It has become the custom of the new Grand Marshal to spend his first Top Hat thanking everyone around him for everything that they did during the election. The formula for the article is fairly simple. You spend the first paragraph talking about how glad and proud you are, and spend the next four to six thanking some combination of the following: your political party, your fraternity, the Rules and Elections Committee, the previous GM, and then finally, everyone who voted for you. The Senate lives and dies on the breadth of people who form its committees; which makes the closing paragraph obvious. There is always a plea to e-mail or call the Grand Marshal if you have any interest in serving on any of the variety of Senate committees.
Honestly, why break from tradition? Why change and begin talking about what I want to do, when I can spend the rest of the year showing you everything that will get done.
I think it’s fair to count what I have so far as part of my “classical” opening paragraph, but it’s missing a bit. I haven’t told you just how ecstatic I am to be your new Grand Marshal, or how until the very end I had no idea what the outcome of the election would be. I don’t think I’ve expressed quite how proud I am to have been given the chance to give my ideas a real chance.
I know why previous GM’s have always started off by thanking their political party. It’s the people that they spent the last three or four weeks coordinating and campaigning with. I’ve seen the hard work they’ve put into their own campaigns, but what touched me most is how they gave of their time to help with mine.
But here is where I will break from tradition. I want to thank the Apollo party just as much as I want to thank my own, the S.Badia Party. I saw the hard work both sides put in, and I’m grateful that students on this campus care enough about what happens around them to really put their all into something. This is the kind of dedication that is needed in student government, but really in anything, if we are ever going make a difference.
Here is where I need to thank my campaign manager. Matt Newman did an amazing job. He is a wonderful friend, and knew just what to say when I needed a kind word. I’m glad that I get to keep working with him on a professional level, and that everything didn’t have to end along with GM Week.
Most Grand Marshals thank their fraternity for their guidance; I want to thank mine for their support. When you run for Grand Marshal, you really need to put your entire life on hold for a few weeks. The brothers of Alpha Chi Rho were instrumental in allowing me to do as much as I did. They understood, and almost expected, that I would drop in at random times, and they did everything in their power to keep my life as simple as possible. They let me speak when I needed to be heard, and they were there for me when I needed their help. I couldn’t have asked for more from them, I never even needed to ask for what they gave.
According to the formula, I’m only about halfway through thanking everyone, but my column is already way over the word limit. I know why the past columns always mix and match, but I want to do service to everyone. Mike Borzumate, you have been an amazing help through the early part of my term, and I can’t thank you enough for making this transition as easy as possible. As to RNE, and especially Matt Ezovski, you once again put more into this election than anyone ever expects you to. Your dedication is what makes elections bearable for the rest of us. I want to thank you for all of your counseling and support.
This leaves me with only one more group to thank: everyone who voted for me. To you, I offer my thanks, but will give you much more. You believed in my goals, in my dream about what can be done, and I promise you that I will not let you down.
As promised, I’m closing by telling you how we have many Senate committees that need a wide variety of students on them. We really do, and I urge anyone who wants to make a difference, or even to just lend a hand, to send me an e-mail at gm@rpi.edu.
