Greetings Fellows,

Last week was a terrific reminder about the legacy of IOPL and the great work it - and by that I mean all of you - continue to do. Here in Raleigh alone 5 IOPL Fellows took the oath of office as new members of the General Assembly, joining six of their colleagues who were returning incumbents.

Alice Bordsen S '01 House; Linda Coleman S '96 House; Janet Cowell S '00 Senate; Bill Daughtridge S '02 House; Jerry Dockham S '89 House; Nelson Dollar F '88 House; Malcolm Graham F '91 Senate; Mitch Gillespie S '98 House;Pricey Harrison S '03 House; Earline Parmon F '88 House; John Rhodes F '98 House.

One IOPL Fellow joined the NC Court of Appeals, Barbara Jackson S '03, and of course we already have a member of the Supreme Court, Mark Martin F '92, and our Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall s '91. Meanwhile, we launched the 36th IOPL class in Greensboro on Friday with the Spring Class 2005.

Gwendolyn Cartwright, Democrat, Greensboro; Tim Cook, Republican, Greensboro; Matthew Danielson, Democrat, Cary; Esteban Echeverria, Democrat, Durham; Ada Fisher, Republican, Salisbury; Martina Guzman, Democrat, Raleigh; Robert Kearley, Republican, Charlotte; Sam Krishna, Democrat, Raleigh; Greg Lucas, Independent, Asheville; Jeff Marks, Democrat, Fayetteville; Chris Mintz, Republican, Raleigh; Jason Moir, Republican, Lincolnton; Luis Olivera, Democrat, Fayetteville; Gardner Payne, Democrat, Raleigh; Tanya Reimer, Democrat, Chapel Hill; Jared Simms, Republican, Durham; Michael Speciale, Republican, New Bern; Jeffrey Starkweather, Democrat, Pittsboro; Ricardo Velasquez, Democrat, Durham; Khaner Walker, Democrat, Raleigh.

Lost on many North Carolinians, but not on all of us, is the fact that many, many more of you are serving this State and its citizens in a variety of other capacities-quite a few of them elected and appointed offices at the municipal and county levels. It's much more difficult to assess the impact that many other Fellows have had through their work on campaigns for other candidates, or in community service across the state. What we do know is that 725 Fellows have graduated, and hardly a day goes by that we don't get news of some of the many accomplishments and contributions of these individuals.

It has been a great thrill for me personally to become part of this terrific organization. In December we graduated the first IOPL class not to be officially under the watch of Walt deVries.

Steve Acuff, Republican, Raleigh; Martha Beatty, Democrat, Raeford; T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, Democrat, Greensboro; Jennifer Bumgarner, Democrat, Raleigh; Susana Burns, Democrat, Chapel Hill; Jon Byers, Libertarian, Wake Forest; Lois Cavanagh-Daley, Democrat, Raleigh; Frederick Clingenpeel, Democrat, Wilmington; Joel Ford, Democrat, Charlotte; LaRinda Huntley-Kaplan, Republican, Raleigh; David Mize, Republican, Morrisville; Marjorie Morris, Republican, Raleigh; Patricia Oliver, Republican, Selma; Ainsley Owens, Democrat, Greensboro; Judy Perry, Democrat, Raleigh; Irene Phillips, Democrat, Winston-Salem; Dean Poirier, Independent, Mt. Olive; Ben Williams, Democrat, Stem; Tricia Wilson, Republican, Raleigh; Angelica Reza Wind, Democrat, Graham.

But of course, Walt's presence was felt everywhere, and he was gracious enough to return to the Program and help us with a number of important tasks, including the traditional polling weekend in Wilmington.

