I am the president, (2005-2006), of the Ithaca, NY, Rotary Club where PDG Dave Flinn hangs his hat. This has been a whirlwind year and it seems hard to believe it will soon be done. I have often been amazed at the information Dave would provide to assist me and/or the club - it seemed an insider's view at least - now I think I know from where some of it came :-)

In my other life, I am the fire chief here in Ithaca, NY. Among other things, we provide protection to Cornell University, which offers me the opportunity to exercise many aspects of my profession. I have been in the fire business for nearly 35 years, and like Rotary, it too is a 24/7/365 pursuit. Upon taking office last July I warned the club there may be times when I leave abruptly from a meeting, but to date I have not had to do so.

I have been involved in Rotary since 1982, when I first joined in Cortland, NY. The Ithaca club is a great organization, with a wonderful membership. Like many organizations, we have our challenges, but we have our success stories as well.

On the technology side and in brief, we run Windows, Unix (soon to be Linux), and Macintosh computers, servers, and systems at work. My primary computer is a Mac PowerBook G4 (did I hear a gasp out there?), which goes almost everywhere I do.