PRESIDENT
Matt Webb, Maryland JCL President, reports that he has been very busy with JCL activities during the month of August. He
attended the National Convention at U-Mass and gained useful contacts with the officers of the Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
New Jersey Junior Classical Leagues. He contacted Sarah Ramer of New Jersey regarding the Myths-for-Kids program,
which has potential to introduce the excitement of the Classics to elementary school students here in Maryland. Most
important to the President this month was his work with Autumnalia. He hosted and presided over the August planning
meeting, and made arrangements for a site visit at the Meeting House in Columbia, our Autumnalia location. In addition, the
President worked with the Meeting House staff to arrange terms of rental: 5.75 hours for $1017.70. Matt created the
informational mailing about Autumnalia, which includes: a letter from the President/Vice-President (courtesy of Samip), a
listing of the main events to be held, a description of these events, special information sheets on the quilt, the chariot race,
and Illa Oblectatio Est, and a registration form. Further, the President spearheaded the publicity drive, which included:
submitting press releases to twelve regional Classical publications, collecting names and locations of Maryland newspapers,
composing a personal letter to be sent to schools which have joined or expressed an interest in MDJCL in the past, speaking
personally with teachers to encourage them to attend Autumnalia, and assigning tasks in order to quickly and efficiently
accomplish our publicity goals. Matt also solicited donations from local businesses for prizes and raffles at Autumnalia.
Finally, Matt spent time personally contacting each officer in an effort to increase our productivity, responsibility, and
timeliness. For the month of September, the President hopes to focus on planning Autumnalia's specific events, personally
contact more teachers regarding Autumnalia, continue to work with the new MD/DC SCL in order to help it grow and to
enlist the help of its members during Autumnalia, and continue to work with the New Jersey JCL to develop a proposal for
implementing Myths for Kids in Maryland.
VICE PRESIDENT
Samip Patel, our Vice President, reports that he contacted by personal letter each of the six schools which he was assigned.
He also reports that he was not able to complete the task of finding the newpaper addresses by the original August 31st
deadline, but he did complete this task by the second (September 2) deadline. Samip pledges to work harder to complete
tasks on time. Matt would like to note that Samip wrote some seriously excellent (and incredibly HARD!) questions during
the Medusa Exam Committe meeting!!
SECRETARY
Our secretary, Krystyna Zaremba, writes that due to the condition of her grandmother, she was unable to be active in JCL
this month. However, due to a pleasant change of events, she states that she is now available for "another fun year as
MDJCL Secretary!"
WEBMASTER
Brian Ballantine, our revered, excitable, and determined Webmaster, reports the following: he has worked heavily on the
new MDJCL webpage, and has found ways to publicize it on the World-Wide-Web. To the webpage he has added a
counter to track the number of people who visit it, and the list of Maryland top-25 winners from National Convention. In
addition, he completed all tasks, including contacting his appointed schools, locating the addresses for his assigned
newspapers, and beginning to research the Roman wedding. Brian also continues to amuse the MDJCL President with his
humorous e-mails and persistent instant messages over AOL. (: For the month of September, Brian plans to encourage his
"contacts" in the Mafia, er, the Frederick County School System, to persuade their Latin teachers to attend Autumnalia, to
learn JAVA so as to begin work on an online Certamen program, to add more of that ambiguous, undefined-as-of-yet
quality called "suave" to the website.
HISTORIAN
Our talented Historian, Liz Humphries, writes that she located the facility for Autumnalia: the Meeting House in Columbia. In
addition, she solicited many donations from various local businesses (included the, to use a Humphriesian phrase, "coveted
Olympus Gym passes!), and attended the site visit to the Meeting House with Matt and Ms. Carter. Liz has also attended
the August planning meeting, and sent promotional, personal letters to schools regarding Autumnalia. Perhaps her shining
accomplishment this month was her participation in the wonderful, and heated discussion on the presence of feeder students
at Autumnalia. Finally, Liz has designed the Maryland JCL tee-shirt: it depicts the night sky over Odysseus on his raft sailing
towards land, and includes a shooting star with "MDJCL" written in the tail. She would like the tee-shirt to be dark blue.
EDITOR
Our editorially-talented Editor, Jason Ramboz, reports that he finished Volume V Issue 1 of the Lapsus Linguae, which
included articles on such topics as the National Convention, Autumnalia, late breaking news, and Illa Oblectatio Est. In
addition, he contacted all of the schools that he was assigned. For the month of September, he plans to produce another
(Volume V Issue 2: September) newsletter. In addition, Jason plans to contact the editors of local club newsletters
encouraging them to submit articles to the Lapsus Linguae. Finally, Jason plans to continue helping with the Autumnalia
preparations.
PARLIAMENTARIAN
Danny Haile earned the coveted distinction of "only officer to employ Ciceronian techniques (namely, praeteritio) in order to
get himself off the hook." Our Parliamentarian, has been quite busy with JCL activities during August. He reports that at the
National Convention he gained many ideas on how to obtain a full slate of candidates. Danny Haile also went straight to
work designing an excellent syllabus for the Ludi Mentis competition at Autumnalia. He sent out all of his letters to schools,
attempted to find a location in Prince George's County for Autumnalia, and attempted to get donations for the prizes and
raffles. However, he was not able to get any donations. For the month of September, our Parliamentarian plans to submit his
press releases to newspapers, plan the Latin Club Officers' Workshop for Autumnalia, create a "Campaign Corner" with
information about elections for Lapsus Linguae, collaborate Samip and Liz to develop Ludi Mentis questions, and to plan the
wedding reception with Nina. Danny also pledges to complete his tasks in a timely fashion.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Nina, our Executive Assistant, reports that in August she went prize hunting and gathered numerous items for Autumnalia.
Also, she and Liz devised an MDJCL quilt project. She also contacted all of her schools, and began to plan the games for
the Wedding Reception at Autumnalia. For the month of September, she plans to finish contacting business for donations,
re-contact her schools, and finish planning the wedding reception.
CO-CHAIRPERSONS
Ms. Carter, our magnificent co-chairperson, reports that she attended the August planning meeting, visited the Meeting
House, and spoke to or wrote to every Frederick County Latin teacher, plus several outside of Frederick County. Ms.
Carter also served as an invaluable advisor to the President concerning various MDJCL administrative and logistical activities
this month.