There May Be Hope

My alumni club, of which I am the reluctant President, held our annual Holiday Luncheon outside, under the trees, with the sun shining and not too many bees buzzing on a secluded patio at Tohono Chul's Bistro.  It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I had not one conversation about football.  Beyond that, everything else was gravy.

There were old friends, and people who are old friends and friends of our other far distant old friends.  There was an old friend who flew back for a short visit from Colorado on this weekend just so that she could attend this event.  There was much hugging involved in her return appearance.

There was a poet, an old friend whose latest book took 2nd place in a prestigious poetry competition.  First place went to the winner of the Pulitzer Prize.  The pilot wasn't flying and was able to attend - finally.  The organizers did a great job, which meant that I had to do nothing at all except agree with their plans.  There was a raffle and a distribution of swag accumulated over the years, most of which did not come home with me.

There were people who moved back because, well, Tucson is just better.  There were new members who just came to town and were looking for a Cornell connection.  Lots of these people are much younger than I - a good sign for an otherwise aging membership.

And there were strangers who approached us because we were wearing red and there was a CORNELL banner hanging from a nearby Baja Fairy Duster.  One was a vet school grad who lives in Texas but the others live in town and were very interested in the Club.  They looked young enough to be using their parents' address as their University contact site; they wouldn't show up as living in our zip codes and so couldn't be contacted by our Club.  

Yes, there needs to be a way to fix that.  I'm just not the person to do so.  Neither was my predecessor, nor anyone at the University, it seems.  Oh, well.  We'll just have to continue to show ourselves in public, loudly and proudly displaying our colors, banners suspended from the available foliage.  

There may be hope for our Club's survival yet.