Governance & Membership
Clink a link in the drop-down menu below to access past President's Messages
2025 President's Messages
February 2025
“Do a good turn daily” has been the slogan for both the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the United States of America for over a century (well before I was a Boy Scout in the ‘60s). In today’s vernacular, we might say, “Do a good deed daily.” For many, this may evoke the old comedy routines showing a scout “helping” (dragging) an elderly woman across a busy street and the scout stating, “There you are, ma’am, safely across the street.” To which the elderly woman replies, “But, young man, I did not WANT to cross the street!” followed by a rim shot and laugh track.
January 2025
“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative,” is a quote attributed to H.G. Wells, author of classic science fiction novels. The quotation comes from Mr. Wells’ last book, Mind at the End of Its Tether, an incredibly pessimistic read so unlike some of his other classic science fiction that I enjoyed in my youth, such as The First Men in the Moon, The Time Machine and The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, to name a few. I recall but cannot locate the science fiction novel (loosely based upon Great Britain’s historical forced immigration of convicts to Australia, among other places) in which I first saw an iteration of the quote, i.e., “Adapt or die,” which was a warning given to involuntary immigrants. Both quotations are harsh but instructive.