End of Year Speech 2002-03

This piece says a lot to me. What a strong statement of our ideals, and our commitment to pluralism. And more than that, it captures what is unique about our college – our profound belief that through our collective efforts we can create a better world together. It speaks to our caring and the depth of our commitment. It is an appropriate hallmark for our celebration of this current academic year.

Good afternoon and welcome. Thanks for being here to celebrate BCC’s 37th academic year. It was just a few short months ago we gathered to launch the year.

At that time I spoke to you of the need to reconnect our college, our students and community to the core values of a liberal education, especially during this time of geopolitical turmoil, where civic engagement, informed inquiry and exchange, and respectful global citizenry seem more important than ever before.

You responded to that challenge exceeding my expectations in so many ways this year. Once again, as our pluralism video displayed, we came together as a community, and accomplished grand things.

In thinking about you and your accomplishments I was reminded of a comment made by a coach in a recent NCAA playoff, when asked why his team had done so well. What about his team made it come as far as it had, because everyone wants to know about success. He responded that the players understand this simple fact: “Good people do for themselves, great people do for others.”

I think this is part of BCC’s greatness. We know we are at our best when we take on big challenges for the purpose of creating a better experience for our whole educational community.

And this year, we have certainly been put to the test in what has been one of the most challenging times in recent memory.

We started this year with the mandate from the legislature to serve more students with less money with which to do it. We dealt with budget cutbacks, layoffs, combining of departments, and a most difficult period when our nation was at war.

Even so, you, the BCC community, have remained undaunted by these challenges and have provided abundant examples of your spirit, your resiliency and dedication.

David Brinkley once said, “A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her. “ Well, we certainly did that this year, responding with what I think was one of our best years ever academically.

Highlights form this year show that we introduced new programs in Accounting Information, Computing Security, Mobile Computing, Digital Gaming Graphics, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, HIPAA Academy and Cisco Certified Network Associate, among others. We introduced the Center for Liberal Arts. We promoted pluralism on and off campus. We rounded out our curricular offerings with a series of well-planned and well-attended events, which speaks to the vigor of intellectual discussion on campus, and the quality of our programs. And we supported each other as family during the most difficult periods.

There is a saying that goes, “No pressure, no diamonds.” We created many diamonds this year, and I would like this afternoon to celebrate the three things that I found most impressive: The strength of our underlying spirit; Our commitment to diversity; And a continuing high level of excellence and quality in our programs.

Spirit was especially important to us as a campus community this year. William James once said that great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed. I think we discovered that this year. Despite fewer staff and resources, we met the challenges. All over campus, I saw people reaching out and going the extra mile, not only to keep the college running smoothly but also to help each other through the difficult times.

We even managed some moments of levity: I seem to remember Jim Ellinger, AKA the Purple Craze, going classroom to classroom on Halloween – terrorizing the daylights out of people -- until he was forcibly detained by the BCC’s finest, the Public Safety Department. It took a while, but, finally, and despite the protests of his colleagues, he was released on a “presidential pardon.”

I also recall the Bite of BCC. What a great event! Participants shared their culinary skills and put together a diverse palate of culinary delights for the benefit of the whole college community.

You gotta love the science guys for putting us into the tropics at the height of the year’s doldrums!

These are but a couple of examples of the camaraderie and efforts of the college community to enrich our work environment that were crucial to our success.

Nowhere was the feeling of community expressed as clearly as it was in the numerous activities that were undertaken this year in support of pluralism and diversity on campus, which is the second thing I want to celebrate today.

Listen to this list of events we were treated to this year:

Through tremendous collaborative work among faculty and staff across campus implementing the Cultural Diversity grant from the Washington State Library

Nawang Dorjee presented an inspiring session on Tibetan culture entitled Peaceful Activism,

Susan Jamieson and Garnet Templin-Imel created information literacy modules in the ELI and ESL classes.

Akemi Matsumoto, Helen Taylor and Kim Pollock coordinated the workshop attended by 57 BCC employees on courageous conversations, entitled: "Beyond Diversity: a strategy for de-institutionalizing racism and improving student achievement."

The conversations have continued since April. Helen, Kim, Suzy Lepeintre and Sharon Felton conducted a 4-hour workshop for 20 faculty entitled Courageous Teaching: Best Practices in Pluralism. Attending faculty were so impressed that they are suggesting the theme for future Professional Development Day.

