My Fellow Ateneo Alumni,
We are paying the price of becoming a duly registered and structured body. We’re fighting among ourselves about technicalities and ruining friendships. Our problems had compounded when we joined another organisation such as the ”umbrella” PCC-NSW, which has been even more political in actual practice.
Our alumni group did not have any of this for the 10 or more years that we had no structure.
I don’t like [to] stand up now and say ”I told you so” because I had been against our becoming a formally registered structure, and then against our joining the PCC-NSW as an affiliate.
But I would like to see us start by accepting the fact that a majority of our members at the Annual General Meeting last July 28 wanted our AAA to withdraw from PCC-NSW. Bringing up ”constitutional technicalities”, if you like, would do little, if nothing, to change the will of the majority.
To the winners in the ballot, I say prove to our membership that withdrawal from the PCC-NSW would eventually be of benefit to the AAA.
To the losers in the ballot, I say all is not completely lost. You can come to fight a friendly battle another day.
But let’s keep the AAA a haven of friendships. Only as good friends can we become men and women for others.
Jaime Kelly Pimentel
Lidcombe NSW