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Volume 19, Number 5
July/August 2002

The Chair's Corner

Hello, I Must Be Going

By George R. Ripplinger

It's that time of year again. Just as the leaves fall every October, a section chair moves on every August. This year it's me. In many ways this year seems like it just began. The Section's embrace of the Internet still is in its infancy, though progressing. In other ways, it seems it's lasted forever. I've lost count of how many conference calls I've participated in. All in all, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything-well, almost anything.

As always, the highlights of being a bar leader have all been people: those who helped, those we helped, and everyone I met. No matter how long you are active in the Section or which positions you hold, nothing is quite like being the chair. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who contributed to making this an outstanding year for the Section and for Terry and me.
I want to thank everyone in the Section whom I have not yet met for sending letters and e-mails that helped us make our Section better. Thank you, too, to those members I did not hear from but who remain loyal members all the same.

The professional staffs of the Section and of various entities within the ABA-particularly my editor, who waited and waited and waited some more for me to complete each of these columns-are also deserving of not only my thanks but also those of the Section membership as a whole. We volunteers simply could not do the job without their cheerful and enthusiastic assistance.

I can't forget to thank my associate, Patricia Zimmer. Without her help, I probably would have gone broke; she really carried the load for the past year, while I concentrated on Section projects.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my wife, Terry, for her contributions to this year's success and for never complaining about the time I devoted to the job-not to mention the additional nights and weekends I spent at the office, making up for lost time. I think her only regret, now that my term is ending, is that I will be free to drag her to strange parts of the world again. (I just gave her a brochure on Malaysia, and I think she's looking for another bar association position for me here!)

It's been great, it's been fun, it's been fast. The only appropriate thing to say now is, in the words of Groucho Marx, "Hello, I must be going."