Muster

I attended Muster this past Wednesday night in Tulsa. This was the first time I had gotten together with the A&M Club in Tulsa. They seem to be a pretty inactive club. I think their last get together was last September, so this was my first opportunity to get involved. Muster was at the Stokely Event Center, which was a place I had never been. It is in an area of Tulsa that is not all that attractive, but it is definitely a diamond in the ruff. The outside is deceiving. It is just a metal building that used to be an old sign shop. The man who owned it and rented it to our group used to have a sign business there with his father. They closed the shop a few years ago and hung up a bunch of their old signs just for fun. People they knew came by and admired the look and asked if they could rent it out. They refinished the floors, bought some tables and chairs and began renting it out for events a little over a year ago. The picture is from inside the building and it really does not do the whole place justice. It was really an awesome sight!

As I said, it was my first visit to the Tulsa A&M Club. I had yet to meet anyone from the club, so I was looking forward to getting to know some new people. Our muster speaker and backup speaker both fell through, so our program was a little short. One of the men who helped with Muster, Jim, stood up to say a few words and start the program. After welcoming us he quickly moved on to say that we have three open positions to fill within the club. We need a new president, treasurer and Muster chair. He addressed the floor for volunteers and nominations, going through each position. He probably stood up at the front for three or four minutes and got not one single nomination or even a raised hand. It was painfully silent! He finally gave up and said he would be available afterward in case we knew anyone that might be interested.

I have really wanted to get involved with an A&M group since I left College Station. The Las Vegas group is active now, but was just getting going about the time I left. The Corpus Christi group struggled the whole time I was there and never really seemed to get anything accomplished. And of course the Portales club was non existent because most Aggies no better than to live there. The closest club when I lived there was in Amarillo or Lubbock and they were still two hours away. Needless to say, I am ready to get involved! I decided to go talk to Jim after we were dismissed from Muster to see what I could help with. I told him that I did not live in Tulsa, but was in or near town at least every other week and that I would be happy to help with anything I could. He said they really needed to fill two positions immediately, which were president and treasurer. I said I would be happy to help with whatever I could. He asked me if I had a preference and I said no. His exact words were, " I think we just found our new president." I was shocked! I laughed and then figured it was time to go over and pay my dues. When I turned around he got on the microphone and said "I'd like to introduce you to our new club president, Cole Martin, Class of '03." It's official! Everyone started coming up and handing me business cards and offering to help. I really appreciated that, but where were they when Jim was looking for volunteers? Anyway, I am pretty excited about it! I was nervous until I realized that the group is not all that active. Sure it may be hard to get people out at first, but at least I will be able to exceed expectations and not try to fill the shoes of someone who was really on point. Besides, my first order of business will be monthly happy hours. I figure it makes sense to start with what you know.