Chip Timmons - As I write this entry from the Kansas City International terminal, I’m gazing across the tarmac to watch a farmer drive roughly 50 head of cattle across a pasture. Not a familiar sight for someone from Crawfordsville, but such is life on the road with Colleges That Change Lives (or CTCL in Admissions parlance)…a little bit of the old mixed with a bit of the new.

Each year, Wabash participates in two college fair tours with CTCL. The first tour swept across the southern part of the country in late August with stops in Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Raleigh, Memphis, St. Louis and Tulsa. I’m on the tail-end of the Midwest tour which has visited Minneapolis, Chicago (2 fairs), Indianapolis, and Kansas City and has two more stops scheduled for Denver and Phoenix.

For most of the schools on this tour, we’re spending time in our bread and butter markets (see Indianapolis), but also introducing our institutions to prospective students in unfamiliar recruiting territories (see Kansas City). One of my favorite parts of this trip is making new connections for Wabash or re-kindling some old ones. For example, a mother of a high school junior stopped by the table to extend a greeting to me and asked to pass along a message, “Tell Bill Placher that Chris from Kansas City says hello”.

We also use the fairs as a way to connect with our alumni volunteers in these markets. I spent yesterday afternoon catching up with my pledge brother Greg Manning ’96 who is the pastor at Grace Avenue Lutheran Church in Kansas City then had dinner with Will Certain ’07 who just started at a seminary in Kansas City. Tonight, I’m meeting John Panozzo ’89 and a prospective student for dinner prior to the fair. We’re dining at Mici which is co-owned by Adam Vela ’95.

On Thursday, I’m off to Phoenix where the forecast calls for daytime highs over 100 and leaves me wondering, is it possible to be comfortable in a suit in that heat? I’ll find out soon enough. Paul Robinson ’67 will assist me at Thursday’s fair with the goal of getting ready for a fair later this fall in Scottsdale that Paul will cover for Wabash.

We’ll “the roundup” for United flight 503 to Denver has started, so I get ready to hit the road again.


P.S. Speaking of familiar sights...after landing in Denver, I bummed a ride from a colleague from Birmingham Southern College.  While waiting in the rental car company's lobby, I heard a familiar voice.  I turned to see our own Steve Charles, editor of Wabash Magazine, picking up a car.  What are the odds?