Five Year Plan To Help CCNY Fencing

This is a project of a small group of fencer alumni started in 2017. We have a 5 year plan to help the struggling CCNY Women’s Varsity Fencing team.

- Jan. 2017

updated Jan. 2019

Here are a few websites that details what was done so far.

• Friends of CCNY Fencing
• My Regrets

1. Assist with fund raising activities and direct all donations to the CCNY Fund.
2. Promote the school to alumni and reachout via newsletters, articles in the Alumnus magazine...
3. Inform the student population of the current team via the Campus News magazine.
4. Develop a historical archive with images and articles of the history of the CCNY fencing teams going back to the beginning in 1929.
5. Promote the current team activities via social media, FaceBook.
6. Organize special events, like alumni matches and on campus seminars...
7. Hold periodic reunions for alumni from years past, including Men’s and Women’s team members.
8. Recruit volunteers to help coach the team.
9. Provide some equipment and utilities to the team such as scoring machines...
10. Encourage members to attend tournament events to offer emotional support.
11. Provide mentoring as needed to keep students academically qualified to remain on the team for the full four years.
12. Work closely with the coaches and Athletic Director to improve all aspects of the team, training sessions...

In our efforts to help the team, two other developments came about unexpectedly.

1. I got involved with the AsIan Alumni group and have volunteered to serve on the board. Now, in 2019, I have gotten one of my fellow teammate, Jerry Moy, to join me on the board. The main function of the board in the past was to hold an annual lunar new year dinner. I had the idea of using this event to organize a reunion of fencers. We had a great response in 2017 and in 2018 and hope to continue this year and many more years to come.

2. We have also volunteered our time and energy to the CCNY Archives. Through a series of random events, we were able to locate a few boxes of old sports related photographs and plaques. Our effort is to help digitized these items and upload them to the ArtStor database that exist today and add to their sports collection. I will keep you posted on our progress. Dr. Boudreau is aware of our project and is very enthusiastic about it. He is looking forward to see rhe results and possibly promote the school using our rich history in sports. We have a few olympians in our past and numerous All-Americans.

When I started this effort, I said it is not a sure thing. Even with all the efforts by caring alumni, the reality is CCNY is undergoing a very challenging period. With budget short fall of $19 million, it is very hard to make any major changes.

However, I am encouraged. Our small group has grown over the last 2 years. We have reached new supporters. We are getting the message out. We have reconnected with many of our teammates.

We are rebuilding the team from the ground up.

Everywhere I turn, we are getting positive feedback.

Our challenges are still there. However, I do see a light at the end of the tunnel.

stay tuned...