Phil Lucas and Donna Meek stimulated discussions and preparations for the first American Indian Film festival which opened with flute playing and storytelling in the library.

Tony Akhlaghi, Shahla Rowhani and the students in the Persian Club presented a merry and educational celebration of the Persian New Year called No Rooz.

Rossie Norris and Kim Pollock motivated the students, particularly those in the Black Student Union for two sessions of the Spoken Word.

TA Perry worked with Ron Taplin on a presentation about the History of Negro Leagues.

Kate Bradley sent out lists of new books, videocassettes, CDs and DVDs on cultural diversity, purchased with the State Library grant.

Special thanks and recognition to Myra Van Vactor, Sharon Kline and the library staff for getting the pivotal grant that funded many pluralism transformations in the college and to all of the LMC staff for the interest and team work that are very necessary in promoting a significant college initiative as cultural diversity at BCC.

I want to acknowledge the good work of the instructional diversity committee for implementing pluralism modules and to Kim Pollock who is launching BCC’s first Ethnic Studies Program.

Thanks to Leslie Lum for bringing us renowned Howard university law professor, frank Wu, who spoke about race relations, the myth of the model minority, and affirmative action.

Becky Turnbull and the Employee diversity committee brought us the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the Irish Gig and the Bite of BCC.

Members of the Social Science Division put up the pluralism display that is currently in the cafeteria. Thanks to these groups.

Thanks to leadership on diversity caucus and committees, including Lucy Macneil, Akemi Matsumoto, Myra van Vactor, Kim Pollock, Syumi Irae, Leslie Lum, Jack Surendranath, Alan Yabui, Becky Turnbull, and all of the committee members clubs, organizations and advisors for their work in diversity, too.

I want to acknowledge The First Nations Club’s and especially their symposium on the “Evolution of First Nations in the United States” under the advisorship of Diane Harrison;

The Muslim Club for their for a on “Islam in the Modern World” and Women in Islam, and their advisor, Faisal Jaswal;

Thanks to Ron Taplin, Rossi Norris, and Kim Pollack and the Black Student Union for ceremonies honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and successful, Spoken Word program; and

We also a large debt of gratitude to Nawang Dorjee, who has been am amazing first scholar-in-residence for BCC. He has touched the lives of students, faculty, staff and our larger community by his many, many speaking engagements. We are most grateful; Dorjee will forever be a part of our history and hearts at BCC!

And the year culminated in the signing of the Pluralism Compact, expressing our views as a group, which was videotaped for us by Darla Hughes and her crew.

I also wanted to give special thanks for Ruthann Kurose, who supported all of these events by being there and participating. Let us ask everyone who was involved in these diversity activities or others that I didn’t mention that supported diversiy this year please stand and be recognized!

All this activity has contributed significantly to the life of the college. Not only did we learn to understand and accept each other a little better, but we became stronger by recognizing our own diversity – as the whole is often stronger than the sum of its parts. This year was the first year in our recommitment to our value of pluralism. Through the commitment, dedication and strong beliefs of our colleague, we made remarkable progress –and under budget! What an impressive list of accomplishments.

The third achievement I want to celebrate today, in addition to our underlying spirit and our commitment to pluralism, is the quality of the educational – academic, curricular and co-curricular programs --that we fielded this year. While many programs have already been mentioned that provide testament to our commitment to quality, despite budget challenges, we provided a rich educational environment, and did so for a record number of students.

Of course, we provide great education day by day, class by class, event by event, with the most excellent faculty of any community college around. And the finest support staff, to keep the college running smoothly. All of this deserves special recognition. You made BCC the best again this year.

We also achieved something out of the ordinary this year, a higher level of activity, highlights of which have been captured by our television crew:

- [ video]

What a great review. I was especially pleased this year to see so many special programs, which enriched the fabric of the educational experience.

In addition to our work on pluralism, we had another excellent week of learning opportunities in support of Earth Week. In fact, our Earth celebration was the most ambitious and complete celebration in the region this year. Special thanks go to Rob Viens, and his colleagues and students for making this happen.

