What It Means to Me To Be a Colby Athlete
Baseball Coach Dale Plummer on Tradition
Spring 2008 Previews

Dear C Club Member:

As president of the C Club, I serve as chair of the largest of three subcommittees reporting to the chair of the Alumni Council Athletics Committee. At each Athletics Committee meeting I report on the C Club Executive Committee’s recent activities, the status of ongoing initiatives, and our plans for the future. Here is a summary of my January 2008 report:

The C Club’s financial condition is very sound, due largely to our success in attracting more dues-paying members. The growth is encouraging and reflects our efforts to increase membership by raising awareness of our activities among alumni, especially recent graduates.

The C Club is taking steps to increase awareness of our activities among seniors as they approach graduation and entry into the Alumni Association. For many years Ormond L. Browne ’51 donated a beautiful, heavy woolen “Varsity C” blanket to every senior who had served as captain of a varsity team. Upon his retirement the C Club assumed responsibility for continuing this tradition, and, starting this spring, will distribute the blankets jointly with the Athletic Department at the annual Senior Athletic Awards Ceremony, the date of which will be announced soon.

In addition, in April 2008 the C Club will send an e-mail message to every senior who has participated in a varsity sport at Colby, congratulating them on their impending entry into the Alumni Association, describing the C Club and its activities, and offering a free one-year C Club membership.

This spring 2008 newsletter breaks new ground in a couple of areas. It is the first C Club document to feature our new logo, which incorporates the College’s official mule logo, and it is the first newsletter to be e-mailed to all current C Club members with e-mail addresses on record. We will continue to mail the newsletter in its traditional ink-on-paper format for another edition or two, but the printed version will be replaced by an e-mail-only version by the end of the year.

More frequent and timely information about C Club activities and Colby athletics is coming soon! C Club members will soon begin receiving e-mail updates on recent athletic events as well as notices of upcoming athletic contests and C Club events. If your e-mail address is not on file at Colby and you would like to receive these bulletins and the newsletter by e-mail, please contact Karin Weston in Colby’s Alumni Relations Office (krweston@colby.edu).

I reported that arrangements had been made for a C Club game-day reception at halftime of the February 16 Colby women’s basketball game in Tufts University’s Cousens Gymnasium. Former women’s basketball star Patty Valavanis Smith ’80 and I acted as hosts.

The C Club wants to sponsor more game-day receptions as part of our plan to be a more visible presence at Colby athletic events, and we need more volunteers to act as reception hosts at home and away games, meets, and matches. The C Club and the Alumni Relations Office are creating a set of guidelines for prospective hosts that will include instructions for scheduling, planning, and running a game-day event. We also will offer financial and administrative assistance and publicity for any C Club members willing to serve as hosts.

Another goal is to increase the perceived value of C Club membership among alumni, parents, and friends. The Athletics Committee and the C Club Executive Committee produced several ideas for accomplishing this goal, which we will act on in coming months. Please look for future “C Club Exclusives.” These exclusives could include member-only access to C Club merchandise and apparel and/or opportunities to sign up early for tickets to C Club-sponsored events.

As you can see, we are busy with a number of projects, and I look forward to providing an update on our initiatives in future newsletters. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your winter and take solace in knowing that springtime and spring athletics are just around the corner.

Thanks for your membership in the C Club.

Alex Wilson ’73
President, Colby C Club