From the Secretariat

From the Secretariat This is the last issue of die Rocky Mountain Review to appear under the current editorship and diese are the last weeks in office for the current secretariat of RMMLA. In fact, by the time you read diis die transition will be nearly complete. Over a year ago, in the winter 1977 issue of the Review, the undersigned announced dieir pending resignations and invited bids from colleges and universities in die Rocky Mountain area interested in hosting die organization after it left the University of Utah. We're pleased to announce, though it's scarcely a secret by this time, diat RMMLA's new home is to be Arizona State University. The new executive director will be Ingeborg L. Carlson, Department of Languages, and die new editor will be Don L. F. Nilsen, Department of English. The normal term of office for the secretariat is three years. We have held die job for four, and those four years have gone very quickly indeed. We've become, somewhat to our surprise, the senior secretariat among all the regionals. We have met some extraordinarily interesting people, seen a great many changes take place in the Association, heard a gratifying number of nice things said about us, and enjoyed die continued support of colleagues and administrators who were not always sure what we were about but who were willing to trust us. Our headquarters have been a commodious office in a building at some distance across campus from our respective departments, next door to the AFROTC and upstairs from the Credit Union, and diis autonomy has been especially pleasant. The whole enterprise has been not only professionally rewarding but also, along widi the headaches, a lot of fun. Special recognition needs to be given to Phillip Johnson, who served as our business manager for diree years, handled the finances, the budget reports, the membership records, die subscriptions, virtually the whole machinery of die Association, and was die only one of us who never became rattled; his successor, Thomas Dullien, who joined us when Phil accepted a teaching position at Baylor University, and who picked up die complicated web of entities widiout losing a diread; and Rosemary Beless, who has continued as assistant editor of die Review for the entire four years, including a nine-mondi period when she ran die journal almost single-handedly. If we've managed to project an image of cool proficiency during all diis time, diese diree people are more responsible dian anyone out diere knows. In four years, of course, we have also seen a complete turnover in die Executive Board, whose members are elected for staggered threeyear terms. None of the same people who met us at the door are still there, and as one of our last official acts we take great pleasure in announcing die results of the elections of the two newest members: Sophia Morgan (English, University of Colorado) and Wolff A. Von Schmidt (German, University of Utah) as Vice-President and Delegate-at-Large, respectively. Our congratulations to bodi, our thanks to die present and past- members of die Board, who have been without exception congenial and sympadietic friends to work widi; and finally, our best wishes to Ingeborg and Don, who promise to be a vital, imaginative secretariat of die organization, but who can't possibly enjoy die job more dian we have. Franklin Fisher Joel Hancock^ ...