And of course, the Center for Liberal Arts had a lot to do with the flowering of academic activity on campus. In its first year, it truly has lived up to its charge to stimulate the intellectual life on campus, and reconfirm the importance of liberal arts to education today. In its inaugural year, the Center for Liberal Arts enjoyed the participation of 150 teaching faculty and reached over 3,500 students through classroom and co-curricular activities. It launched international scholar-in-residence program; spearheaded the BCC Reads initiative and created the adjudicated student scholarship awards for best application of knowledge from Longitude, the campus-wide study of a common text; and piloted the successful BCC Forum public lecture series. The Center also initiated the development of an honors program premised on interdisciplinary education and service learning; Special thanks go to Diane Douglas, executive director of the center, and to the Center’s board and to all the faculty and staff who took part in the Center’s activities.

In addition to these high-profile items, we were blessed with outstanding efforts across campus. I will mention a number of these for consideration today, but they are only representative of the literally hundreds of accomplishments this year:

In Instruction, we saw the completion of the General Education Competencies and incorporation into the College's degree programs by the General Education Task Force, thanks to the leadership of Art Goss and his committee; the development of the Advising Pilot by the Advising Task Force, and training of faculty across college for participating in new Advising program, with thanks to Laura Burns, this year’s chair and her committee;

The implementation of a common Wednesday afternoon meeting time to allow faculty to participate in college wide meetings and discussions, with thanks to the leadership of Lynne Sage.

Through the leadership of Helen Taylor and Suzy Lepeintre thirteen faculty participated in the BCC Teaching Institute in August and September, and have met quarterly since that time. Many faculty, administrators, and staff contributed to the success of the institution.

The Faculty Professional Development Committee organized two superior professional development days this year. Many report that these were the best yet. Special thanks also go to the professional development committee, with Andy Villines, Chair. The classified staff who also conducted very successful professional development days this year as well as implemented innovation grants for its members—several great ideas have emerged from these well-deserved awards.

An ad hoc group of faculty, administrators, and students put together several events to help students understand the context for and consequences of the War in Iraq, including informal conversations and two major panel presentations.

Seven senior faculty acted as mentors for new tenure track faculty this year. The program was very successful!

Would everyone who had a hand in these professional develop activities and programs, please stand and be recognized?

We also pursued many articulation agreements with four-year institutions: among these is an emerging special relationship with Eastern who may as early as next year have a presence at North Campus with a 2 + 2 relationships with eastern Washington University in Applied Technology with the Business Division and an Interdisciplinary Degree with our Social Science Division. More to come on this next fall!

In the Health Sciences Area, the Associate Degree Nursing received another 8-year approval from the Washington State Nursing Commission, and 8 years continuing accreditation from the National League for Nursing.

Radiation Therapy—also received approval for continued accreditation (for 8 years);

Diagnostic Ultrasound had a perfect score in their accreditation bid this year.

While not in Health Sciences, I also want to thank

Connie Wais and the faculty and staff in Interior Design for beginning the FIDER Accreditation process.

Joan Baker received two national awards in her field, Distinguished Educator for 2003 by the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography and the 2003 Sonographer Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Would the Health Sciences staff please stand to be recognized for these accomplishments!

The Business Division pulled off a hat trick, with 3 Margin of Excellence winners this year -- Rudy Helm, Bonnie Ellis, and Joyce Staples. They joined Cathy Lyle, and Kazumi Hada-Chan as this year’s five winners. Congratulations to the 2002-2003 MOE Winners—all five of them!

Back to the Business division -- Students in Delta Epsilon Chi had 32 competitors and 21 winners at state competition! Both our Web Site Team and E Commerce competitors were singled out for superior work.

The move to North Campus by the Networking Services and Computing Systems program has gone better than anticipated. Significant cost savings have been realized by our ability to share high-end equipment with the Continuing Education programs.

In Administrative Office Systems, the program under Suzanne Marks is being redeveloped as Business Technology Systems, tripling program offerings from 3 degrees and certificates to 9 degrees and certificates.

Also, the Division has developed a prototype course to link student teams with underserved businesses on the Eastside through the leadership of Leslie Lum. Student teams are currently working on a marketing plan and website for the Bellevue Entrepreneurial Center, a business plan and concept for the Russian American Network, and an Asian-language preschool for the Asian-Pacific Language Services.

This past year's video class, "Making Movies", was a rousing success, involving both students and faculty in the project "Rocket Man," the sixth episode of a really bad science fiction adventure serial from 1938. The Carlson Theater was almost full on the evening of February 29, 2003 for the premier. This was a true collaboration of instructors, administrators, and students and went well beyond one department, thanks to the leadership of Michael Korolenko for his leadership on this project.

