What's in a Name?

So I agreed to have my name on mailings from the ALDAcon Sponsorship Committee. Well, I could handle that, but I'm thinking: What good will it do? I had my name on Gallaudet diplomas for 11 or 12 years and I don't think anybody but Bob Dorn noticed. Bob was my roommate in Chicago for a while before I got married. He was Big D deaf at heart and I barely knew what Gallaudet was at the time we were roommates. Ten years later, in one of life's greatest miracles, he somehow graduated from Gallaudet, and there was my name on his diploma because I was secretary of the board of trustees by then. He felt I cheapened the diploma; I felt he cheapened the diploma. We probably were both right.

The Sponsorship Committee turned out to actually be one person: Lois Maroney. She lives in Florida and has been involved with ALDA for half a generation, which still makes her mostly AMT (after my time of disappearance 15 years ago). I've only met her twice, I think, but she had obvious energy and commitment. The curse of the volunteer. So it was: Hello again, Lois, feel free to use my name, it won't do you any good. Good luck anyway.

But then the curse started to affect me. I'm a Cubs fan, which means I attract curses. And so it was again: How could I let Lois take the blame when people saw my name on the email and hit the delete key? It wasn't fair to her or to ALDA. I had to at least give people palpable cause to hit delete by approaching them on my own. And thus...the curse was on...