General Body Meeting (2012)

Here is the General Secretary's report presented to the general body on November 24th, 2012.

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Occupational & Physiotherapy Alumni Association (OPTAA) 0f CMC, Vellore.

General Secretary’s Report – 2011 - 2012

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Respected President, Executive Committee members, and the distinguished members of the general body, it is indeed an honor and pleasure to submit this report before you. It gives me an immense amount joy to know that an exciting year has gone by and even more eventful year is ahead for this association.

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The Executive Committee was elected and took charge in the 1st GB meeting which was held on Nov. 26th, 2011. We had a very productive year with 8 Executive Committee meetings in the past one year.

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OPTAA Constitution that’s been approved by the general body, was printed into a handy booklet with a membership enrollment form included. All EC members have been making efforts and will have to continue with locating and enrolling our alumni. So far we have enrolled 62 members alumni as life members.

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Accounts of the OPTSA Silver Jubilee celebrations were completed and audited by CMC auditor and the remaining money of the event was transferred to OPTAA account. OPTAA account was established in the central bank of with two signatories (namely the Treasurer and the General Secretary) as the joint account holders.

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OPTAA stationary like Letterhead, receipt book, and a membership certificate were developed and printed.

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Citing personal reasons, elected Treasurer of OPTAA Mr. Charles Arputharaj has resigned from the association and the Executive Committee had made an interim arrangement by appointing Mr. Andrew Babu – Head of the PT department, to serve as the Interim Treasurer who has done an immense job of managing the accounts. Treasurer will be presenting the detailed accounts statement after this presentation.

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OPTAA has started ascertaining details of the difficulties that our alumni facing in working in mission hospitals. We have circulated a survey to our alumni (working in mission hospitals) and awaiting their replies. Once the replies come, we would like to develop comprehensive intervention strategies in partnership with the institution.

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Executive Committee chose to concentrate on the membership drive this year hence the OPTAA project for professional development that envisaged raising 25 lakh rupees is kept on hold. We are very hopeful of resuming this process in the coming year, with the goal to be achieved each year incrementally.

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OPTAA participated in sponsoring the Interns Farewell and issued membership kits to the interns. OPTAA has issued thank you letters to all the newly joined members of our association and issued reminder letters to all the eligible CMC alumni members.

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OPTAA released a newsletter titled “OPTAA SPLASH” which we hope that you all have received and we intend to release it quarterly. Please do contribute content and participate in developing OPTAA SPLASH into a sought after newsletter among our own alumni.

We want to thank all our alumni who willingly supported and donated towards department and student needs. Special mention to Ring’s for OT equipment and Mr. Ashoklal Mohan for a water purifier.

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To promote the name & objectives of OPTAA in CMC, we participated in CMC organized “Chittoor Run” by sponsoring the first aid stall by paying Rs. 10,000/- that earned us tremendous amount of good will among the upper echelons of the administration. We are also proud that participants from our own OT/ PT departments had won several different prizes among the hundreds of participants.

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One other event that is conducted to promote the objectives of OPTAA in CMC campus is the “Poster Presentation” Competition on a theme titled “Equal opportunities for the differently abled – Counting them in”. This competition is held for the entire institution and we are proud to announce that people from other departments have also taken part in this competition for which the prizes will be distributed this evening – First prize Rs. 3000/- and Second prize Rs. 2000/-.

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We are proud to announce that we have developed a tradition that is starting from today whereby OPTAA recognizes one intern from each department as a “Best OPTSA’ite” with a cash award of Rs. 5000/- each. Our President Mr. Thomas Mathew had worked extremely hard to develop the most comprehensive evaluation methodology yet simple for the participants to score themselves. For the first year, we are proud to announce that we had 33% response rate which we are very certain that will grow by leaps and bounds from next year on. We have completed the evaluation of applications and the prizes will be distributed this evening during OPTSA Day program.

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We have also developed a vision document for this general body to discuss and adopt today so that it could function as a guiding light for the Executive Committee for the foreseeable future.

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Last, but not the least, I would like to remind each one of you that without your participation and cooperation, this association will cease to exist. I want to request each one of you to take an active role in OPTAA affairs in whatever the capacity you may wish to. Most importantly, pay your dues and become a member today so that you have the legitimate right to belong where the foundations of your careers may have been laid.

It has been a tremendous year for this one year old association and I can tell you with all my conviction that the best is yet to come. We are convinced that this association can be an able liaison between the alma mater and our alumni to make significant contributions to the development of our departments. We couldn’t have done all this without the trust and support that we had extended to each other. I want to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to my colleagues in the EC and to everyone of you who’ve extended their support to our work.

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If I may paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I have a dream that one day OT and PT departments in CMC will stand as the shining light for many generations as the role models whereby we make significant contributions to the profession of rehabilitation.

Thank you and God Bless. 

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Ruby Nakka

Gen. Secretary OPTAA

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Here is the vision document debated and adopted by the general body of OPTAA on 24th November, 2012

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Occupational & Physiotherapy Alumni Association (OPTAA) of Christian Medical College (CMC)

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VISION DOCUMENT

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By November of 2013 (One Year):

•Will raise 5 lakh rupees towards professional development fund

•Will conduct one big major (institution wide) and one minor event (department wide) to promote the objective & mission of OPTAA.

•Achieve the membership to 150 members

•Invite the 25th, 26th and 27th year batches for the next OPTAA gathering as special invitees.

•Develop an exclusive web site for OPTAA and the presence on the social media

•Initiate and develop OPTAA professional development program, with a vision of alumni support in the skill and knowledge sharing. For example, forging alliances with educational institutions outside of CMC where OPTAA alumni is working for the academic excellence.

By November 2017 (Five Year Plan):

•Raise 25 lakhs of rupees towards professional development fund.

•Develop guidelines to sponsor one CMC alumni (from each department) every year for the elective program (either within the country or outside the country) for six weeks duration.

•Develop guidelines for building partnerships between the alumni outside CMC with the alumni within CMC and funding to do quality research in the field of rehabilitation.

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