January 2001 President's Corner

Bob Bush '65, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

Happy Holidays everyone! May 2001 be filled with much joy, prosperity and happy surprises for us all.

First, please mark your calendars for a special event and opportunity for the Chapter to show our support for some special midshipmen. On Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, the Naval Academy Gospel Choir will be in Atlanta for several performances at schools and churches around the city.

On Saturday morning, January 13, the Chapter and the Georgia Parent’s Club will join forces to sponsor a mixer with the Choir members at the Visitor’s Center at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historical Site from 11:00 until 1:00. The Choir will do a few warm-up numbers before crossing the street to the Ebenezer Baptist Church for a performance there at 2:00. The gathering and the concert are open to everyone and free of charge. A lunch will be provided for a small fee. Please come and enjoy.

More good news! The Chapter Roster is at the printers and will be distributed within a few weeks. I sincerely apologize for the lateness of this publication, but as I’ve explained before, we made some major changes in the way in which the database is managed, updated and maintained. The good news is the effort that has gone into compiling this roster will make future issues more accurate and more timely.

The roster will be distributed to all paid Chapter members as of the end of year 2000. Immediately after the first of the year we will send out our dues notices for year 2001. In recent years past we have been slow in getting our dues mailings out, but the work on our data base has enabled us to be more timely with this mailing as well. A 2001 member’s roster will follow later in the year that will include all currently paid members as of the publishing date. Please don’t delay in returning your dues and please be sure to update your information for the roster.

Another membership benefit that we are planning for this year will be a “Members Only” event that is currently in the planning stages for early March. Carl McCallum (long of Lobster Fest Fame) has volunteered to organize this event that is envisioned to be a coat and tie, cocktails and dinner affair. More on that to follow…

For some time now I have been threatening to add a little more organization to the Chapter’s leadership by recruiting members to serve on committees in support of the Chapter’s goals and projects. Many of you have expressed a willingness to serve in some capacity and my New Year’s resolution is to develop a list of billets that need filling and publishing that list so that those who wish to contribute more time and effort can choose how they might do so.

One of the things I would like to institute is for each Class (or group of smaller Classes) to have a Class Representative who will assist in recruiting new members and facilitating communications between the Chapter and Class members and potential members. I’m not sure exactly how this will come together, but I know other Chapters have done it quite effectively.

It has been my sincere pleasure and honor to serve as your president this year, and I look forward to an exciting New Year. May you all enjoy fair winds and following seas throughout 2001.