution.

Part I

I) Name and constituents :
1) TCE CS Fraternity, that is TCECSF, shall be an organization meant for all the former and the present students and teachers of Thiagarajar College of Engineering.
2) The founding members are those who are specified in the first schedule.
3) The constituents of this organization shall further include all the registered members.
4) There would be three kinds of registered members - of faculty (serving and retired), of current students, of former students.


II) Registration of Members:
1) Any person who has been or is a student or teacher of TCE shall be eligible for admission into the organization.
2) All such persons shall subscribe an oath as prescribed in the second schedule and pay an annual subscription fee as specified in the aforesaid schedule. The fee shall be waived for the first year and thereafter be subject to modification as decided by a separate Treasury committee.

Part II

III ) General Assembly:
1) Constitution of General Assembly:
There shall be a General Assembly for the organization, which shall consist of two houses namely the House of Members and House of Executives.
2) Composition of House of Members:
1) The House of Members shall consist of all the registered members and founding members of the organization.
3) Composition of House of Executives:
1) The House of Executives shall consist of the President, Vice President,
Treasurer and others not more than fifteen members.
2) The members to this house shall be elected by the members of the House of Members on the basis of universal franchise and first past the post system.

4) Office of the President:

1) Term of Office:
The term of the President is one year from the date of appointment. The President may by writing to the Vice President shall resign from his office. Or the President shall, for loosing the confidence of the members, be removed from the office by the procedure laid down in the sub-clause 2 of this article.

2) Procedure for removal:

The President can be removed from his office by a recall
motion. A recall motion can be introduced only when one-fifth of the members call for it. This motion when supported by over two-third of the members, shall be deemed to have passed by the House of Members.

3) Eligibility for election:
Any person who is a member of age not less than twenty three years of age shall be eligible for the election to this office. The incumbent of this office is however not eligible.

5) Office of Vice President:

1) Term of Office :

The term of the Vice President is one year from the date of appointment. The Vice President may by writing to the President shall resign from his office. Or the Vice President shall, for loosing the confidence of the members, be removed from the office by the procedure laid down in the sub-clause 2 of this article.
2) Procedure for removal:

The Vice President can be removed from his office by a recall
motion. A recall motion can be introduced only when one-fifth of the members call for it. This motion when supported by over two-third of the members, shall be deemed to have passed by the House of Members.

3) Eligibility for election:

Any person who is a member of age not less than twenty three years of age shall be eligible for the election to this office. The incumbent of this office is however not eligible.

4) Chairman of the House of Members:

The Vice President shall act as the chairman of the House of Members.

6) Office of Treasurer :

1) Term of Office :

The term of the Treasurer is one year from the date of appointment. The Treasurer may by writing to the President shall resign from his office. Or the Treasurer shall, for loosing the confidence of the members, be removed from the office by the procedure laid down in the sub-clause 2 of this article.

2) Procedure for removal:

The Treasurer can be removed from his office by a recall
motion. A recall motion can be introduced only when one-fifth of the members call for it. This motion when supported by over two-third of the members, shall be deemed to have passed by the House of Members.

3) Eligibility for election:

Any person who is a member of age not less than twenty three years of age shall be eligible for the election to this office. The incumbent of this office is however not eligible.

4) Chief Accounting Authority:

The Treasurer shall also be the chief accountant of all the funds of the organization.

7) Other constituents of the House of Executive:

1) Executives:

The other members of the House of Executives shall be executives. Their term in the House of Executives is one year from the date of entry into the house. They can resign by writing to the President or shall be removed from the house by the procedure laid down in sub-clause 4 of this article.
2) Portfolio System:

Each executive members shall be made responsible for one or more portfolios as created by the House of Executives. These members shall introduce various proposal, resolutions and rules in the House of Members for ratification.

3) Responsibility to the House of Members:

It is the sole responsibility of the execute to make sure the prompt ratification of the proposals and implementation of the same to the satisfaction of the House of Members.

4) Removal from the house:

The executive shall be removed from the house, on the grounds of loosing the confidence of the members or of not discharging his duties in such a way as set out in sub clause 3 of this article, through a recall motion. A recall motion can be introduced only when one-fifth of the members call for it. This motion when supported by over two-third of the members, shall be deemed to have passed by the House of Members.

Part III

8) Funds of the Organisation:

1) Consolidated Fund of TCEF:

There shall be a Consolidated Fund of TCEF. All sums of money received by the organization in the form of subscription fee, donation and others shall flow to this fund.

2) Contigency Fund of TCEF :

There shall be a Contigency Fund of TCEF at the disposal of the President. The President shall make appropriation from this fund to meet unforeseen expenses. Such sum of money shall flow to this fund as ratified by the House of Members.

3) Procedure for appropriations :

1) An Annual Finance Statement or the budget shall be presented by the President immediately after his assumption of office.
2) This statement shall set forth the various expenditures to be incurred and the various sources of revenue.
3) The President shall then introduce grant proposals for each and every programme.
4) The chairman of the House of Members shall take care that members discuss the budget and fix a date for sanction.
5) The members when pass the grant proposal it shall be deemed to have ratified.

