Tuesday, February 28, 2006. Final banquet. New President's remarks.

MR. GALBRAITH: Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Thank you very much. Once again, I'd like to thank the program committee for their excellent efforts. Burt Hudnall actually is on his way -- or maybe already is in Scotland. I don't know if they'll understand him, but he worked this around all of that.

Margaret MacDonald, would you please stand? And Jill Muti, and Liza Lee, so we can thank you so much. We have loved Charleston, and that the rhythm you set out for this program seems to make a little sense. Maybe it's the overarching plan that we could all take back to our schools, and it's this: You have some music, and then you have some affinity friend-making, and then you work on your brain, and you do a little athletics, and then you find your muse, and then you establish courage, and tomorrow you avoid lawyers. That seems to be a formula that may work at all our schools.

We have some honorary members with us tonight, and when I say your name, would you mind standing, because we're delighted that you're here. Most of them are at a table near the center of the room. Julia Williams, would you stand, please? Carol Lane. Blair Stambaugh. Joan Twaddle. Evy Halpert. And of course, our triple threat, Liza Lee.

We would like to have just a few remarks from our new president, who will chart a bit of a course for us and talk a little bit about our beloved NAPSG. Following that, we'll have our meal, and the evening will proceed at your own pace, as you enjoy it. So please welcome our new president, Burch Ford.

MS. FORD: Thank you, Bruce, and thank you everyone. I'm really not going to chart our course because I think our course has been well-charted for some time now, and that we are on such a wonderful trajectory with such terrific momentum from all 328 member schools that I don't think I can add to that direction.

I was saying to somebody just before we were called to dinner that my remarks were going to be very brief, and that I was afraid that I had underestimated the significance of this event. And she reminded me that the Gettysburg Address was very brief, too, but somehow I don't think the stature will be quite right.

But I do want to remind all of us -- and I think we all know this -- but this is one of those junctures, as is any transition, where I think it's important to revisit the mission of NAPSG, which was founded in 1920, and currently has 328 member schools. "The mission of NAPSG is to further the professional growth of its members by providing a forum in which issues pertinent to the education of girls and young women are presented and discussed."

We could not have done that more effectively in the last couple of days.

"School heads and other representatives of member schools and colleges meet to address issues ranging from curricular and administrative policies to moral education and the role of women in a complex and changing world."

I think that what we have done today and yesterday in terms of finding more and better ways to serve our girls could not be improved upon, and I know that that's something that we will all continue to do.

You all know that since 1985, there has been such a powerful commitment and a really unusual initiative that NAPSG began, to identify women in schools who had real leadership potential who may not have identified themselves as such, and to help to develop that potential. Many of those women have since become heads of school.

I was struck by the two most recent issues of the Heads Letter. I'm sure that's something that you all get. The back page always has a list of recent appointments of new heads. In the January issue, there were 32 new appointments, of whom seven were women, and in the February issue there were 32 appointments, of whom three were women. So we really have our work cut out for us, not only to be mentors and to identify these powerful potential leaders, but also to provide our girls thereby with role models for them because they, in fact, are the women leaders of tomorrow.

So thank you again for the honor of my appointment. Thank you again to Liza and Bodie and to Bruce for this wonderful conference, and I look forward to seeing you all next near in Tucson. Many thanks. Enjoy.

MR. GALBRAITH: Thank you, Burch. And lastly, when I was a boy, we listened to the radio, and I have vivid recollections of a program called the Don McNeil Breakfast Hour and they said something that we'll share, if you don't mind, as a way of giving thanks for our food. They said this. "Each in our own words, each in our own way, for a world united in peace, let us pray. Amen."

Thank you. Enjoy your meal.