Chairman Column 2004 4th Quarter – Highlights of Quarter

Roger Rowlett’s Chairman Message in Fourth Quarter newsletter.

While there seems to have been a lot of national news in the past quarter, it’s been perhaps the most quiet quarter highpoint wise during my four-years as Chairman.

Among the highlights of the quarter include:

  • Praise continues to come in for the Daryle and Mary Dennis purchase of White Butte, North Dakota. The new owners are very generous in permitting unfettered access for a reasonable donation of $10/car. Please pay the fee and follow the the “leave no trace” ethos when visiting this summit.
  • Jean Trousdale has taken the leadership (based on a concept put forth by Todd Huston) on producing and selling the Highpoint calendars. The pictures quite frankly are stunning. You should definitely get a calendar and contact Jean about submitting calendars for the 2006 version.
  • Newlywed Newsletter Editor led a passionate debate on how we should handle the first U.S. completers list involving Arthur Marshall who first did it in 1936, C. Rowland Stebbins in 1950, George Peters in 1955 and F.W. McDermott in 1957. The upshot of this debate is that the 50 completer list involves 50 states. The four highpointing pioneers are much revered but they haven’t completed 50 (and of course they’re on the 48 list). If we get a new state, then we’ll have a new list
  • Don Holmes has a proposal for the Club to republish the original Frank Ashley 50 Highpoint Guidebook. There are some pretty passionate opinions on both sides on board. On the plus side is the interest in widely sharing this information. Those opposing wonder whether there is enough interest to warrant doing this. If you have opinions on either side be sure to let the board know.
  • The upcoming election for the Board of Directors is going to be marked by a change in the guard. Incumbents facing re-election are Ken Akerman, Bob Failing, Gary Iversen, Craig Noland and George Vandersluis. Of this group Bob Failing and George Vandersluis — who have been with the club since almost the beginning and who have done much to shape the club culture — have announced their intentions to retire. So if you’re interested in running for the board be sure to submit your name.
  • Finally, articles say that 2004 is the year of the blog. I figure if a blog is good enough to play a pivotal role in this year’s Presidential election then it’s good enough for our club website. So I’ve started converting our website into a blog/CMS format. This should have all sorts of implications for ease of use, interactivity, and elegant design If you would like to help out on this, let me know.
  • Keep Klimbin’!

    This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.