Dear Alumni

On behalf of the Association of Caribbean Law Students, welcome to the new millennium and what the ACLS hopes will be a prosperous new year for us all. With the dawning of a new century, the ACLS extends its warmest wishes for all those who have not only passed through the hallowed halls of this fine institution, but have also gone on to represent the Caribbean well in their individual endeavors.

As many of you remember, the ACLS and all the other organizations here at the law school are severely underfunded. With the limited resources available, the SBA has done its best to aid organizations in promoting programs and holding social events for members. While the Law Journal and the various clinics receive the bulk of this aid, organizations such as the ACLS have had to resort to individual fundraising efforts, a task made even more difficult with the tremendous load of work that law school entails. Faced with these obstacles, the ACLS has continued to be a source of help for members, by providing valuable study aids and recycling old textbooks from 2^nd and 3^rd year students to the incoming 1^st year students. Unfortunately, with limited financial resources, this has been the extent of what the ACLS has been able to do, and various exciting programs planned by the Executive Board have not come to fruition. We thus turn to you, our esteemed alumni, in hope that you will be able to reach back and assist the organization as we desperately need your support.

We are asking that you make a small contribution to the organization, whether by personal check or money order. It is our intention to create a "wall of fame" where we will prominently display all those who support and hopefully will continue to support the organization, whether it be through a single donation, or a yearly donation to the organization. All donors will be provided with a receipt, and upon request will receive a report from the Treasurer on the amount received and the program or programs that your donation supported. Additionally, we will also provide each member with a copy of our monthly news letter, Folk Talk, and will provide each donor with a free ad, should you so desire, to inform members as well as the DC Metro community of your professional services. Further, donors will receive a significant discount for ads placed on our Internet site which we will have up and running by February 1^st.

In the coming months, the ACLS will embark on several exciting programs that we hope will not only provide invaluable information about the Caribbean to the law school, but will also entertain the students and faculty, as well as strengthen the organization throughout the DC/Metro area. As mentioned earlier, we will be launching our Internet site, created by ACLS members and hosted on the 50megs.com web site. This exciting project will propel the ACLS into the new age of the World Wide Web, by providing information about the organization's projects and coming events, as well as allowing visitors to read our exciting Folk Talk magazine, and obtaining legal and cultural information relating to the Caribbean. 50megs.com is a free site provider, and offers an amazing 50mb of free space, enough to host several pages of text and graphics. The domain name is tentatively titled www1.50megs.com/acls. Folk Talk, our informative monthly publication will also be back, providing the student body at the Law School and throughout the various schools at Howard with information relating to the ACLS and its projects. We will also distribute copies of the newsletter to area businesses, which will also provide supporters with additional advertising throughout the community. Additionally, we will be distributing our membership card to dues paying members, and hope to create an alliance with area businesses that we hope will result in discounts throughout the area. These exciting programs will be highlighted by our lecture series. We hope to draw the legal attaché from the various Caribbean embassies to speak on issues ranging from legal opportunities in the Caribbean, to controversial topics such as the emergence of capital punishment throughout the Caribbean region. We also hope to attract entrepreneurs throughout the DC area who have launched various business enterprises in the Caribbean, such as telecommunication ventures. All of the programs, however, require an initial investment, one which the organization is unable to afford at this time.

Love and Guidance,

Roger W. Hamilton - President