About SACM Clubs

"You are the ambassadors of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and you represent it through the clubs’ activities". A phrase that enters our hearts before we hear it by our ears; our clubs deployed at the American universities in most cities and states are actually branches of the Embassy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in the widest sense of the word.

Away from politics and its troubles; culture, traditions, a civilization and history of the Kingdom in addition to the tolerance of our religion form our mission to be presented to the community of the university students and our neighbors through our participation in their national celebrations and this is beside the first goal of the scholarship; that is to study and gain experience which will help us to contribute to the continuation of the modernization and progress of the kingdom.

These two goals complement each other; though our clubs are social communication channel among students and expatriates. Our meetings in various occasions increase our nostalgia and relieve pain of being away from home.

If we go back to the history of our clubs, we shall find that it has started its activities with the beginning of the scholarship process more than 50 years ago, when the activities were limited to social networking, like dinner, gaming, patient visits, celebrating marriage and new births, farewell the graduates and the reception of newcomers, all of this by offering assistance from our own pockets.

This was until the visit of late King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, may God have mercy on his soul, to the United States in early 1987 to begin the process towards establishing and supporting the clubs. The late King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, may God have mercy on his soul, has directed to support and encourage scholarships to establish the clubs and gain its recognitions and also directed to assign an annual budget to cover the expenses of the activities which the students would like to present.

Our students rented a floor for their prayers and for the weekly social meetings, as there were only very few mosques at that time, as well as to communicate with their foreign university colleagues by inviting them to dinner to taste our food and to know better about our traditions.

With the increasing number of scholarships along with the children; these leased premises beside its social activities have turned to be classrooms to teach the Islamic education and Arabic language at night classes and in weekends, then evolved later to be full time jobs teaching all Saudi schools’ curriculums for different ages like normal schools without having laboratories and means of education and illustration and qualified teachers all that in addition to the lack of recognition from the American authorities and without educational control, etc. ... the rented premises also became headquarters of the clubs and schools run by a group who do not value their responsibilities as Saudi students.

The time has come to set up rules and regulations to regulate the clubs and the students’ activities; and it was decided to form board of directors to manage them. Afterwards, clubs regulations and the board of directors’ bylaws have been issued which was headed by His Excellency the Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the cultural attaché and officials who are interested in clubs’ concept and activities, and also by clubs’ presidents who were elected by their colleagues.

Meetings of clubs’ Council include calibrating its activities and the support programs and also making decisions to approve the establishment of clubs and to study and discuss the proposals submitted by their members especially the students and the adoption of the righteous ones.

For many reasons, like the safety of students and their families the Council's announced the decisions to close the leased premises and cancel their programs and schools and its classrooms and direct the students that all the activities of their clubs should be organized within universities after an approval of each university to establish a club. The council has also directed to enroll the children in the American public schools to take advantage from the educational programs they offer like their parents who study in the American universities, to make the education of the children and the parents from the first grade of primary school to doctorate degree all American for the benefit of all.
 

With the support of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, may God save him, and during his meeting with the students on scholarships at his official visit to the United States of America, was the third development phase of our clubs, which reached the number - as of this writing - to more than two hundred and sixty clubs; each club is registered in the university where our students study and where programs and activities are being implemented under the university’s supervision except rare cases under certain conditions and upon approvals from the attaché to ensure the safety of students, with a maximum commitment to the regulations of the clubs and cultural Attaché after stressing to the students to comply with the university’s regulations if defer from the our regulations.

The activities and events have varied by communicating with the students university community and the civil society in partnership with clubs and students organizations that represent other countries to represent the Kingdom, as well as participating in national events in the US and public events of the cities’, in addition to visiting patients and nursing homes and public schools to familiarize students with the history and civilization of the country and organizing blood donating programs and preparing programs to teach Arabic language to foreign students in their universities.

For this development, which rose the Saudi flag high at American universities during occasions presented by our students and by providing materials and offering CDs, movies and preparing seminars to familiarize foreign students with heritage, history and civilization of the Kingdom; to achieve the most important objective of the clubs, that is show the genuine image of the kingdom like never before.

Students and clubs have become a court which the Kingdom’s officials when they visit the US and the attaché officials are keen to visit to meet the students to listen to them and encourage them to study and build a chain of communication between the attaché and the universities for the benefit of our students.

The fruitful success of the clubs has made its number increasing day after day. And because of the increasing number of scholarships granted by the King’s scholarship program, it is expected that the number will eventually be a club and an educational institution in each American university means 300 clubs and much more in the future.
 

The clubs have board of directors chaired by HE the Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the cultural attaché and other embassy and attaché officials in addition to heads of the administrative bodies of the registered clubs in the universities and the attaché, as well as members of the committee of support and assistance who are being chosen annually among former presidents who made achievements by their activities and programs to benefit their successors from their experiences and expertise.

The Council shall hold at least two meetings per year to organizes a variety of events; workshops for students newly elected to the presidency of clubs and meetings with officials and embassy attaché, as well as meetings with American officials to explain their missions and answer the questions of students.

1. The first internal bylaw of the Council was approved by HE Ambassador in the month of Rajab 1407 AH - 1987 AD and was amended and approved by His Excellency Ambassador and Chairman of the Board on 11 August 1431 AH, corresponding to July 23, 2010 AD

2. The bylaw of the educational centers for the children of the students on scholarship has been adopted on 10 Safar 1408 AH, corresponding to October 3, 1987 AD (this regulation was canceled as it was not approved by the American educational authorities which refused the existence of these schools).

3. The bylaw of Financial Regulations of the clubs and educational centers was issued on 18 Jumada II 1408 AH corresponding to February 6, 1988 AD (was canceled but added to the bylaw of the clubs)

4. the first bylaw of the clubs of Saudi students was issued over a decision by His Excellency Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques number (1) dated 1 January 1429 AH, corresponding to August 8, 2008 AD and was amended on 11 Shaaban 1431 AH, corresponding to July 23, 2010 AD. The regulations were issued after a discussion between the members on what Secretariat received from proposals and suggestions and based on the experiences and observations of the members of the Council and on what the Secretariat received from proposals on these regulations to be displayed in the meetings of the Board for the purpose of adding, deleting and modifying...

Perhaps it is important to note that this Website may be prepared by the Saudi students who understood the goal of their clubs and create it to fit with what they are looking for in communicating with scholarships and the attaché on their clubs through this website.