Vox Lucens

While last year’s Wisconsin Alumni Association meeting was held in amazingly beautiful fall weather.  It seems highly ironic that this year’s, in Nevada, was covered in a wonderful snow.

There was at least one similarity, though - the same guy was elected President both times.  I appreciated the vote of confidence and the many kind words.

Being re-elected also gives me the chance to look backwards and forwards at the Alumni Association.  In doing so, I discovered that the Alumni Association is at the same point that I am in my own life: We are at the spot where we need to turn vision into reality.  It’s a hard place to be, in many ways, but it’s sure an exciting one.  The foundation is laid, the vision is there, and now it’s time to make something out of it all.

Here are my thoughts for the Alumni Association blog - which manage to be similar to introspective musings in re: yours truly.

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Every organization starts with a vision of something great. For the Alumni Association, that was a vision of expanding, promoting, and growing OBCL’s unique calling. Even as a student, I could see the vision of those that worked to establish this organization. It was apparent, and it trickled all the way down to my study-swamped self. In the intervening years, the vision has been clarified and built.

And in every organization’s life comes a time in which the established vision must be put into practical reality by dint of hard work. And as I looked back on the last year’s work done by the Alumni Association Board and numerous volunteers, I can’t help but realize that we are at that point in the Alumni Association’s life. The vision is there, and it is clear - and now comes the time in which we must turn that vision into practical reality.

This past year, the Board worked to lay the foundation to build this reality on. So many “small” components go into effective communication, effective promotion, and effective fundraising…and this list of essentials could go on. Beyond those normal challenges, the Alumni Association faces unique challenges simply because we are scattered all across this nation! One thing that I have greatly appreciated about the Board of Directors of this association is their willingness to do things the right way. We’ve never taken an idea and gone off half-cocked; we’ve taken good ideas and made them better - those ideas and that work is the foundation.

But right now we have this chance to turn vision into reality, if we are willing to put our noses to their respective grindstones and do the work. It’s time to take the foundation and build on it, taking those ideas into reality. And that is our goal for this year.

It was terrific to see the excitement of the alumni at the annual meeting last week. Indeed, I found it impossible not to get excited myself! We have the skills and the desire to do the building - and we have the foundation to build on.

It is going to be a great year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 12:26 am and is filed under Law School, Personal, Pictures, Travelogue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.