What a Fall! We’ve had virtually every type of weather already and as I write this, it is only the second week in December. We have had hurricanes, tornados, snowstorms, thunderstorms, floods, and earthquakes – yes earthquakes. Welcome to East California – they had wildfires and our area had arsonists.

By the time you see this, you will have celebrated a variety of December holidays and New Years’ Eve to welcome in 2004. January 2004 is You Can Afford College month for the association and there are any number of activities planned by the board and individual state groups. Read about some of them in this issue, along with referencing the website for new activities that may not have made it for publication time. Most of all, pick one or more and volunteer to be involved.

In an effort to collect information for this issue, a friend felt my pain and passed on some information to share – she was concerned about the lack of response and wrote... “Wow, Gary, I'm feeling really bad for you or maybe I should feel really bad for our colleagues...... Apparently we have terribly boring, uneventful lives. I have a new puppy. Well actually he's not a puppy, just a small dog, but very cute. Maxwell J. Pooche, he's a rescue. Your Friend”.

Well Friend et al, it isn’t so bad, but I truly thank you for the news about your puppy and concern for the newsletter. We have reports from DE and MD; committee reports from Awards, Federal Relations, Membership, Outreach and PD&T, Historical perspectives from Herm Davis and yours truly, and a few things on the calendar for 2004. In addition, there is news about personnel moves and promotions, some which may surprise you. While it is like pulling teeth to get input from some corners of the association, we haven’t gone to the dogs yet.

I remember when I was the incoming Chair of Tri-state and had to find a newsletter chair. The previous person decided not to continue and panic ensued. My savior then was Ellen Frishberg of Johns Hopkins University, and her efforts inspired me to one day consider serving as editor. So here I am, and this isn’t complaining. This is important work and professionally satisfying. Ellen still supports my efforts today – see her article in this issue. The multiple emails searching for contributors are working and it doesn’t hurt to call or email a few people directly to get some immediate input.

Then there is the response from the community, which has been great. The following comments were sent to the committee regarding the last issue – we hope you agree:

The committee wants to acknowledge all of our supporters and in each addition we print the names of contributors at the end of the newsletter. These are the people who care enough to share information with you – their colleagues. Take a moment and thank them as we begin the New Year. They deserve our appreciation for helping to make the newsletter informative and interesting. We hope that you will join your colleagues and contribute to the last two issues of the year in some small or big way. The schedule appears in each issue of the newsletter for your convenience.

Finally, from all of us on the Newsletter Team, we wish you and yours a very happy and prosperous 2004.

Reminder:
Article Guidelines: Full articles should be no longer than two typed pages single spaced. It is requested that all submissions be provided in 10 pt size with Arial font type.

All articles submitted for publication will be reviewed by the Editorial staff. Submissions should be of a professional interest to the association and not include marketing and/or advertising of products, services, websites or personnel.

Please submit all feature articles to Maria Izquierdo-Whitaker at izqui_m@jhu.edu with a cc. to Gary Spoales at Gary.A.Spoales@bankofamerica.com and Gretchen Bonfardine at gbonfardine@amsa.com. A regular feature article regarding early details of the association unearthed by Historical Committee will be submitted by Dr. Herm Davis, a Life Member. He will revisit some interesting facts about our past in each issue. This information will be supplemented by “a look back” at past newsletters with excerpts reprinted for your enjoyment and reflection of our roots in the industry.