OrAckRow

All the acronyms in my professional life--PahNacAck, NackCap, EyeCar, NacAck and more--drive my family crazy. Last weekend, after spending some time with our families in the Salem area, I went up to Seaside for yet another alphabet soup organization's conference: OrACRAO, the Oregon Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers. The conference was followed by a meeting Tuesday afternoon of ICAR, the Oregon University System's Interinstitutional Committee on Admissions and Recruitment. Since I'm now officially a short-timer, these meetings were largely a chance for me to say good-bye to many of the people I've gotten to know in Oregon over the last seven years.

OrACRAO did a kind of cool thing in honoring its members who have been active in other organizations so at lunch on Monday, Reid Kisling, OrACRAO's president-elect, gave me a certificate recognizing the various ways that I've been involved recently with PNACAC and NACAC. It was neat to receive it from Reid since he's a Christian college colleague, from George Fox University, and an OIT alumnus.

I do have to say that the food at this conference was really good and there was tons of it. The workshops were okay but, like I said, I'm a short-timer so perhaps my own motivation is a bit weak.

One of my OUS colleagues, Mara Affre from Southern Oregon University, is also moving on to a new job. In fact, Thursday was her last day at SOU as she's on her way to Boise State University. Since we're both on our way out the door, at Monday night's social--with a beach party theme--we had our picture taken together. After the social, Agnes Hoffman from Portland State Universit invited all of the OUS admissions folks to her room so that they could make champagne toasts (using little hotel bathroom plastic cups) to Mara and me.

At the end of the ICAR meeting, I was stunned when Agnes, then Martha Pitts from UO, Rob Findtner from Western, and the crew from OSU and OSU-Cascades gave Mara and me going away gifts (I'm wearing my Oregon sweatshirt at this very moment). I never would have expected such generosity and it was really touching. My first ICAR meeting was May of 2000. Mara had started at SOU just before that meeting, too, so we came in together and leave together. I could not have imagined how much some of these OUS colleagues would come to mean to me. It really has been a privilege to work alongside them.

(L to R - Mara Affre, Kirk Koenig from UO, who I've known since his days at Gonzaga in the '80s, Agnes Hoffman, and Martha Pitts)