Over the past year the Columbia Club of Belgium has organized a variety of interesting and exciting events, including a gathering in March with visiting Columbia professor Anne Nelson, a conference-debate on Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies held in May at Banque Degroof, the CU student send-off reception held in June, our first annual Tennis Outing held in July at the Royal Leopold Tennis Club, the annual Thanksgiving dinner in November, the annual Columbia Connects cocktail reception held in December, various other events sponsored with other university clubs in Belgium, and, most recently, a New Year’s Cocktail Party hosted by our CUCB Board Member Benny Kanter and his wife Diana.

For the coming year we are planning a number of exciting events which we hope will appeal to a broad range of our members. In 2019 our goal is to continue to provide a forum in which alumni/ae of Columbia in Belgium of all ages can get together periodically to enjoy each other’s company and to participate jointly in a varied range of stimulating activities and experiences. 

Amongst the events planned for this year are:

• The CU student send-off reception to be held early this summer;
• The second edition of the CUCB Tennis Outing to be held in the course of the summer;
• One or more other summertime events to be notified shortly;
• The Annual Thanksgiving Dinner, in association with the American Club of Belgium
• Our annual Columbia Connects networking and cocktail reception in November; and
• Various other events which we will be organizing in collaboration with other U.S. university clubs in Belgium.

Indeed, membership in the Club also provides our members with the opportunity to participate in numerous events organized by fellow university alumni clubs in Belgium, who are, together with the Club, associated via the “Ryder Club” network of university alumni clubs in Belgium.  Amongst the noteworthy events organized over the past year to which the Club’s members have access via the Ryder Club network, have been the Harvard Club’s Post-Truth World of Fake News event, the Stanford Club’s Technology Outlook event, and the INSEAD Club’s Autonomous, Connected, Electrical & Shared Vehicles event. Amongst this year’s events will be the upcoming Designing Your Life event organized by the Kellogg Alumni Club for May 21^st. An average of one or two Ryder Club network events are offered to Club members each month.

How to pay annual dues:

Apart from the time and effort devoted by a motivated team of volunteers, the success of the Club’s activities also requires the financial support of all our members.  Since the Club depends on its members to provide the financial support for activities which are not separately funded, we have set this year’s dues at the following levels:

• Recent graduates (Classes '12 to '18):          EUR 30
• Other graduates:                                         EUR 50

Note that this year, in order to further encourage active participation by “recent” Columbia graduates, we have again extended that category to include persons who have graduated within the past eight years!

We kindly ask all members to pay their annual dues in the appropriate amount to:

• Club’s account No. IBAN BE15 4338 1934 0130 (BIC KREDBEBB)
• With the reference “Membership Dues 2019 + first name + last name”
• Deadline is May 30th, 2019

Dues-paying members will benefit from a special discount on all paying activities organized by the Club between now and April 30th 2020, as well as from priority to participate in special Club events where the number of attendees must be limited.

In addition, as you will recall, since 2001 the Club has sponsored a special Columbia Club Scholarship Grant to offer financial aid to selected Belgian students wishing to attend Columbia. Members are highly encouraged to contribute separately to this Grant, the contributions to which are tax deductible for Belgian income tax purposes if they are of an amount of EUR 40 or above.   Contributions should be made to account No. BE10 0000 0000 0404 (BIC BPOTBEB1) of the King Baudouin Foundation, which administers the Grant as part of its Fulbright Fund, under the reference “Fulbright Columbia – 820324 + first name + last name”.   For payments of EUR 40 or more made in 2019, the Foundation will send you a Tax Certificate in early 2020. We are delighted that these contributions serve – even in a small way –to help talented Belgian students who have chosen to pursue their studies at Columbia. 

For those Club members who would like to participate more actively in the Club’s affairs by becoming members of the Club’s Board of Directors, we would welcome most enthusiastically any volunteers. If you would be interested, please register with our website http://belgium.alumni.columbia.edu/ and specify it in your registration, or drop us an e-mail at [email protected] .

We thank you in advance for your help and your generous contributions and look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

Chantal Schuster                                             Richard Temko

President                                                          Treasurer

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