Whole Lotta Catchin' Up To Do

I knew that I had been deficient in keeping this blog updated lately, but didn't realize quite how far behind I'd fallen. I've heard through the grapevine that some of my faithful readers have even been concerned for me because of the dearth of information. Let's just say it's been a busy and even difficult month. Rather than going back through the entire time, I'll just start with my trip to the Northwest . . .

Just over two weeks ago, I flew to Seattle and my sister, Laura, picked me up at SeaTac and we drove directly to Salem to visit our parents. When you live 2000 miles from "home," it seems important to take advantage of every opportunity to connect. Laura stayed with Mom and Dad while I went on to Albany, where I stayed with Jeannette's mom. It was a good trip. We had a very nice time with the folks and I also got to see Jeannette's brother Paul and his family one evening.

Tuesday morning, we headed north so that I could deal with the main reason for the trip: The NACAC conference at the Seattle convention center. I wasn't supposed to blog about this while it was going on, because it could be perceived as "campaigning," but last March I was invited to run for president of NACAC, an 11,000 member organization of college admissions professionals and high school guidance counselors. To me, this was quite an honor and I believe I was the first Christian college employee to ever run for any NACAC board position. There were two candidates: I was running against a very good guy named Jim Jump from Virginia. Over the last six months, we both had to submit written statements for publication in the association's newsletter and we traveled to Minneapolis for several days in July to meet with many of the organization's leaders.

Now, in Seattle, it was our job to give a six minute speech to the NACAC "Assembly," which is basically the association's congress, with about 260 delegates elected to represent 22 regions of the US plus an international group. There also were several opportunities for these delegates to pepper us with questions. I felt very good about how I did. I talked about how I try to look at all sides of issues, the importance of improving high school graduation rates (only about 70% of US kids graduate from high school in four years), and how NACAC should pay attention to transfer students and adult learners.

[Side Note: The night before the speech, I woke up and realized that I had left my belt in Salem or Albany so I didn't have one to wear to Assembly. So I just kept my coat buttoned . . . but my thoughts went back several times to the old advice to nervous speakers about imagining the audience naked, and I hoped the roles wouldn't be reversed while I spoke that morning. All were relieved that my pants stayed up. A quick trip to the Ross Dress for Less store later in the day kept this from being an ongoing problem.]

It was a very interesting week. I got to go to two Mariners games (the first in a luxury suite courtesy of the folks at RuffaloCODY) and got to visit the EMP (Experience Music Project) and science fiction museums by the Space Needle. It was great to get to see a lot of friends from around the country and even abroad, especially those from the Pacific Northwest.

Upon my return to Fort Wayne, however, things turned a bit surreal. I went to work on Monday and mid-morning was called to the chancellor's office. I'm not able to say anything about the brief conversation that happened there, but I guess it's safe to quote from an e-mail that was sent out by the chancellor to the campus, which summed things up succinctly and coolly: "with the departure of Palmer Muntz." Needless to say, it felt like a Twilight Zone episode to go from being a focal point at a conference with 5700 attendees, receiving a lot of strokes from friends and colleagues, to being unemployed in less than 72 hours.

Actually, I've decided that I prefer to say that I'm "retired" rather than "unemployed." And, like Michael Jordan, I hope to come out of retirement soon.

Jeannette and the boys were thrown for a loop by this turn of events but they have been great about it. I've received dozens of encouraging Facebook messages, e-mails and calls from all around the country. Our small group--Lance, Mary, Eric, Becky, Denny, Deb, Dave and Jayne--have been very supportive. We're just praying that God will give us patience and wisdom. It's strange that He brought us 2000 miles to Fort Wayne and then allowed things to fall apart so quickly. When we agreed to come here, I knew it was risky because of the tenuous history and financial situation on campus, but I didn't think my time would end after just fifteen months. We'd love to stay in Fort Wayne, in this home, neighborhood, school and church that we've grown to love. We'll see what develops, though.

I've applied for three jobs so far and have had one interview already. I'm sure I won't post any details of the job search process here but I imagine it'll be trying and testing and a time of growth. If you have any suggestions or leads on jobs, just e-mail me or Facebook me or leave a comment.

I'll try to get some more posts up here soon . . . with pictures of MelodyJoy . . . I know that's all that most readers of this blog really care about anyway!