Thursday, April 29th, the Dartmouth Club of the Piedmont joined clubs round the girdled earth in hosting an event for Dartmouth Global Networking Night (DGN2), welcoming 18 alums from around the Triangle, as well as Greensboro and Winston-Salem. The event, taking place at Durham’s Saladelia Cafe, was co-hosted by the Piedmont’s Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN) and featured two alums, Rex Morey ‘99 (former Associate Director of Alumni Relations) and Nathan Gilliat ”87. Rex and Nathan shared general networking and social media networking strategies, respectively. The talks were followed by a lightning quick round of speed networking, allowing participants to practice new networking skills and get to know one another.

During Earth Week 2010, the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network- – NC and Dartmouth Club of the Piedmont sponsored an evening at the American Tobacco campus in Durham, NC. John Replogle ‘88, CEO of Burt’s Bees and newly elected Trustee of Dartmouth College, hosted 25 alumni at the headquarters of Burt’s Bees. He led a tour of one of the leading personal care companies in the world, its headquarters housed in a restored tobacco warehouse and designed to be energy efficient. Replogle gave an in-depth and inspiring discussion about the company’s commitment to zero waste, environmental stewardship, and the broader community, from building playgrounds to executing its business model of social responsibility. After the discussion, alumni retired to Tyler’s Taproom for some food and open networking.

The Dartmouth Club of the Piedmont held the 2010 annual dinner on Saturday, March 20 on the campus of Elon University. The Isabella Cannon Room in the Center for the Arts was at near capacity as a crowd of almost 40 alums and guests turned out to hear remarks from John Replogle ‘88, current CEO of Burt’s Bees and candidate for Trustee of the College. John shared anecdotes from a fascinating and varied career and outlined the recent fiscal challenges, and possible solutions, facing Dartmouth at the moment.

A cocktail reception kicked off the evening at 6pm, followed by an elegant buffet of veggie and non-veggie entrees, and a wonderful bread pudding for dessert. Special thanks to Tom Tiemann ‘70 for making the arrangements

Many new faces, of all ages, were seen and helped make it quite a night for recconecting with each other and with the College on the hill.

For countless centuries, Holidays generated considerable mirth, both genuine and false. Many of us have dutifully stretched smiles across our faces to meet Holiday expectations and demands.

On the other hand, over the last five years at our Dartmouth Holiday Dinners in the Triad, the warmth and cheer generated by our Big Green family and friends resulted in enormous, spontaneous grins and laughter. Our mirth harbored no mendacity and no smile stretches, we actually enjoyed each other immeasurably. This year on December 17, 2009, our joyous group of Dartmouth family members included Thomas J. Andrews (‘60); Steve (‘64) and Carol Bachman; Robert “Treb” Becher (M ‘06); Kelly (‘00) and Mark Cavanaugh; John (‘78) and Jan Davis; Kimberly Davis (‘11); Steve (Tuck ‘67) and Gail Dula; Thomas (‘56) and Sandra Harper; David Hough (‘67) and Tamara Michael; Stephen Lough (‘87); Harrison Marks (‘73); Michael (‘65) and Marian McKelvy; Robert (‘78) and Rob Price; Ted (‘63) and Nancy Rossi; David (‘67) and Carol Sclove; Richard (‘56) and Georgia Whitney.

Professor Melanie Benson, the latest addition to Dartmouth’s outstanding Native American Studies Department, keynoted the Club’s fourth Alumni Seminar (a/k/a Dartmouth on Location event), held this time in conjunction with the 14th Annual American Indian Heritage Celebration on November 21st at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Speaking on the topic “The Problem of the Native South (and a Solution or Two),” Prof. Benson, a Herring Pond Wampanoag from Cape Cod, gave a talk drawing deeply on southern literature and laced with vivid imagery to stress the need for modern Native Americans to forge new futures out of the best of their past and the strengths of their present. Our second speaker, Prof. Malinda Maynor Lowery of UNC-Chapel Hill, speaking on “The Lumbee Experience and Recognition Issue,” gave a logical and persuasive explanation of the formation and development of North Carolina’s Lumbee Tribe (with 54,000 members the largest east of the Mississippi) and its ongoing effort to obtain federal recognition. Late in the afternoon a panel that included Catherine Hutasuhut ‘99, Steve Lowery ‘05 and Heather Mc-Millan Nakai ‘02 engaged with the audience in a lively and wide ranging discussion of current issues in the Native American community, with emphasis on education and how college students and graduates can contribute to their tribes back home. Especially interesting were stories by the three alums about their experiences at Dartmouth, difficult at first but in the end cementing a deep loyalty to the College. In between all this everyone enjoyed the activities of the overall Heritage Celebration – dance, cuisine, arts, crafts, medicines, storytelling and films. Included in the audience of some 35 or 40 were Tom Andrews ‘60, Betsy ‘87 and Mark Scalco, Mark Brooks ‘07, Zach ‘89 and April Chen, Bob Conn ‘61, Kathy Dubishar ‘82 (from Northern Virginia), Sara Kate Fishback ‘02, David Hough ‘67, Todd ‘78 and Nancy Hemphill, Steve ‘87 and Elizabeth Lough, Kim Pelak ‘05, Nancy Sharpless ‘81, Rick Sharpless ‘79, Andrew Weiss ‘67, Derreth Kavanagh sp. ‘55, and a number of invited representatives of local Native American tribes, groups and academic departments. The consensus was that the event was a great success, with fun and learning for all.

