By Anita Bailey
Phillips Exeter Academy last hosted a chapter meeting in the spring of 2003. At that conference, we rolled out our then new Phelps Science Center, and hosted 221 Institutional Members and 122 Business Partners with 65 booths. Looking back, those numbers seem staggering. We are ready to give it another try, to see if we can build on our last success.
Phillips Exeter is planning to once again host the Spring Chapter Meeting in 2012. Lots has happened here in the 9 years between chapter meetings, and the time seems right to invite you, our Northern New England colleagues, back to our campus. Just as life springs up from beneath high winter snow banks when the first bursts of warm air come our way (and this year, will we be ready!), we have been slowly recovering from the halt of campus projects and initiatives that resulted from the economic downturn.
Back in 2003, with our new science center open, our old science building was in mothballs. It has since become the gleaming Phelps Academy Center (LEED Silver) – home to a combination student and community center- which presents another location for holding chapter activities when we host. We have added a new children’s center, synthetic turf out at our stadium, and we built three new “green” faculty houses- each achieving LEED Gold certification. In addition, we have completed a modernization project at our Central Heat Plant, as well as a few phases of our multi-phase approach to replace underground steam lines. And I haven’t even started on the list of other efforts toward campus improvements completed, in progress, or in the planning stages. In other words, we have lots to share with you, our guests, when you visit next year. We look forward to hosting NNECERAPPA in the spring of 2012. Stay tuned!