Late Night Musings
by Todd Reemtsma, NBS Section Chairperson test
Looking back at the past and ahead to the future
As much as I like winter, the schizophrenic weather we are experiencing this year is starting to get to me. With spring just around 
the corner, I am doing my best to practice a little patience and enjoy the winter that remains. The previous comment is what I wrote for the newsletter last March. This year I almost find myself longing for the schizophrenia of last year in exchange for the polar vortex of this year. Hopefully many of us will find some warmer weather and southern hospitality in Texas.
This month join other members of the Northern Boundary Section in Fort Worth, Texas for the 54th edition of the USITT Annual Conference March 26th – 29th, 2014. If you are attending the conference, please plan on attending the Northern Boundary Section meeting on Thursday, March 27th, 2014 from 8:00AM – 9:15AM in Room 5 of the Fort Worth Ballroom at the Omni Hotel. At the meeting we will recognize our 2013-14 scholarship winners, do our best to determine the host of our 2014 Fall Conference, and cover a few other topics and housekeeping items. If you have agenda items that you would like to see covered, please drop me or one of the NBS officers a line prior to that date.
For those of you that will be attending the 54th Annual USITT Conference in Fort Worth, Texas will this be your first time attending the USITT Conference? Perhaps it’s your second or third time attending? Anyone attending for their tenth time, twentieth, thirtieth or more? For those of you that have been attending for many years, can you remember the first times you attended and what advice would you have for those attending for their first time? For those of you that will be attending for your first, second, or third time, how many more times do you think you might attend in your lifetime? What path will your career take you and how might your involvement in the annual conference grow – participant, presenter, organizer? As I was looking for ideas of what to write about for this issue of the newsletter, I thought I would look at our website for some ideas. And indeed that is what I found. I’m not sure that I had ever really taken the time to look at the Northern Boundary Section History (http://www.northernboundary.usitt.org/History.html) and to take a look at all the people that helped shape and make ours one of the more solid sections in the country. And as you take a look at the majority of the people listed, you will see that they contributed more than just a year or two to the section and many of them are still involved and/or supporting our activities. For students and others just getting involved with USITT, all those years of involvement must seem overwhelming. I remember that it certainly seemed that way to me as a student several decades ago, but today I see several former classmates as presenters and organizers of the event. Certainly there are many years of USITT Annual Conferences ahead and so many possibilities and it may be hard to think of how many you will attend, who you will meet, the presenters that will inspire you, the sessions you will lead, and people you might inspire, but one step at a time. Enjoy this year’s conference.
If it’s not fun, why do it? - Ben & Jerry (of ice cream fame)
-Todd