The Alumni Association was pleased to partner with the Office of Development and welcome more than 250 parents and family members of UGA students to campus October 16 and 17 for the annual Fall Parents and Families Weekend.  We kicked things off last Friday afternoon with informative and entertaining sessions about what’s going on in some of the classrooms at UGA.  Parents were able to participate in optional lectures at the Miller Learning Center including an in-depth session about the CIA and the War on Terrorism delivered by renowned political science professor Loch Johnson.  We offered tours of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, the Lamar Dodd School of Art, the College of Public Health, and the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center.  The weekend was capped with a tailgate lunch as we watched the Bulldogs beat Vanderbilt on several big screens in the Tate Center’s new Grand Hall.  Click here for more information about our UGA Parents and Families program.

We are so pleased to partner with the College of Family and Consumer Sciences for a lunch visit today from Anne Byrn ‘78, also known as the Cake Mix Doctor.  She has penned many can’t-go-wrong cake recipe books and she’ll share some secrets today at a Women of UGA lunch in Atlanta.  Click here for more information and I look forward to seeing you there.

Former UGA basketball standout Mark Slonaker ‘80 will be a new voice this year on Bulldog radio broadcasts.  He joins play-by-play announcer Scott Howard ‘84 as they call the exciting action of Bulldog basketball.  Mark was a hoops star at UGA in the late 1970s and was later an assistant coach here and head coach at Mercer.  He now works at UGA as a regional director of development.  I know Mark will do a super job in the broadcast booth!

The brief gubernatorial career of M. E. Thompson ‘35 will be celebrated in an exhibit by UGA’s Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.  A reception in the library’s gallery on Nov. 2 from 3-5 p.m. kicks off the exhibit.  The display will consist of a collection of Gov. Thompson’s speeches, photographs, campaign memorabilia and audiovisual material, highlighting his political career from state school superintendent to lieutenant governor to the infamous “three governors controversy” in the late 1940s.

The Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition, held last week in Moultrie, was a big success although attendance figures were down slightly from last year.  During the three-day annual event more than 82,000 ag enthusiasts surveyed the latest farm equipment and technology from nearly 1,200 exhibitors from all across the U.S.  Executive Director is UGA grad Chip Blalock ‘87 who says he’ll begin working on the 2010 Expo in a couple of months.  Congratulations, Chip on a great event.

Art School graduate student Taylor Robenalt will display her work at the Bridge Gallery at the Lamar Dodd School of Art from Nov. 2 to Nov. 12.  There will be an opening reception Monday, Nov. 2 from 7-9 p.m. for Taylor’s Perception of the Deer Spirit.

The Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art have issued an open invitation to attend the 26th annual Alfred Heber Holbrook Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 4.  Francis M. Naumann will deliver his speech, ”Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons: An Exercise in Circular Reasoning,” at 6:30 p.m. at the UGA Chapel on North Campus.  Also, Staff Infection, an exhibition consisting of work produced entirely by the staff of the Georgia Museum of Art, will be on display through Nov. 20 in the lobby of the Visual Arts building on Jackson Street.

If you’re a current UGA student or Bulldog alum and are thinking about graduate school, don’t miss Grad School Fair 09 coming up next Tuesday, October 27 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the Tate Center’s Grand Hall.  More than 100 graduate and professional schools have signed up to promote their expertise.  For a list of participating schools, click here and for more information about Grad School Fair 09, click here.   We are proud to co-sponsor the event with the UGA Career Center.

I am happy to report that UGA’s world-renowned journal, The Georgia Review, earned six gold honors at the 2009 GAMMA Awards earlier this year.  GR is a journal of arts and letters that’s been published quarterly by UGA since 1947.  Congratulations to editor Stephen Corey and managing editor Mindy Wilson.  Click here for more information about The Georgia Review.

In 2007, the Alumni Association launched a program to recognize our alums who are contributing to our state’s future through their careers in K-12 education.  Through our Educator Appreciation series we have visited more than 60 schools and met about 1,500 UGA-educated teachers.  Just recently we visited three Athens area schools and met nearly 100 UGA-educated teachers.  I’ve included pictures from these recent visits to Apalachee High School in Barrow County and Athens elementary schools J. J. Harris and Timothy Road.  If you’d like more information about our Educator Appreciation program, please contact our Associate Executive Director for Communications Bob Taylor at btaylor@uga.edu for all the details.  The UGA Alumni Association is proud to salute the College of Education and the great job it does getting students ready for the classroom.

We have two exciting Women of UGA events coming up this week.  On Thursday I am pleased to be the guest speaker at a Women of UGA Lunch Group (Dutch treat) in Athens at the Foundry Park Inn & Spa’s Hoyt House Restaurant.  Click here for more information and to register.

On Friday we’re happy to host a Women of UGA Fall Breakfast at One Live Oak on Lenox Road.  Allison O’Kelly ‘94, founder of Mom Corps, will be our guest speaker.  We so appreciate Cadillac sponsoring the event and Noon Midtown providing breakfast.  Click here for details and registration.  We hope to see you at one or both of these events.