Background
The formation of BITMAA-NA (BIT Mesra Alumni Association - North America) was inspired by three events in 2013:
The Class of 1963 50th Anniversary Reunion
The Reunion was a miraculous and memorable event. 175 of our 270 classmates attended.
Needless to say, the efforts started of much earlier than the event date. The class met in person and online and collaborated across continents as well as time zones and built a database, created a website and published a state-of-the-art souvenir with the photographs and information of our classmates and their families.
The event ended but the resolve to continue the sage was like a pledge and that is what BITMAA-NA as it is today.
The commitment was to realize the challenges, opportunities and potential of the institution, community and alumni. It has nearly 50,000 alumni, many of who have been immensely successful in their careers and chosen professions.
The campus, in many ways, looks and feels the same - the wooded environs, the river, the main building and quadrangle - except that there are many more structures and lot more students. The Alumni Class of 1963 found the students to be intelligent, articulate, talented, eager and ambitious.
The visit also highlighted and brought to focus the opportunity for the alumni and the institution to collaborate in several areas. The campus was lacking many modern amenities and sorely in need of across-the-board repairs, clean-up and modernization. For example, the dormitories, class rooms and laboratories, in many cases, are exactly as they were half a century ago - just older and often obsolete. During the same period, the rest of the industrialized world has gone through several generations of modernization and renewal.
Many of us are familiar with word-class educational institutions and campuses - as students, faculty or visitors. As BITMAA-NA alumni, we have an opportunity to influence and support the modernization of our Alumni – Birla Institute of Technology (BIT).
BITMAA-NA: It is about time!
The time was then ripe for the BITMAA-NA alumni to get involved in an organized way to help the Institute catch up with the times, live up to its reputation and stay ahead of its competition. The time was then ripe for the formation of an organization to mobilize the support and resources of BITMAA-NA alumni for the enhancement of education, research, facilities and student life at our alma mater.
On October 2, 2013, BITMAA-NA was incorporated as a Not-For-Profit Corporation in Illinois, USA with a majority of the founding directors from the Class of 1963. On November 19, 2014, BITMAA-NA was granted tax-exempt status by IRS under section 501(c)(3).
We invite and encourage BITMAA-NA alumni from all classes to become members, leaders and stewards of BITMAA-NA and assume responsibility for its growth, viability and success.
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