We hope that this venture will become a steady source of income forour Club, much as the Owl Bookstores are for many other clubs. The incomewill help us to cover our operating expenses; but more importantly it willallow us to substantially increase our contributions to the Hope WearnTroxell Fund and to the Alumnae Regional Scholarship Fund.
In order to make this project a success, we will need volunteer help!The most urgent need is for people willing to volunteer a few hours onan occasional weekend filling orders. The cards will be stored at the homeof our treasurer, Maria Davila Rudolph ’81, who lives in Claremont, ineastern L.A. County. The cards will arrive in February and a new cataloguewill be printed and mailed in March, so the first volunteers will be neededshortly after that. If you are willing to help, call Mariaat (909) 624-7103.
The other important need we have is for a tax advisor, to help withrunning a non-profit business. Given our status as part of the AlumnaeAssociation, it is unlikely that we will need to file tax returns, butwe do want to make sure to stay on the right side of the IRS and the FranchiseTax Board! If any of you is a tax accountant or tax attorney (orhas any experience with non-profit businesses), and are willing to help,give Maria a call.
We are very excited about this new venture and hope it will be a funway to socialize while fundraising, so please join us!
| Did you know... The Alumnae Regional Scholarship Fund supports both stipends for independent study and annual financial aid grants. |
After this pleasant interlude, the event moved indoors to the pool housewhere the gathered alums heard a pair of intriguing talks. First came DavidFogelson HC ’73 who is a professor of psychiatry at UCLA. He spoke aboutObsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), the disease that afflicts Jack Nicholson’scharacter in the movie As Good as it Gets. David explained that OCD patientsoften realize how irrational their behavior is (such as constant hand-washing)yet can’t stop themselves. He also told the audience that OCD is largelya biological disorder that can be treated, at least partially, with drugtherapy. He drew a laugh when he said that most of his physician colleagueshad a related disorder known as Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder(OCPD), a disorder with similar, but milder, symptoms.
Then followed an entertaining and thought-provoking talk by BMC professorPeter Beckmann. Using an array of multimedia props (including a clarinet,which he played), Professor Beckmann tried to convince the audience thatin some sense there is no such thing as external reality, only our perceptionof it. Thus, the essence of a clarinet’s sound is not just the sum of thefrequencies that make it up, but rather a new sound we label as “clarinet”.Similarly, the color yellow is not just the sum of two other frequenciesof light, but is a new concept invented by our brain to describe this combination.
As usually happens when we peer into the inner workings of the brain,more questions were raised than were answered. As Professor Beckmann putit, there are only two kinds of theories — those that are wrong and thosethat are not wrong yet.
Professor Beckmann also brought a report “from the front”. BrynMawr is thriving and, as usual, the faculty are cooking up new ideas forthe curriculum. Following a one-year pilot project (spearheaded by ProfessorBeckmann) with 50 students, the college recently launched a new courseto replace Freshman English. The new course is a writing class now taughtby the entire faculty, allowing a much broader range of ideas to be included.So far, the new course seems to be working very well; the college willassess its effectiveness after five years.
The success of this “continuing education” gathering means that it willlikely become an annual event. Watch future newsletters for the date!
| Did you know... Each year many Bryn Mawr students spend Spring Break in the Extern Program, where they shadow an alumna at work for a week. If you can sponsor a student this year, please contact Bryn Mawr Career Developmentat 610-526-5174. |
The museum is really fantastic, mostly built of cream-colored Italianstone called Travertine. Kristin Kelly ’74, who works at the Getty,kindly came in on her weekend off to give us an informative tour aboutthe architecture. Our guide was so great that three other museum guestsjoined our tour.
After the tour, we split up to visit the exhibits. The Impressionistcollection was excellent, as was the Man Ray exhibit. The Getty’s garden,designed by Robert Irwin, is breathtaking. Some of us wrapped upthe day sitting on the patio, drinking champagne and watching as the sunset on the travertine....
We would like to give special thanks to Kristin Kelly and Judith Leonefor all their help. They made the day a great success!
| San Diego Area Alums: Felicia Kaminsky ’94 is still gettingorganized in San Diego. If you would like to help plan or host anevent in the area, please contact her at (760) 634-0067. She is availablevia e-mail as well, but was between providers at the time of publication;any e-mail messages sent to her in care of AmyHughes ’95 will be forwarded. |
January 1: Winter Newsletter (announces events from February1 to May 1)In addition, all events will be announced on the Club Webpage (http://www.hanguk.com/bmcsc)when they have been planned. We have also created an e-mail mailinglist for the Club. We hope that this mailing list will help facilitatesmaller local events that do not have the lead time that our publishingcalendar requires. Those of you who have requested to receive thenewsletter via e-mail are already subscribed to this list. Anyoneelse who wants to join the list may do so by sending an e-mail messageto Amy Hughes ’95. Please indicateif you still wish to receive a paper copy of the newsletter.
April 1: Spring Newsletter (announces events from May 1 to August 1)
July 1: Summer Newsletter (announces events from August 1 to November1)
October 1: Fall Newsletter (announces events from November 1 to February1)
The Club has recently joined the Ivy League Alumni of Southern California,an organization open to local alumni of the Ivy League, Seven Sisters,and “other respected schools”. We receive a bi-monthly calendar ofevents from them. Events that are open to Mawrtyrs will be announcedon the Club Webpage and to our e-mail mailing list.
| Did you know... The Hope Wearn Troxell Memorial Scholarship provides an annualfinancial aid grant to a student from Southern California. |
Also, we are pleased to formally announce the addition of Susan Wood’94 as our Community Service Coordinator. Susan will be helping tocoordinate events and activities out in the community. If you havesuggestions, or are affliated with any volunteer organizations that coulduse our help, please contact Susan.
Notice: The December 10th Career Development Networking Event was cancelleddue to limited interest. Please look for our upcoming Networkingevening focusing on careers in Arts and Entertainment. If you have anysuggestions for future events, please contact AnneGershenson.