2 THE RAPS SHEET MAY 2022 CO-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Making much progress amidst a pandemic RAPS HAS MADE some amazing progress over the past couple of years, especially considering that many of our board and general meetings have been on Zoom. n Our few in-person meetings were well attended and highly rated: Our tour of the Schnitzer Museum of Art in September; PSU’s Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in October; a meeting with Ame Lambert, vice president for global diversity and equity in November; the Holiday Gathering in December; and the everpopular Opera presentation in March. Zoom meetings were also popular, with Grant Farr talking about Afghanistan in January and Scott Burns talking about wine and terroir in February. n Thanks to our generous members and an anonymous donor, we increased the RAPS Robert Vogelsang Scholarship fund to almost $90,000 and agreed to establish a $50,000 quasi endowment in the PSU Foundation and increase the annual scholarship award to $9,000. n Our special interest groups are alive and well and meeting via Zoom or in person. This is a great way for our membership to stay engaged. n We are coming closer to getting our website revamped to meet new University standards with the help of Steve Brennan, Larry Sawyer, and others. Stay tuned for this exciting and long-awaited development that became a challenge we did not anticipate. n We recruited new board members and look forward to welcoming them to the leadership team. This is my last column as co-president, and I want to thank Steve Brennan and Bruce Stern for partnering with me over the past two years. They’ve both made the job fun and rewarding, and I’ve enjoyed working with the board members, many of whom I’ve known for years. But that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Renewing relationships and finding new friends in RAPS. —Pat Squire THIS ISSUE OF The RAPS Sheet is the last you’ll see in your email in-box until about August 1. Your fearless editor will attend to other duties—building bookshelves, tending to the yard, and pulling out that depressing biography that I just couldn’t continue reading during the dark days of winter. I do have a favor to ask of you. If, during the warm days of summer, any ideas germinate among you for improving The RAPS Sheet, I’d certainly like to hear them. Please send them to me at vikingdoug@comcast.net. Here are a couple of ideas to get things going: A SEMI-REGULAR TRAVEL COLUMN. With the pandemic waning (well, maybe), some among us might be considering, however cautiously, the possibility of traveling again. If you’re among those who will soon venture beyond the gentle confines of your neighborhood to distant cities or even foreign lands, write a brief description of your adventure—say, 500 words, more or less—and send it, and a snapshot or two (see photo at right for an example of what not to do), to me at the email address I mentioned a sentence or two back. Curious minds would like to get an inside look at the world of travel from a friend like you. Plus, you’ll see your byline in The RAPS Sheet. Exciting! CONTRIBUTIONS TO PAST TENSE. Every so often, a Past Tense column appears in The RAPS Sheet. It’s usually about a personality or an event from Portland State’s past, or even how a program got its start or the day PSU hosted a distinguished visitor. Do you have a PSU story to share? And please don’t think, “Ah, nobody cares about my story.” I assure you a lot of people care about your story. As to length, short enough to be interesting, long enough to cover the subject. And a photo or two would be nice, although not a requirement. Have a wonderful summer! —Doug Swanson ‘The RAPS Sheet’ bids so long, farewell, adieu for the summer A really dull photo of Abbey Road in London. Are you capable of much better photography during your travels? Of course!
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