Club Officers Form Association

DARTMOUTH alumni club presidents and secretaries made history at their meetings in Hanover on September 26-28 when they founded the Dartmouth Club Officers Association. This action, taken in recognition of the growing importance and scope of regional alumni activity, adds a club officers organization to the existing Dartmouth Secretaries Association, Dartmouth Class Treasurers Association and Dartmouth Class Agents Association.

Willis S. Fitch '17, president of the Dartmouth Club of Washington, D. C., was elected the first president of the new association. Robert W. MacMillen '40, secretary of the Dartmouth Club of Cleveland, was elected vice president; and J. Michael McGean '49 of Hanover, Assistant Secretary of the College, who directs the alumni club program, was named secretary. The officers have been delegated to draw up a constitution for the new association, to be presented at the next annual meeting.

The rapid geographical spread of Dartmouth graduates has resulted in no alumni clubs and associations at present count. The club secretaries were previously members of the Dartmouth Secretaries Association, the organization of class secretaries; but specialized interests and activities, as well as the growth in the number of clubs, made it highly desirable to form a separate association of club officers. Last year, for the first time, the club officers held their own meetings in the fall rather than in the spring with class officers, and from that point on the creation of a separate association was clearly foreshadowed.

In a parallel growth in recent years, bequest chairmen have been added to the class officers and, under the new class constitutions, the class presidents and chairmen have assumed enlarged roles in alumni affairs. The presidents and bequest chairmen now meet in Hanover each spring along with the class secretaries, treasurers, agents and Memorial Fund chairmen. Sheer numbers as well as the sharp division between class and regional alumni activities have been a factor in encouraging first a separate fall gathering of club officers and, now, the creation of a new association.

Some fifty representatives of Dartmouth alumni clubs were in Hanover for the September 26-28 meetings. George B. Redding '29, chairman of the Alumni Council Committee on Alumni Clubs, presided at the dinners and general sessions. President Dickey, as the principal speaker at the opening dinner for officers and their wives, discussed some aspects of the recent Dartmouth Convocation on Great Issues in the Anglo-Canadian-American Community. At the Friday night stag dinner, Prof. Joseph L. McDonald, Dean of the College, spoke on "Trials and Tribulations of a Dean."

Other speakers at the two-day session were Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary of the College; Prof. Donald H. Morrison, Provost of the College; Edward T. Chamberlain '36, Director of Admissions; George H. Colton '35, Director of Development; and Prof. Churchill P. Lathrop of the Art Department, who made a visual presentation of the architectural history of the College, leading up to present-day plans for the Hopkins Center. A panel discussion of club activities and problems was also a part of the program.

As a feature of the opening dinner, the award for the Best Club Secretary of the Year was made to Robert W. MacMillen '40 of the Dartmouth Club of Cleveland, and the award for the Best Club President of the Year was made to J. Saxton Ziemen '35 of the Dartmouth Club of Hartford, Conn. Their citations appear with their respective class columns in this issue.

George B. Redding '29 (left) of the Alumni Council with the new officers of the Dartmouth Club Officers Association: (l to r) Michael McGean '49, secretary; Robert W. MacMillen '40, vice president; and Willis S. Fitch '17, president.