Barb Charbonnet and I had a very pleasant lunch with the leadership of the Vetlesen Foundation on Wednesday - providing our annual report of progress and accomplishments, which was received positively (thank goodness!). However, their views (from their "Wall Street" perspective) on the financial future at a national level were depressingly negative - I hope in this case their pessimism is unfounded...
The Board of our Alumni Association met this afternoon for one of the two regular annual meetings that they hold - the second being on the West Coast coordinated with the AGU meeting in December. Speaking of AGU - we WILL be holding our regular Lamont party on Tuesday night - 630pm - and it will be at the usual place (though the hotel name has
changed [again]) - BUT sadly the format will be different. We came close to cancelling this year - as a cost-cutting measure but decided not to, because the tradition is so valuable, and we would likely lose the venue for future years. So...in order to keep costs at a reasonable level we have switched from an open bar to a cash bar, and have also economized on food. Resources permitting we will switch back to our old format next year, and hope our guests will understand the financial pressures that are forcing this decision this time around.
One of our most prestigious alumni, Michael Bender, gave the Colloquium this afternoon, hosted by the Alumni Association. It is always a pleasure to hear Michael expound so authoritatively on a topic as rich and interesting as the history of CO2 levels in our atmosphere. Thank you to the Alumni Association for this special occasion and thank you to Michael for travelling up from Princeton to be with us.
Enjoy the weekend,
Mike