4) Appropriations from the Consolidated fund;

1) The Treasurer shall verify the ratification of the house and shall appropriate the sums from the fund.
2) It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to maintain the records and accounts of the expenditures and incomes.
3) The appropriations from the contingency fund shall be subjected to the ratification of the assembly.

Part IV

9) Amendment Procedure :

1) Modes of Amendment:

1) This constitution shall be amended through an amendment motion.
2) The amendment motion shall be either introduced by a member of House of Executives or shall be introduced by the House of Members.

2) First Mode Amendment Procedure :

1) An amendment motion shall be introduced in the House of Members by the House of Executives collectively.
2) This motion after discussion in the House of Members and then passed by over a two third majority, the amendment shall be deemed to have committed.

3) Second Mode Amendment Procedure:

1) An amendment motion shall be introduced by members through
a resolution, which when supported by two-fifth of the
members.
2) This amendment motion when passed by both the houses by a
over two-third majority, the amendment shall be deemed to
have committed.
10) Election Commission :

1) Every year after the reconstitution of the House of Executives, a committee of members shall be elected from the House of Members to constitute the election commission.
2) No executive shall be a part of this commission.
3) The Election Commission Members are explicitly barred from contesting for any position in the House of Executives.
4) The commission shall be headed by an Election Commissioner elected by its own members. The Election Commissioner shall be only a nominal head of the commission.
5) It is the duty of this commission to make rules for election to various post, recall procedure and all other consequential issues.


Schedule I
List of Founding Members
Abdul, Ananth, Anandavally, Anbarasan, Anisha, Anithamani, Aravind, A.P. Arun, Ashok, Boopathy, Balaji, Hemavathi, Jeba, Jeevitha, T. Karthikeyan, Kayalvizhi, Lalitha devi, Muthuponmozhi, Nidya, Noorul Islam.



Schedule II
Oath of Admission: "We the alumni of Thiagarjar College of Engineering are proud of its rich history and the values of its constitution. We seek to fulfill its mission and strive hard to make it a beacon of enlightenment. With the sincerest and earnest of our efforts, we hope to build it into a world class instituion and it is our duty and pride that would keep us emotionally bonded with our alma mater"

Building our constitution

Since, the required strength is slowly reaching up, we need to start thinking about the formal objectives, principles, conventions...

Suggest, the most important things that we could do? How we can bring out the plans (in a more abstract way)? What are the visions and mission? How do we have communication mediums apart from online interaction - yearly conventions, get-togethers, e-magazine...

Suggest some ways where you can contribute...

Some useful links I suggest you to read are:
MIT Alumni

University Endowments

Good goin guys

We have received enthusiastic responses from Anandavalli, Boopathi, Jeba, Anithamani, Muthuponmozhi, Ashok, Jeevitha, Maheswari, Anbarasan, Ananth, Kayalvizhi, Arun AP, Aravind, Hemavathi.

The spread is good across the various sections of the class. So, we would soon hope to have more friends coming....

Good old days

Creating Endowment Grants

Now, the perception here about Indians has changed about so much, that higher technology and quality engineering is being associated with India. Indian engineers are celebrated and to my shock and surprise people respect so much of our engineering education system. But, there is room for more.....

After seeing the way American universities work, I believe that one of the few things that we lack is a coordinated efforts through alumni action and endowments. The big universities here, work in this way - after the students graduate out, they remain committed to the university throughout their life, sharing their profits with the alma-matter all through. Many even leave their will donating their entire property and estate for their university. The alumni and other interested people, create their own grant schemes for rewarding worthy students with scholarships, creating new departments and buildings, expanding the education scope, rewarding worthy professors and so on. For eg. Harvard has more than $20b (one lakh crores) from the endowments that it can use for research, student development etc. Most other top schools have more than $1b in their endowment. But, sadly in this our educational systems lag so much behind.

How abt we start a small endowment and grants system by us. To start with we can pool up some money that we can use to:
1. Annualy give rewards from our endowment to best teachers, using some selection criterion. This award and the money it carries should really motivate our good teachers to stay on and provide best of their efforts. This would progressively enhance our system.

2. Support scholarship to worthy students, seriously in need of money. Once those students graduate they might return their favor by supporting more of their junior students and it could start a chain reaction.

3. Support department's efforts in modernization - syllabi selection, course selection, material support and some of us could go even further in giving guest lectures on topics that we have expertized at our work.

4. Guidance and information transfer for career - getting jobs and higher education....

I guess, many of them are in our reach... If just our batch pools money, we can make few thousands a year and this could atleast support a bit of awards and scholarships... But, once the process starts we could involve all our senior and junior batches, creating a vast system bringing a cyclic reaction. Believe me, thats how Harvard, Stanford & MIT evolved.

You might ask, what is in it for us??? Apart from the satisfaction from philanthrophy, you can also benefit from a better prestige for the college, as it would be a prestige for all of us. For eg. 30 years back IITs were not much known, but now we respect all those batches of people for what they have done to bring up the great institutions. We can build greater networks and centers of interaction, that wud be a win-win situation for all of us.

The occasion of 50th anniversary, could really suit us for what we r goin 2 do. Let us make this small step. We can start out with our initial awards and small token scholarships, then and there.