Recently, PCACAC received the following letter from a long-time member, leader and past president, Bert Hudnall. In his letter, Bert makes a call to action for PCACAC to remain committed to our past while forging the way into the future. As a membership organization, we listen and respond to our members. I wanted to let you know there are several initiatives that the President’s Council is exploring to meet this call to action:

• You may have noticed our new page, “PCACAC in the News" - often highlighted in the Anchor Splash newsletter. The intent is to engage our members and prospective members by creating a place to share professional or personal moments and accolades.
• PCACAC leadership is also looking at updating our Strategic Plan and will be sharing more about it in the near future. The new plan includes four primary Anchors; one of which is Legacy and focuses on maintaining our connection to our past while developing our future. One of the initiatives we are pursuing that relates to this is developing an ad hoc PCACAC Historian position - watch for more about this soon.

Our thanks to Bert for his call to action and acknowledgment that PCACAC is here to support its members.

Jake Talmage
PCACAC President

A past president's call to action...

"To My PCACAC Compatriots,

This letter comes to you with the rueful admission that I do not know the vast majority of its recipients and, conversely, the realization that you do not know me.  That’s a jolt of some significance for one who can hearken back to days when PCACAC was virtually at the core of his professional  life and, in fact, represented the basis for valued friendships that spanned several decades.  When I first became a member of PCACAC in 1970, it was five years old.  Playing a small role in the fiftieth anniversary event at The Homestead three years ago was more meaningful than I am able to express adequately.  Simply to underscore that I was invested in our association over the years, I was President and an Apperson Award recipient….great honors, to be sure, because they represented peer “approval,” but it was those peers themselves that provided the greatest and most sustained pleasure in being a member of PCACAC.

When I attended my fiftieth reunion at Washington and Lee a few years back (and now your basic arithmetic verifies that my “salad days” were ages ago!), the University’s President made this comment when addressing our class: “If you want things to stay the same, there must be changes.”  A quizzical comment, to be sure, but one that made great sense on reflection.  If the curriculum and facilities and teaching strategies and societal norms were the same today as when we were students, W&L would not have the same cache as we perceived it to have 50 years ago.  However, because there have been changes, the core benefits of the W&L experience have been perpetuated: a superb education that prepares today’s students for today’s world; a desire  for lifelong learning; and, not insignificantly, a deep respect for an Honor System that was and is fundamental to the University’s mission.

And now to the point of writing to you:  I believe the same premise about change can be applied to PCACAC.  Very clearly, admissions practices have seen huge changes over the years, rapid changes.  Staying on top of those changes can be challenging and is clearly an obligation for all of us/you.  However, as the years pass quickly, I feel it is imperative that the essence of PCACAC  should not be lost in the face of “busy-ness” and rapid growth, and very especially I am talking about a respect for those whose contributions to our association made it what it is today. 

To give some specificity to the timing of this letter, I recently received just a casual catch-up note from Betty Blackburn, widow of Jack Blackburn in whose name there is a coveted award given annually.  With no rancor or judgment , Betty commented that she had heard nothing from PCACAC this year.  In years past, she has been invited to attend the meeting when the Blackburn Award was presented, and at the very least she has been notified of the name of the recipient.  I heard this with real regret as a signal that perhaps some of the essence of PCACAC is slipping away.  I would urge the current leadership to apprise newcomers of the history and earlier members like Jack Blackburn who were instrumental in bringing us to this point.

To end on a light note, we oldsters all love the story Audrey Hill tells on herself when, as a new member, she was seated at the awards dinner next to a gentleman to whom she turned and asked, “Who is this Apperson fellow and how long has he been dead?” to which he replied, “I’m not dead.”

Bert Hudnall
Charleston, SC
[email protected]"