Would the members of the business division and the Margin of excellence winner for this year stand to be recognized?

The Science Division scored big time when their Mathletes secured 1st place in the state and in the Northwest region and 7th place nationally in this year's AMATYC Student Math League Competition. Thanks to Jennifer Laveglia for her organization and reporting of this fine event!

The Arts and Humanities Division successfully absorbed and assimilated new programs, including ELI and Developmental Education; the Division grew by almost 100 full and part-time employees.

The divisions also implemented its course materials website, on which almost 50 faculty members have posted information for their classes, saving significant printing costs. Thanks to Jan Valentine for this winning idea and to the staff in A & H for making it so!

The BCC Jazz Band and BCC vocal jazz group Celebration traveled extensively (including band trip to China) and won numerous awards at competitions and festival. Tom Almli has been a great addition to BCC’s winning music legacy.

We give very special recognition to Hal Sherman, Jerrie Kennedy, Jim Bergstrom (and Don Hines) Not A & H ) on their retirements.

Let’s recognizes Arts and Humanities!

Special recognition goes to Continuing Education who through hard work and creativity managed to stabilize following the downturn in the economy, which was a BIG deal! They have done a yeoman’s job of assimilating and responding to the changing demography, and even grown! They also have anew dean, Bruce Riveland, currently a rain-maker for Green River Community College, who has brought in a million dollars of new money annually while at GRCC. Any wonder his president was lamenting his loss to me.

We successfully applied for and received grants for health care training in pharmacy technician, lab assistant, nursing assisting, breast ultrasound, and expansion of the radiologic technology program and they launched new programs in science writing and the publishing institute. Art-Zones program created an e-Books curriculum and produced 17 new eBook titles through a Microsoft grant. The “bronze pour” team has been actively involved with a number of community projects including City of Bellevue biennial sculpture show, City of Kirkland Summerfest, and Redmond library mural for their new building.

And the Business and Professional Training Institute served 4,300 employees of 135 outside organizations.

In Worker Retraining we served 643 students this year – this number has doubled in the past two years. WorkFirst ESL began a service learning component to increase student’s English skills and strengthen work experience. Students cumulatively recorded over 250 community service hours during winter quarter

The Career & Women’s Centers sponsored and Internship Expo, Money-Wise Women forum, and a Job Expo with 1700 total participants. More than 2,500 employers sought services from the career center, and over 130 internships were offered. They also conducted sessions at a career fair for at-risk youth at Costco, and collaborated with Multi-cultural services to offer five mentor positions for women and students of color.

Would workforce development and continuing education, please stand and be recognized?

On the administrative side, we celebrated another year of huge accomplishments, but reeled from the announcement that we are losing our esteemed and accomplished colleague, Barbara Martin. The budget office implemented the “By Request System,” with which budget status reports are sent via email rather than on paper (even though it is causing some paper withdrawal symptoms). They successfully but sadly implemented the first budget reduction that BCC has seen in almost twenty years, and worked hard to help us deal with the second.

Finance implemented an automated purchasing system; it is currently being piloted in several departments.

Another plus this year was an all time high in retention of our custodial staff, which has resulted in cleaner buildings and hallways.

In the Bookstore we installed a new inventory and point of sale system and achieved a stunning $5 million in gross sales for the 1st time.

Campus Operations and Capital Projects completed the B Building Renovation for Student Services; got the A Building renovation well under way, remodeled the student union building, put up a cement fence on Kelsey road, negotiated the sale of a couple of homes in Sunset Ridge; finished some roof repairs, and did major planning, permit and resource procurement for the parking structure, planned revisions to the entry way, developed a pro forma for a batting cage project and hired an architect and began planning for the new science building and lab expansion programs. Many thanks to all of you, including the Business Division and Student Programs who have been temporarily relocated – and those departments who have been impacted by the roofing and other building projects for their patience.

And thanks to all of you in administrative services for a great year!

Human Resources put much guidance and effort into our pluralism initiatives, which we’ve already discussed. They also worked on an Employee Staging Area (part of I-BCC employee change project) and developed the Separated Employee Database (we’ll be able to search for former employees by social security number of name). Thanks to HR!

Information Resources had a busy year—they launched the MyBCC portal and the Degree Audit (Oscar); completed the Windows 2000 upgrade; and steered the comprehensive and huge new IT Security requirements and Audit into its final phase, kept labs current and up-to-date and graciously attended to our IT needs across campus. Please stand to be recognized.

