November 2007 President's Corner

Mitch Rowland '71, USNAAA Atlanta Chapter President

Here it is November already. How did it get to be so late in the year? I’ve already seen lots of Christmas stuff out, and we haven’t even gotten to Halloween. At this time of year, Hotlanta isn’t so hot. And although we are in the midst of a 100 year drought, it has sprinkled rain, Seattle style, for the last four days. At the current rate of rainfall, even after 40 days, I don’t think anyone will be looking to start building an ark.

If you haven’t found an event to attend in October, I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to get you out. We had football gatherings on a Wednesday night at Frankie’s and a Saturday afternoon at the Fox Sports Grill in Atlantic Station. The Fox Sports Grill is our new location for football games. It is in downtown Atlanta, in the middle. I hope everyone is a little upset, except maybe for those who live in town. Southsiders, come on up. It’s just as far from Marietta as it is from Peachtree City. We will be gathering at the Fox Sports Grill on October 27 for the Delaware game at 1300. At halftime of the Wake Forest game, we had the drawing for 4 tickets to the Navy-Notre Dame game. Paul Hurst ‘62 won the tickets. He then donated the tickets back to be sold at auction. Way to go Paul.

And then there was our regular monthly luncheon. This month the speaker was the Honorable Phil Gingery, congressman from the 11^th district. He gave a great speech and answered many questions from our members. It was an honor to have such a distinguished guest as our speaker. Visit the web site for more on his speech.

Those in attendance were: John Stark ‘51, Bill Bacon ‘70, Tony Womble ‘63, Paul Borer ‘70, Lidden Pate ‘82, Ed Hux ‘61, Bill Williams ‘65, Dick Click ‘70, Phil Polefrone ‘74, Paul de la Llama ‘46 and his guests Carmen de la Llama, Rico de la Llama and Alisha Mullen, Jack McCourt ‘78, Roger Carr ‘70, Jim Hatch ‘47, Pete Knoetgen ‘77, Sam Newton ‘68, Bill Rentz ‘55, Steve Frederick ‘72, Reggie Vachon ‘58, Bob Snelling ‘65, Jim Slemenda ‘66, Alex Cobble ‘76, Mario Maddox ‘85, Greg Morrow ‘85, Walt Coakley ‘54, Gary Hoy ‘84, The Honorable Phil Gignrey, John O’Keefe and Carl McCallum ‘60.

On Sunday, October 20^th, we had a social gathering at Babbette’s café. Attending were Paul and Jody Borer with guests Ann and David Munson, Jim and Susan Slemenda, Mitch and Carole Rowland, Bill Rentz with guests Fern Johnson, Zac and Laura Johnson, Zeke and Milli Miller, Clint and Monty Johnson, Stew and Ann Caldwell, Carl and Marilyn McCallum and Steve and Karen Frederick. Many thanks to Jim Slemenda for making the arrangements for our gathering. As an added bonus for Jim, it was his birthday and he was serenaded by all of us singing happy birthday. That was worse than just the waiters at your normal restaurant. Needless to say, the company was good, but the food was better.

The board really tries to have events at varied times and places so that all our alumni have a chance to attend some event. If there is anyway we could entice you to attend, please let me know. My phone number and e-mail are listed on our web site, and I promise that any and all suggestions to improve participation will be considered.

BEAT ARMY!

Mitch Rowland ’71
Chapter President