On 15th November, the Huffington Post published "An Open Letter From 1,500+ Fulbrighters Regarding The Election Of Trump". The headline for this letter was, "We stand for the tradition of tolerance, free expression, and inclusivity that has made the United States a beacon of hope around the world."

In addition to the 1500 core signatories, other Fulbrighters have added their signatures to the comments section. The following instructions appear at the bottom of the 1500 signatures published at the end of the letter: 'Past and current Fulbright grant recipients who did not sign before the deadline are welcome to add their signatures in the comments section below.' There are currently 629 signatures in the comments section. 

AFAA members have submitted an application for the Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) to support an inaugural annual event.  Are you a member of the International Exchange Alumni site? Then log in now to see our application, "Indigenous nationhood: Re-imagining Australia"(https://alumni.state.gov/node/19802).  If the grant is succesful it will allow us to host a one day conference event later this year. 

If you aren't a member of the International Exchange Alumni site now's a great time to sign up and start connecting to your fellow alumni world wide.  It's a great resource for Fulbright Alumni. Set up your account today: https://alumni.state.gov/about-international-exchange-alumni/registration

Our AGM date is set for April 1 starting at 5:30pm to be hosted by the Victorian chapter at the University of Melbourne. AFAA members are invited to join us in person or by teleconference. Register your attendance on our events page so that we can keep you up to date on meeting venue and final agenda.  

While the draft agenda is packed with discussion time for new activities, two very important voting items on the agenda are:

1. Revisions to our consitution

We have emailed all members the proposed revisions for their review. If you did not receive these documents please email us and we will provide them for your review.  Please send any comments through prior to the meeting so that we can compile them for member discussion at the AGM. 

2. Voting to confirm nomintations for Committee roles.

This is a call to all members to nominate for Committee roles. Please email your interest to president.afaa@gmail.com.  Members will vote on nominations at the AGM. 

To help make the website a great resource please send us any photos that you have (e.g., from your time as a Fulbrighter, or of state and territory AFAA events) that you would be happy to have posted to the website (email to president.afaa@gmail.com).  Thanks to those of you who have already sent some in - we're loving the opportunity to catalogue the Fulbright history!

We’ll be adding chapter pages to the website including some of these pictures so keep an eye out for these additions to the website in the coming months.

In 2015 the Australian Fulbright Alumni Association (AFAA) undertook an organisational review and strategic planning. As part of this we asked all members to participate in a survey to help us assess our performance as an organisation. This survey helped us to evaluate AFAA's performance and future direction in terms of delivering on the demand for different types of member services. 

We thank everyone who participated. If you are interested in the survey results please download the summary: AFAA membership survey results.pdf

Welcome to AFAA's new website. We are excited to make 2016 a year of growth and re-engagement.  If you are a current member, please activate your membership on the website and begin to explore the new services that we are providing through this site to help better connect members with one another, our Chapters, and events.  If you aren't currently a member, please join now! In order to allow everyone to explore our website and membership platform we are waiving all membership dues until July 1, 2016. So take this time to explore, engage and get to know the new AFAA.