Institutional Advancement conducted its most successful Annual Luncheon, exceeding goal by 28% and securing over $100,000 for scholarships and program enhancements. They also completed a successful employee annual fund, exceeding goal by 30%. Thank you to all of you who contributed.

Institutional advancement also raised about $5.5 million in new grants supporting a wide range of programs, and increased news coverage of events on campus. Not coincidentally, this office welcomed a new vice president – with a strong fundraising history, Ms. Gaynor Hills. Please stand and receive out thanks.

tudent Services was actively involved in strategic planning under the apt direction of Tom Pritchard, Harlan Lee, and Tika Esler. Thanks to all of them for their leadership in this important work.

Student services has many accomplishments this year including improved registration payments when our on-line credit card payments increased from just over 2,000 last year to over 16,000 this academic year. 67% on-line registration this year. About 85% paperless. With the leadership of the iBCC team and Chequita as the project manager, OSCAR was implemented Fall Quarter. Already, the it shows over 1000 user log ins with nearly 900 being students.

Multi-Cultural Services piloted the Jump Start program in the Fall with 42 students, adding another 10 each for Winter and Spring. The retention rate for these students exceeds 80%, which is a remarkable increase from that of other students not participating in the program.

TRIO is also making a large impact on the success of nearly 200 students each quarter. This federally-funded program is designed to assist low-income and first-generation college students as well as students with physical or learning disabilities. The have provided instruction in basic study skills, tutoring, advising on academic and career choices, financial and personal counseling, and specialized assistance for students with disabilities.

Let’s recognize the fine staff in student services for these and the everyday accomplishments of providing student services across the board for our 22,000 students quarterly.

Special thanks go to Barbara Martin and the Strategic Planning Steering Committee for guiding us through a comprehensive strategic planning project. The first draft is in its final stages. Special thanks too to Ron Leatherbarrow, your Accreditation Liaison Officer, and to the real power behind the throne, Jerrie Kennedy, Lynne Sage, and Valerie Hodge. We also thanks all of the various committees and their chairs who have officially begun the college’s work in the accreditation self-study project. Would the Strategic Planning Committee and accreditation leaders, chairs and committees, please stand and be recognized.

Whew, that’s a lot of work.

And, as a side note, while this work went on, we used 16.3 million sheets of paper in our copiers and printers. WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR PAPERLESS SOCIETY?

And as a group – a very hungry group – we consumed 31,200 bags of chips; 37,440 doughnuts; 44,960 cookies.

We saw our second baseball player go pro--Evan Meek, who pitched for Bellevue Community College this season, signed a pro contract with the Minnesota Twins and received a $180,000 signing bonus. Wow, good work, Mark Yoshino, and to all of the coaches and athletes who have made this one of BCC’s best years in variety sports.

This has been a year of admirable achievement, in the face of some very challenging obstacles.

I applaud your efforts every day to make this the best community college we can be.

[pause]

As we savor these accomplishments, we also look forward and see a number of good things headed our way:

Parking garage under construction,

finishing the Remodeling of A building and starting on D,

changing our entrance to the college,

starting the planning for the New Science & Technology building (still on track), and more,

but the future won’t be easy.

We face: more budget reductions, tuition increases for students, challenges to enrollment levels (and our open-door policy), the effects of university enrollment limitations.

The next biennium budget is imminent. The legislature is probably voting on it right now. We know tuition increases for resident students will be 7 percent and that non-residents and there will be no base FTE growth—even in light of huge enrollment pressure. We are prepared a plan to reduce about $1.670 million from this year’s base. This will certainly reduce our flexibility next year to take on things that currently have no budget. I sincerely hope you will understand this and that it doesn’t dampen our spirit and resiliency.

As we take on another challenging year next year, let’s keep in mind the supreme importance of what we do.

We’ve never been more important to the region and to the lives of the students we teach. What we do is crucial work. Listen to these statements we’ve collected from some of our students, on the importance of education.

[video]

Yes, ours is important work. We’re a path to a better life for all our students. Let’s keep this in mind to keep our focus on what’s important as we work through another budget challenge. As Kingman Brewster once said, “There is no greater challenge than to have someone relying upon you; no greater satisfaction than to vindicate his expectation.”

