January 2002 President's Corner

Bob Schultz '71, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

Happy New Year to all! Hopefully, this newsletter finds everyone well and rested from the recent holidays.

By the time you receive this newsletter we will be underway with our 2002 Chapter Membership drive. Before the end of the month, you will receive a year 2002 dues mailer in the mail. It will look much like the one used last year, with a place to fill out/update personal information for the Chapter Roster, a choice of membership types, and an enclosed return envelope.

Included with your dues mailer is a message from George P. Watt, President and CEO of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association. George visited with the members of the board of directors of our Chapter in Atlanta this past December. He asked if we would pass along his thoughts regarding the Academy and the Alumni Association to all Georgia alumni. Please be sure to take time to read George’s message.

If you have been a Chapter member in past years, you know what the Atlanta Chapter has to offer and the fellowship and camaraderie that it provides. If you have not been involved with the Chapter please take the time to talk to a classmate who has and find out what you’ve been missing. You can also take some time to browse around the Chapter web site at WWW.USNAAAA.COM and look at the events and activities that your Chapter provides. I’m sure you will be convinced that getting involved is a great idea and can reap many rewards.

For a period of at least a year after Bob Bush’s term as Chapter Trustee expires, the Atlanta Chapter will lose its seat on the national board of trustees. This will be the first time that the Atlanta Chapter will go without national representation since the very beginnings of the Chapter’s history. Only the top nine Chapters (by membership) are afforded a seat on the board of trustees. (This was changed a couple of years ago from the top twelve chapters.) Since we were not in the top nine, our current seat was won by competing for one of three “other chapter” seats. We cannot compete for an “other chapter” seat again this year (two in a row of this type are not allowed). So, we must get our Chapter membership numbers back up high enough to get into the top nine chapters by membership in order to regain a trustee’s seat on the board.

In order to count you must be a dues paying member of the Atlanta Chapter AND a member of the National U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association as well! In the past few years only about 85% of our dues paying Chapter members were also National members. We need to fix that ASAP! That alone drops us down a ranking or two on the top Chapter list. If you are not a member of National, sign up this year! We need your Atlanta Chapter membership to count toward our total membership tally for trusteeship. Also, if you are active in the Atlanta Chapter, but haven’t paid your annual dues, sign up and pay your dues this year! We need all of our members to count! Representation on the national board of trustees means that we have a voice. We get to participate in the formatting and setting of policy for our Alumni Association.

OK, I’m off my soapbox now. We have some interesting Chapter events coming up in the next few months.

We have been informed that the Naval Academy Gospel Choir will visit Atlanta again during the Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday weekend celebration, January 19^th through the 21^st. The details of the event are in this newsletter. If you missed this event last year you really missed some absolutely wonderful gospel singing. These kids are really talented and last year they nearly blew the walls off of the old Ebenezer Baptist Church!

And now, the Dark Ages are soon upon us! We have in the works a Chapter Dark Ages Party for late February or early March. The planned location at this point is the Lickskillet Farm Restaurant in Alpharetta. This will most likely be a members only event, and may be tied to Founder’s Day to celebrate the founding of the United States Naval Academy. Keep an eye on the newsletters and the web site for further information as it develops.

One last item of business. After a number of years, inflation has caught up with our excellent deal at Jock’s & Jill’s for our monthly luncheons. Effective this month, our cost for the luncheons will be $12.00 instead of $10.00. I think that most of us agree that Jock’s & Jill’s has “fed us well” for the price for a long time. Even at the new price, it’s still a great deal. And, they are going to include a dessert to “sweeten” the deal! See you at the January luncheon.

God bless America, and God bless our troops deployed in the Middle East.

And… BEAT ARMY!

Bob Schultz ‘71