Brigadier Carl Alfonso is new Harvard president
By Joan Rampersad (T&T Newsday)
Retired Chief of Defence Staff, Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force, Bigadier General Carl A Alfonso was elected the new President of the Harvard Club at the recently concluded annual general meeting of club for the 2010-2012 term.
With a special liking for basketball, Alfonso was also President of the Trinidad and Tobago Basketball Federation. In preparation for civilian life after a lifetime in the army, Alfonso joined the Harvard Club and took interest in playing none other than basketball with some of the older members of the club.
However he was given a rude awakening on the court when he was cursed for a bad play. It blew his mind then that a civilian could do such a thing. But the same person who was responsible for the verbal attack was now in full support of Alfonso becoming club president.
Alfonso replaced Oliver Camps, the former long serving president, who was made the second patron of the Club at the AGM.
In an immediate reaction to his election as Harvard Club president, Brigadier Alfonso said, “First of all I want to thank Oliver Camps for the job he has done over the years and I hope to improve on what he did. I am looking forward to changing some of the ways we do things in an effort to improve the standard of the Club. I think I have an excellent management team and we are all looking forward to taking the Club forward and upward.”
Camps has been involved in sports for over 50 years, first as an active player of almost every sporting discipline with the exception of swimming, and later as an administrator. After playing football and cricket for the Harvard Club, Camps served as the club’s secretary for over 25 years before being elected president in 1991, a post that he held until the recent AGM.
Camps, who has been in sports administration for a period that spans almost five decades, was inducted into First Citizens Sports Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 2008. His many achievements are reflected in the part he has played in the development of local football regionally and internationally. He has served in key positions in the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
Camps, who also promoted cricket in the country and region, as well as given support to other sporting disciplines, was also a recipient of the TT Olympic Sports Personality Award in 2001.
In a letter on behalf of the entire membership, club secretary Roland Forde thanked the outgoing members of the last executive for their services, for the 2008/2010 term.
The club’s membership went for a more youthful management, as the elected officers’ ages range from the 20s to the 60s. It is one of the youngest management teams in the history of the Club.
Following a motion past at the AGM, the club elected its first ever public relations officer, 27-year-old Kabir Hosein. He has been involved in organising the TT Steel Pan and Jazz Concerts as well as the St James WeBeat festival and Harvard events for a number of years. Other members elected to the club’s management were vice president Andy Palmer, civil engineer/project management consultant. He represented the club in basketball and was a former coach in the football clinic.
The secretary is Roland Forde, assistant secretary – David Alzola, treasurer – Anthony Marcano, assistant treasurer – Albert Lewis, sports supervisor – Dion Auguste, and floor members – Kamiruu Clarke and Stephen Ward.