We can enjoy that satisfaction next year, and we can be confident in the future, because of the strengths we celebrate today: Our spirit, our excellence, our commitment to diversity.

I now want to provide special recognitions to members of the BCC family. All of us joined the social science division in mourning the loss of Elaynne Rousso, esteemed colleague and friend. She approached us honestly and passionately about teaching. We have missed her.

I also want to honor the leadership of our employee associations. Marcia-Wilson-Howard, Jim Ellinger

We were very blessed this year in our inaugural Scholar in residence program. We have considered Dorjee to be family with us this year. We found him to be a man of integrity and reflection. We respected him for his insight, his care and compassion, his giving nature, his spirituality, his balance between fun and work. You were our trail-blazer. I am glad you came to our college in this land of the free and the brave!

Now to the President’s Awards—This year is a little lean, because resources are scarce, but there are still people who deserve our recognition for a job well-done.

Arts and Humanities—assimilating so much growth, stepping out in web design, for contributing to the Center for Liberal Arts, for BCC Reads, for so much leadership with pluralism and other college events. Would Tom Nielsen please come forward to accept this for the division.

Resiliency of spirit award goes to Continuing ed and to Paula Boyum. Would Paula please come forward to accept this award for the program.

Diversity caucus—what stunning leadership.

Let’s thanks all of these people for their hard work and dedication.

This last recognition is a sad moment for us here because this is the last year-end presentation where we’ll have Barbara Martin with us. And since this is the last time so many of us will be together, I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Barbara for her contributions to BCC.

In the six years that Barbara has been at BCC she has made an indelible and positive mark on BCC in so many ways.

She has changed the physical face and footprint of the college by creating and managing projects which have ranged from the construction of new buildings to the remodeling of several more buildings, repainting the college and refurbishing the landscaping.

When Barbara first came to campus we had a total of 338,199 sq. ft. of space. Barbara has increased it by 53% adding an additional 180,554 sq. ft.

Listen to this list of projects: L Building, Student Union Remodel, R Building, Q Building (or ELFCC), B Building remodel, A Building Remodel, D Building Remodel Design, K Building, Fitness Center/Team Rooms, W Building Remodel, Printing Services Remodel.

Barbara has been VERY successful in implementing capital projects for the College We have either accomplished or have in the works over $100,000,000 in projects since Barbara arrived on campus.

She has also had a hand in these projects: Parking Garage, 2 coffee shops (student union and R building), Team cleaning/cleaning standards, Smoking shelters (Implemented No Smoking policy with zero homicides!),

Pedestrian walkway from the circle to the N building, purchased one of the neighboring homes and are in negotiation on 5 additional homes at this time.

Emergency Preparedness Plan, ADA Parking compliance, Emergency generators, Roof Upgrade (buildings A, D, G, L, E),

Upgrade to energy management system, Upgrade to electric meter system, Asbestos abatement

Relationship with City of Bellevue greatly improved, Relationship with Sunset Ranch neighbors greatly improved,

Streamlined the budget process, Linked budget and planning, Strategic Planning, Workflow Process Improvements, Ten-Year Facilities Master Plan, Promoted/supported the use or technology to increase efficiency in Administrative Services, bookstore point of sale system, purchasing system, work order system.

She was the woman behind the hand with the paint brush and moved us to a new aesthetic at our college with grand success.

She also has taken us into the future with i-BCC and the virtual bookstore, and forged a very productive partnership with Costco Corporation

She has developed college-wide processes that encouraged and valued the feedback of the college community, such as the Planning Committee, the budget process, and now the Strategic Planning Steering Committee.

She has been the best kind of leader to her staff, providing encouragement, where needed, while stepping aside to let them spread their wings. She has been my trusted advisor.

Well, Barbara has determined that now is time to venture back onto the path and to find a new opportunity that will stretch and develop her, even more. Although we admire her for her courage to create new possibilities, we are sad to see her go.

I would like to call up Barbara Martin.

Thank you, Barbara. You’ll always be in our hearts.

This presentation has been the combined work of a village. I want to thank all of those people who helped put on today’s presentation.

Please join us now in the lobby for refreshments, and wish Barbara and Dorjee well personally and to bid farewell too to Jerrie, Jim, Don and Hal and the several other BCC employees who have retired earlier year, Joan Ubezzi, Jean McMurtrey.

Thank you for being here today, and for all of your efforts this year.

Have a Great summer!