July 2001 President's Corner

Bob Schultz '71, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

As most of you are aware, the new slate of board officers was officially elected to serve the next term at the Chapter June luncheon.

I am honored to have been elected Chapter President, and it will be a privilege to serve. I’ve been involved with the Atlanta Chapter for several years now, about five of those years in an official capacity. I started as Chapter Treasurer, then created and filled the Webmaster position, and just finished my term as Chapter Vice President.

So why do I, and others like me, become so involved with the Atlanta Chapter? For me the reason is simply this:

You can get something here that you can’t get anywhere else.

Call it “fellowship”, call it “camaraderie”, call it “esprit de corps”, call it what you will… but you can’t get it anywhere else. You can’t get it at home, you can’t get it at work, or at the club, or even at church… you can only get it here, through the Alumni Association

We all have this built-in unique common bond with anyone else who ever walked the halls of “Mother B”! When you walk into a room and encounter another USNA alumnus you have that bond immediately. There is no time-delay fuse, its just there right now! You are immediately friends and comrades, and have many common things to discuss and tales to tell.

Which makes it hard for me to understand one thing. The Atlanta Chapter is one of the premier chapters in the country, yet we only count among our active member ranks less than 20% of the alumni currently living in Georgia.

At the June Board of Director’s meeting, we ended with a summary of action items for the various board officers. I now have some action item for all Georgia alumni:

If you are involved in the Chapter, stay involved.
If you aren’t involved, get involved.
If your classmates aren’t involved, make it your job to get them involved.

I know that in addressing those who are reading this newsletter, I’m probably “preaching to the choir!” That makes the third action item a very important one. If your classmates aren’t involved, look them up in the Chapter Roster, then pick up the phone and call them. Tell them what they are missing. Invite them, or bring them, to an event or a luncheon.

And lastly, if you are already active now, get proactive in the future. Don’t wait for your Board of Directors to “do something”! If you have an idea or would like to see the Chapter do something that we haven’t done before, or are not doing well enough, tell us. Then come to us with your ideas on how to do it or how to fix it. (This Chapter web site has a complete list of the Chapter Board of Directors, with phone numbers and e-mail addresses for each member.)

We can only grow this Chapter with your help.

Please be sure to look in the Events Calendar for an exciting new event planned for the evening of July 26^th. Our newly appointed Alumni Career Support rep, Bill Miller ’88, is coordinating the area’s first Business Networking Event for all military academy graduates sponsored by “Academy Connect”. This will be the first of what we hope will become quarterly events.

BEAT ARMY!