It is an honor to serve this year as President of the Society of Alumni of Williams College, the oldest continuing alumni organization in North America and, perhaps, the world. Formed by a small group of dedicated Williams graduates in 1821 to sustain the College in the face of the defection of President Zephaniah Swift Moore and a group of students to another institution in the Connecticut Valley, our Society now numbers more than 25,000 living members.

The links at the left are your gateways to a Williams alumni community that spans the world. Within that community are thousands of Ephs who give their time, energy, wisdom and resources, year in, and year out, to further the Society's mission - first enunciated in the original 1821 Constitution of the Society - of "advancing the reputation and interests of Williams College." The same spirit that led the founders of the Society to volunteer their efforts on behalf of the College continues unbroken to this day through the involvement of alumni in the workings and success of Williams. The Executive Committee of the Society of Alumni celebrates that spirit and salutes all alumni volunteers.

The special gifts that result from the spirit and practice of alumni support are the direct product of the College's historic commitment to provide its students - and its alumni - with intellectual tools and skills that will help them, at any level or in any setting, to be effective thinkers, leaders and decision-makers in a rapidly-changing world, and productive members of a global society.

On behalf of the College and the Society of Alumni, I thank all of our alumni for continuing to support the College, and I invite you to contact us here (alumni.relations@williams.edu) to share any ideas or comments on how we can do a better job of bringing alumni closer to each other and to Williams.