The final luncheon meeting for 2009 was held at the Channel Inn on November 20. President Bill Brown presided for a record crowd of 130 members and guests, the largest in recent history. It is the 8th meeting of AOI's 144th year.
The drafted minutes of the October meeting were published in the newsletter. As there were no further additions or corrections, a motion was offered to dispense with the reading of the minutes and to accept them as published in the newsletter. The motion was seconded and approved.
Phyllis Dunan, chairing the Nominating Committee, was called upon to conduct the election for our officials for 2010. The Nominating Committee was composed of Barbara Drechsler and Dorothea Zeis in addition to Phyllis. The committee recommended the following nominees:
President William Brown
Vice-President John Gill, Sr.
Secretary Seymour Selig
Treasurer Hulit Taylor
Historian Nelson Rimensnyder
Directors Jan Evans, Sherwood Smith, Leslie B. White (Carl Cole, James Gaffney, John Richardson, do not stand for election this year and will continue to serve as directors)
There were no nominations from the floor. A motion to close nominations was approved. Since there were no further nominees it was moved to approve the candidates by acclamation and affirmed enthusiastically. Well done, Phyllis, Dot and Barbara!
President Brown reported that there were nine new applicants for membership since the last meeting. They are Mary Brown (guest last meeting of Steve Timlin), Diane Eaves and her mother Eleanor Eaves, Ginny Daly (sister of our late director John J. Daly), Gretchen Margaret Gunning of Atlanta, John Kilcoyne (recommended by Emily Donahue), Anne Renshaw (nominated by Al Wheeler), David MacDonald (husband of Sally MacDonald), Bill Steffeck (Guest of Murray Howder). The motion to accept the applicants into membership was readily approved.
Treasurer Hulit Taylor presented a brief report. Our membership total has now reached 342, the highest in recent memory. Our expenses since last meeting included a donation to the Heurich Museum Foundation ($500). Our investments this year have earned approximately $5K in dividends and interest. Hulit has analyzed our cost and income data and the Board concludes that it will not be necessary to raise dues in the coming year.
Bill introduced first timers, returnees, and guests.
Bill then presented today's speaker, Bob Levey, to the cheers of our audience, whose record size was, at least in part, due to Bob's popularity. Bill mentioned Levey's 36 years with the Washington Post, of which 22 years were spent writing "Bob Levey's Washington." Bill noted that Bob was vital to establishing Children's Hospital National Medical Center, and also the Send a Kid to Camp program, and that during that time he was vital to the raising of more than 17 million dollars for these projects. Now retired from writing his daily columns, he is devoted to other good works and is Senior Vice-President for Development at the Washington Hospital Foundation and is Special Assistant to the Executive Director of United Way for the National Capital Area. Bill mentioned that Bob will present an update on Bob Levey's Washington, and how he got there.
Bob did just that, with a delightful and fascinating presentation that told us about the newspaper business and the characters that inhabited it for the past fifty years or so. Not only is he a superb narrator and writer but his talents as a standup comedian were apparent, and even his skill with doing voices at the microphone is amazing. Our audience was alternately chuckling, laughing, gasping with surprise and wonder.
Bob related how when he was a very young reporter in Albuquerque NM a personal interest in visiting Washington drew him to visit DC, and since he had to pay for an airplane ticket across the country he requested a job interview with the Washington Post. This was granted and he became the first interview of the newly appointed managing editor Ben Bradley. He got both the job and the special interest (who became AOI member Jane Freundel Levey, a native Washingtonian and historian).
He told of adventures when there were 3 important daily newspapers in town and the competition between their reporters. He told of the words for the problems that were with us in the fifties and sixties that are the same identical words that we use today.
A lively Q&A period flew by quickly. The session was uniquely informative and educational. It was a true tour de force that will not be forgotten.
Respectfully submitted.
Seymour Selig
Secretary