Dear alumnus/ alumna,

Any community is only as robust as its inter-connectedness will allow. IIT Madras alumni are 42,000 strong, yet largely fragmented. If we could get together in one place as a “virtual community”, think of the benefits: As a group of alumni, none are more successful than us, none are better educated, none more entrepreneurial, none more opinionated! Together, we can do so much more for ourselves, and for our alma mater.

How do we accomplish this? I see a simple way ahead. The largest online gatherings are here in this “Official” IITM Alumni Group on LinkedIn, and in the database maintained by the IIT Madras Alumni Association. If we could get every alum on this Group to register in the IITMAA database, and get everyone on the MAA database to sign in to this Group, the sum can be quite substantial.

So, I’ll request everyone on this LinkedIn Group to spend a few minutes to get registered at http://www.iitmaa.org. You will automatically start receiving mailings from the IITMAA, such as the monthly Newsletter.

There is also a year wise Yahoo Group, accessible at iitmaaYYYY@yahoogroups.com. Please register there as well. Many batch wise Yahoo Groups are very active, and messages from our Office and from MAA are posted to the Yahoo Groups.

If you know alumni who are not on this LinkedIn Group, get them to join. If you know alumni who are not registered in the database, encourage them to register.

On the database, do update your current mailing address, mobile #, and other details. At present, you can share your details with your batch mates, and access their info on a reciprocal basis. Should we contemplate a completely open database? Something to consider…. The upside may well eclipse any possible downside.

As we end 2014, let us commit to building a 40,000+ strong alumni network. No other IIT would come even close. Our Office, IITMAA, IITMAANA (IITM Alumni Association of North America) all stand by, ready to help. The next 6 years (up to 2020) are critical in IITM’s positioning in the upper ecehelons of the world’s top technology institutions. Let us work together to give ‘er a leg up….