This leads me to one of the main reasons for writing and sending you this "note." I want all of you to know that IOPL will continue to reflect the many great things that Walt has done in founding and leading it from 1987 until last year. His legacy-and yours-are the very foundation on which IOPL rests today and will continue to do so for many years to come. But we are also entering a very exciting time in which the Institute will be doing some new things, though all of them closely tied to our original purpose and mission. For example, we have launched our new Track 2 initiatives, focusing on continuing education and professional development for already elected and appointed officials (including, we hope, some of our Fellows!), and outreach to citizen groups around the state. In the past few months I have conducted sessions and spoken to the North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety (Jon Williams, S '97, helped to set this up), and textile executives on the Textile Advisory Board for the Institute of Textiles technology. This week you can listen in as I participate as a panelist on NC Spin (www.ncspin.com) and on State Government radio (www.stategovernmentradio.com). Kelly and I are working very hard right now to get our website updated and upgraded so that we can begin to provide a whole new set of functions and services for our Fellows specifically and for North Carolinians generally.

Our initial priorities have been to complete the transition from Walt to me, our relocation from Wilmington to Raleigh, and our move away from the UNC system, all while continuing our Fellows Program, of course. We have had-and continue to have-challenges. Fundraising remains critical, and we are working very hard on developing a new fundraising and funding strategy for IOPL which you will begin to see in the months ahead. New program development will be a priority as we continue to design and implement the Track 2 initiatives we want to bring on line. But the biggest priority for us right now is YOU-the IOPL Fellows. So with this note I want to alert you to what you can expect from us in the weeks and months ahead.

First, you can breathe easily for the moment-the plan is not to hit you up relentlessly for money! Instead, we want to make you the focus of our efforts to provide useful knowledge, services, and functions through improved website and e-technologies. Moreover, we are planning to launch a full-blown effort to organize and conduct special events around the state and get you involved in them. One of our first efforts in this regard will be hosting receptions around the state in conjunction with our Spring and Fall classes. We will be conducting the fifth weekend this Spring in Charlotte on April 1-2, and we are working hard right now to hold a reception there and invite all of our Fellows from the Greater Charlotte region to attend-no cost, no fundraising, no sign-up sheets for future work. We hope to have our current Fellows, past Fellows (including those holding office in the region), and a number of the area's political, business, and community leaders there to meet and get to know one another. We certainly want to take a few minutes to tell the IOPL story to those who do not know us, but we see this as a valuable opportunity for our current Class to meet leaders and Fellows from all over the state as part of our program. Later in the year we will conduct similar receptions when we are in Raleigh, Greensboro, and Wilmington-and eventually all around the state. You will have observed that we are going back to Charlotte for the first time in many years-a further reflection of our commitment to get IOPL and its Fellows out and around the entire state as part of our Track 1 Fellows Program and as part of our Track 2 programs.

Some of you are already aware that we have recently reorganized our Board of Directors and created a new Board of Advisors. The Board of Advisors is organized regionally, with Fellows serving as regional chairs in the West, Charlotte, Triad, Triangle, Northeast, and Southeast. We see the BoA as very much a Fellows-driven organization that will help us develop and implement special programs around the state (receptions, workshops) and provide us with information about programs of interest to all and which we can then share in turn with the rest of you. We also want to encourage our BoA to provide timely input into our curriculum and to assist in new program development. Some of you may already be members of the BoA or perhaps have been contacted by them. I see all of these efforts as part of our commitment to you to make IOPL much more than our ten-weekend Fellows Program, and our goal is to get as many of our Fellows as possible actively engaged in IOPL on an on-going basis.

We are also working on developing this initial email contact with you into a regular e-info service for all of us. We plan to add announcements of programs-whether our own or others-that might be of interest and value to you, keep you apprised of IOPL activities, and provide links to other organizations and information. Eventually we believe we can build our website and our e-communications into a valuable network that will serve some very important needs of our community of shared interests and values. We hope that many of you will be actively involved in helping us build, implement, and update these services.

I have probably gone on far too long already. But I wanted this initial message to update you on several fronts and to alert you to some of what you can expect from us as we go forward. Kelly and I, and our Board of Directors, want all of our Fellows to know that we are committed to continuing the fine legacy that Walt, past staff members, and each and every one of you have helped create, and to building a future IOPL that is even more of a force in contributing to good governance and effective strategic political leadership in North Carolina. Toward that end, we seek your engagement and support, and we promise to work even harder in making IOPL a lasting, value-added contributor to your lives.

All the best to all of you!