====================================================
NEW MEMBERS
SPJ ... Sarah Angle, TCU ... Bob Cox, Star-Telegram
====================================================
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Holly Ellman, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
In 1986, 12 people in Fort Worth got together to sign an important document. Sami Roop; Paul Ridings, APR; Dennis Roberson; Sally Werst; Carolyn Stephens; B. Kim Forman, APR; Loyd Turner; Roger Rienstra, APR; John Seeling, APR; Drenda Witt; Karen Cook; and Jim Wilson all had enough faith that they could grow a chapter of the Public Relations Society of America that they requested that one be established. Another two dozen people signed as being interested in joining the chapter once it was formed. Sami served as the founding president.
Twenty years later, the Greater Fort Worth Chapter of PRSA celebrated the vision and dedication of these individuals at a party at Shady Oaks Country Club on Nov. 29. As the current chapter president, I can attest to the long hours necessary to serve in such a position. I can only imagine what Sami went through in the organization's first year! I am grateful for her dedication along with that of the 17 other presidents who have served. (Yes, 17. Carolyn Stephens must have had so much fun her first year as president that they elected her for another term.)
Although sustaining a chapter for 20 years hasn't always been easy, it has been rewarding. With top-notch speakers at our monthly luncheons, biannual professional development seminars, community service and mentoring opportunities, and outstanding Southwest District and PRSA international conferences, we're proud of what we give to our members and the community.
Speaking of those program meetings, didn't Lyndsay Nantz, VP/programs, and professional development chairs Laura Squires, APR, and Lisa Orr do a wonderful job this year of providing speakers and topics that piqued our interest. Chris Smith, next year's VP/programs, is already busy planning meetings. Contact her with ideas -- chris.smith@tccd.edu.
And let me thank the board members for their efforts. We have accomplished a lot in the past few months. I look forward to passing the reigns to Marc Flake, but I am thankful for the opportunity to serve with such stellar professionals. It has been a wonderful experience.
Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.
Oh, and there's no chapter meeting this month. For the past several years, we've used the December meeting as a social. However, with a large portion of our 20th anniversary celebration dedicated to networking, we decided it would be our end-of-the-year gathering.
-----
PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Ken Roberts, IABC Fort Worth
It was 1999 when I attended my first IABC Fort Worth meeting. The person who met me at the door that day was Julie Trowbridge.
Julie, the chapter treasurer, was responsible for collecting everyone's payment for the lunch meeting. But she did so much more than take the money. She made me feel welcome. She made sure I had a name tag and told me where the buffet line was and said I could sit anywhere. And she really meant it when she said, "We're glad you're here."
No one is certain, including Julie herself, when she agreed to serve as treasurer. What is certain is she has been the treasurer for several years and has done a tremendous job. She understands that volunteers are absolutely necessary for a chapter such as ours to succeed. She serves willingly without ever calling attention to herself or seeking praise for her work.
Julie's employer, Carter & Burgess, has opened an office in Atlanta and offered her the marketing manager's position. Carter & Burgess made a great choice.
Julie isn't leaving town yet, but since we don't meet in December, November's meeting marked the final time she was at the table by the door welcoming us as we entered, telling us, "We're glad you're here."
IABC Fort Worth is very glad you've been here, Julie. We're a better chapter because of the leadership you provided.
Thank you for your service as our treasurer. Thank you for welcoming us at the door. Thank you for making reservations each month with the Petroleum Club. Thank you for handling the details that simply got done ... and the ones we never knew about because you took care of them.
We will miss you, but we're excited for you and your new opportunity. Best wishes as you begin this next phase of your career.
-----
OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read essay. ...
This is as handy as pockets on a shirt. Thanks, Jordan Raphael at OJR. "One recent morning, as I was fiddling under my desk to connect my tape-recorder to my phone line, I was hit by a sudden brainstorm. I noticed that the jack on the device that connects my tape recorder to the phone looked like it would fit perfectly into a slot on my computer's multimedia sound card. 'I'll bet I can record interviews directly into the computer,' I thought. I plugged the unit into my sound card, and sure enough, it worked. Within 15 minutes, I was interviewing a source and recording our conversation digitally. While it would be an overstatement to say that digital recording changed my life, it has certainly made my job a lot easier. For one thing, I am no longer burdened with boxes and boxes of 90-minute tapes. Except for in-person interviews, I don't use tapes at all. I plan to buy a digital voice recorder, which will eliminate tapes from my life altogether. ... "
On a dreary news landscape, a ray of (unfiltered) sunshine. NASA's most famous observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, will get a life extension after all, in the form of a shuttle servicing mission, NASA administrator Michael Griffin announced Oct. 31 to applause at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The move, though not unexpected, still had astronomers on the edge of their seats. The telescope has beamed a wealth of data since its launch aboard a space shuttle in 1990 and "has been the greatest telescope since Galileo invented the first one," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who pushed NASA to reconsider a final servicing mission. Good for her. And while we're at it, for Galileo, too.
Closing words, on war: "The crueler the war gets, the crueler the attacks get on anybody who doesn't salute or play the game. And then one day, the people who are doing the attacking look around and they've used up their credibility." -- Pulitzer-prize winning war correspondent David Halberstam, who wrote about Vietnam for The New York Times, at a recent conference with other combat reporters ... "All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride." -- philosopher Bertrand Russell on World War I ... "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower ... "Anti-war books are as likely to stop war as anti-glacier books are to stop glaciers." -- author Kurt Vonnegut ... "Wherever there's injustice, oppression and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it's happening." -- humorist P.J. O'Rourke
