Monday, January 21, 2008

State of the Club Address

Since this is the time of year where presidents seem to give speeches about the condition of this or that country, I thought I'd try my hand at doing the same for our Cal Alumni Club in Philadelphia.

I have been a proud member of this group since I arrive in town in 1999 and in that time we have been able to modernize our communications, expand our membership and establish a calendar of recurring annual events to which all members can look forward.

So here's the year in review:
  • In March, we host the Cal Men's Octet as part of their East Coast tour. It was two fun filled days of hijinx and song as we visited several Philadelphia landmarks and even got a plug on TV (Thanks Aditi!)
  • April brought us our annual New Student Reception where nearly 30 people braved extreme weather conditions to gather and talk about student life at Cal. We also awarded our Club's Alumni Scholarship to Megan Beale from Avon Grove High School.
  • In May, we participated in the annual Main Line College Fair at Villanova University where Cal is always a big draw. Long lines at our table and lots of interested prospective students and parents.
  • Over the summer, we listened to a carillon concert at Princeton University by own of our own, Laurel MacKenzie.
  • In the Fall, we watch a few football games together. Some great (Tennessee) and some not so great (The Big Game) and some downright dangerous (Oregon State, not the game but the bar!),
  • We ended the year by hosting the Cal Women's Basketball team in their visits to Princeton and Rutgers.

A lot to look forward to for 2008!

  • Our own web domain http://calphilly.org !
  • On February 16, Cal co-sponsoring a banquet event with the Organization of Chinese Americans featuring two Cal Alums (Aditi Roy and Joan Pfaelzer) - see the website to sign up!
  • The annual student reception on Sunday 4/13 2-4PM
  • The Main Line College Fair on Tuesday 4/29 6:30-9PM @ Villanova
  • IRA Rowing Championships 6/5 - 6/7 @ Cooper River Park, Camden, NJ
  • Cal vs. Maryland football on Saturday, 9/13 @ College Park, MD
  • The Big Game 11/22, viewing location TBD

Keep an eye on our website for these and other great events in 2008.

2008 will also be a year in which we get our house in order membership-wise. We plan to initiate a database cleanup project that will merge information from multiple sources and allow us to more efficiently stay in sync with the CAA in Berkeley. We would also like to do a better job at maintaining the ties with local students who go away to Cal (and come home, eventually).

The Cal Alumni Club of Philadelphia Alumni Scholarship Endowment Report

As of June 30, 2007, I am proud to report that our club's endowment stands at $29,545.46. In the year preceding, we added over $5,000 to our account. 90% of this was due to investment gains. We also transferred $500 from the club's checking account to the endowment as a result of money collected at various events and direct contributions from members (Thank you!).

I would like to set an ambitious goal over the next five years to increase our endowment to $50,000. This will allow us to offer either an additional scholarship or to increase the amount of the existing one. In order to do this, we will be asking members, where fiscally possible, to contribute $15 per household per year. Although we have had our own membership fee in place for many years, it has fallen off most folks' radar! If each of the 140 or so members of the Yahoo group contributes $15/year, that gets us nearly half way to our goal! See the website for the membership form.

As always, we could not do this without your support which reflects your dedication to Cal and the work of this club. If you would like to get more involved, please do not hesitate to contact me or any other board members.

Thanks and Go Bears!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

A New Year in Boston

Hey, it's only 5 hours away! Why not load up the family and head north to Boston. A great opportunity to visit my cousins and my aunt.

Before we headed out for the festivities, my son and I watched the first half of the Armed Forces Bowl. Not too encouraging until the end of the first half. At that point, we had to go but I kept track of the Bears' inspiring comeback on my BlackBerry.

So Boston has this celebration each year called First Night. It is a day long event filled with ice sculptures, music, art, museums, fireworks, performances of all kinds and a parade. After 8:00 PM, all the public transportation is free.

But, damn, it was cold! We took the Red Line in from Alewife and exited the Park Street station right into Boston Commons. Hey, I said, lets walk over to the Old South Church to hear the organ concert! Not the best walking weather, but on the way I did come across this:



Go Bears! Of course.












The Old South Church and the organ contained therein are magnificent. Check it out: http://www.oldsouth.org/ The concert (in between checking the Cal score) was great. We were invited up to try out the organ and I was tempted to play "Hail to California" but I couldn't get close enough. Would that have been cool or what!

Here are a couple of pictures I took:
















After a tasty dinner at Uno's, we watched the parade, some fireworks and then headed over to the Hynes Center for some entertainment. By far, one of the most bizarre performances I have ever witnessed was that of the group "Uncle Monsterface". Very odd, by most standards, terrible, but strangely compelling. Check out the my video. Note the sock puppet in the back.
Here is their MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/unclemonsterface



After that, we were ready to call it a night - but it was only 9:30! So we headed off to Harvard Square and a tasty little place called "Finale". Check out the menu: http://www.finaledesserts.com/

We pulled into the hotel in Waltham just as the clock struck 12. All in all, a fine way to ring in the New Year. 2008 is going to be awesome!