The response to our first issue of Alumni Volunteer Update was overwhelmingly positive. At 6 p.m. on January 8, we sent this e-newsletter to you and 1,031 of your volunteer colleagues across the nation and world. By 9 a.m. the next morning, more than 35 percent of you had opened the file. For an e-newsletter, that's an impressive hit rate, according to national statistics. The content for our inaugural issue was determined according to a survey sent to many of you last fall, and we hope you found it useful. In any event, please don't be shy about telling us how to make it better. And keep those electronic cards and letters coming my way.

Here at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, we endured one of the coldest Januarys on record. But there's a tremendous amount of heat being generated by the Lady Lions basketball team, which as I write this is undefeated in the Big Ten. This is a fabulous group of athletes, and we believe they will contend for the national championship this spring. As the NCAA tournament gets under way—all the way to the Final Four in New Orleans—the Penn State Alumni Association will be doing pep rallies to fire up alumni support. We sponsored a pep rally when the Lady Lions played St. Joe's in Philadelphia on January 29, and the Penn Staters in the St. Joe's field house—two busloads from Centre County, but the vast majority from the Delaware Valley—outnumbered and out cheered the home crowd all night long. Your Penn State Alumni Association is doing everything possible to build increased alumni and fan support for our women's and men's basketball programs.

Meanwhile, our membership campaign continues to go well. As of January 30, our totals reached 151,549, compared to 145,623 last year same week and 144,293 two years ago same week. These numbers do fluctuate from week to week, however, and the January 30 number will decline as we remove those gratis members from December 2002 who did not renew their free annual membership in December 2003. But we are still on pace to pass the 150,000 mark by June 30 of this year—up from 146,619 last year—just in time for the start of Penn State's 150th anniversary year. We are now beginning to engage Penn State's academic colleges and campuses in our three-year membership drive, and will be looking to our affiliate group leaders as well to help us stay No. 1.

For those of you in northern climes, stay warm and take solace in the fact that we are only five weeks from spring. For those of you in southern and western climes...hey, I'm willing to travel!

For the future,

Roger L. Williams '73, '75g, '88g