A small group of enthusiastic volunteer Alumni Interviewers met on Sunday, November 8 at Todd Hemphill ’78’s office in Raleigh for an Interviewer Workshop. The admissions process, tips for interviewing and evaluation write-ups, and college updates were discussed. Alumni interviews are important to the admissions process. Often, this is the only opportunity an applicant has to interact with a Dartmouth representative. Our goal is to interview 100% of our candidates from the Piedmont area and your support is needed! Please email Belinda Chiu ‘98 at belinda.chiu@gmail.com to sign up. Keep in mind that an online system is used that requires your alum account to be activated. If you do not regularly use your alum account, please have your alum account forward to your regular email. If you would like some tips, sample questions and evaluations, please go to:?www.dartmouth.edu/~interviewers/interviewing/.

Saturday, October 24th, Dartmouth alumni from three classes gathered near Falls Lake to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the DOC locally. ?Joining over 40 other volunteers, the crew hiked about two miles into the woods with trail rakes and mattocks and broke trail on a new section of the North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail. ?The trail meandered by wheat fields and into thick brush that was no match for loppers and a little Dartmouth granite muscle. ?By day’s end, more than a mile of trail had been broken (and many Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwiches eaten). ?The Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (FMST) group was friendly and ran an impressive operation. ?If you’d like to find out more about the trail or spend a day doing trail work visit?http://www.ncmst.org/?for more information.

Dartmouth and Tuck alumni traveled from Charlotte to Raleigh for the successful launch of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network – North Carolina (DEN-NC). Held at the Elon University Love School of Business, the 9th chapter of a nationwide network featured Elon’s Dean Mary Gowan and Gregg Fairbrothers D’75, Founding Director, DEN, Adjunct Professor of Business Administration, Tuck. Jason Copland T’01, President of Copland Industries gave an inspiring and insightful talk about the courage of being entrepreneurial in a fourth-generation family company. The alumni retreated to the Piedmont Ale House where ideas, business cards, and contacts were shared with enthusiasm and great interest.

The purpose of DEN-NC is to foster a spirit of innovation by helping people in the Dartmouth community learn about and implement entrepreneurship. Future events will include speakers, workshops, business plan competitions, and opportunities to network locally, regionally, and nationally with Hanover and the other eight DEN chapters. Whether you are starting a business, running one, or working in one and have an interest in entrepreneurship, please join the listserv. For more information or to join the group, please contact: belinda.chiu@gmail.com.

A group of 25 alums, students, book award winners and parents enjoyed an evening of warm Dartmouth fellowship at the annual Triangle Holiday dinner on December 18th at the North Carolina State Unversity Club. An social hour and dinner were followed by the sharing of Dartmouth experiences by alums and students – with a wide variety of affirmations of the continuing meaning of our Dartmouth education to all of us. Book Award winners honored at the event were Firoz Jameel of Chapel Hill High School and Mingxi Liu of Ravenscroft Academy. Students in attendance were Amber Bullard ‘09, Asa Shenandoah ‘10 and Melissa Gilmore ‘11.
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15 Young Alums from the Piedmont, from ‘99 to ‘08, gathered on Friday, September 12th for a backyard picnic. Most are currently attending grad school at either Duke or UNC in the areas of law, business, public health, religion, genetics, and more. Festivities included Southern pulled pork barbeque, catching up, and a casual game of pong. Young alum events happen about every six months at this point, but greater club events are more often. Hope to see out at an event soon!