Given Dr. Marshall's retirement and her unique relationship to IMSA and its alumni, some Cabinet members have suggested that she should be given a special honor beyond simply making her an honorary member of the alumni association. What do you think?

I know I mentioned the stepping stone idea at the meeting, but I still like it. Especially given the symbolism of the steps in IMSA's logo. I know it could be taken the wrong way, but it all has to do with how we characterize it. I'm not sure if we should give her a stone for every alumni, though, because while we represent all of them I'm not sure that all of them necessarily want to be represented in this gift. Not to mention the question of how many stones would we give her...if we only include those who graduated, we omit a member of our own cabinet. But I'm not sure if an actual count of how many alumni (as in those who attended IMSA for at least one semester) exists.

Other symbols that come to mind are something like a guidepost or a roadmap or path guide-- something that demonstrates that IMSA helped to put many of us on the path in life that we are on today.

I liked Scott's suggestion of "Founder" status. Given Jim Browne's writings on the actual founding of the IAA, I'm not sure we should use that exact term. See http://www.jbrowne.com/pers/iaa/ for reference or ask me for PDFs of the site.

So are we wanting to give her a special title? Or a physical gift? Or both?

I also like the 3,363 + x representing the total IAA membership. I expect Dr. Maclaren would be happy to co-conspire with us to solve for x. We should really determine this number in any case!

While I agree that the steps theme is a good one; igniting minds is the phrase that Stephanie really got passionate about during the planning sessions. Is there something symbolic of the mind that we could give her 3,500 of? Maybe a zen rock garden?

--Paul

Igniting minds? That sounds like fire to me, not a zen rock garden. What about matches?

ande