Carole and Alan's Big Adventure

For Our Emory Family:

When Carole and Alan's Adventures started six year's ago, we wanted to create a blog for our family. You see, the two of us are in Atlanta and most of our family are in New York or Boston or Key West, so they have a hard time keeping track of us. Carole and Alan's Adventures was meant to share the journey, elaborate on the trip, have fun along the way, all the time keeping in touch with the people who are so important in our lives.

So today, we have news of an adventure--Carole and Alan's Big Adventure--and we are sharing it with you because we want to recognize you as our family and friends for over twenty years now, and that's a long time. Today we let Brett and Rich and Robin know that we are leaving Emory, our wonderful home for these many years, and planning to return North to be closer to our brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. Starting August 1st, Alan will assume the role of Associate CIO for Teaching and Research at Dartmouth College while Carole will be lead architect for designing Dartmouth's Institutional Repository. Carole will have her last day at Emory some time in May while Alan will work through mid-June.

There has been no harder decision making process for the two of us than the last few days as we tried to decide what to do. Atlanta has been a great home to us and those of you at Emory the finest friends that the two of us could possibly want to have. All of us have seen each other through some incredible times, and as professionals, we have worked on behalf of/with the incredible faculty and students of Emory to create something special. All of us know it as a team achievement.

Leaving Emory is leaving our home. It is also leave taking of the most incredible group of people that anyone would want to work with. Why would we consider it? Simply, we have nine nieces and nephews between the age of two and ten who we want to make a closer part of our life and we can't do that here. In New Hampshire, we'll no doubt ask them to go pick berries this summer, and this fall, maybe pick apples. As the holidays approach, it'll be time to wander into the woods to cut our own Christmas trees. We won't even start talking about the fishing.

We share this message with you here, and thank you for making us feel like family these many years. Beers at Melton's, Trolley Barn Escapades, Singing at the Carter Center (and being charged for water), Christmas Tunes from Lamb-y, way too many Thrashers tickets, how many Wings, Trivia with Tony--the memories are too numerous to even conjure. Yet the spirit is true--playful, imaginative, hardworking, inspired--true to the family you are.

You all have great things ahead of you. We know it. And it is hard knowing we won't be part of the team that will help the campus learn about the Collaboration tools, what can happen with analytics, the adventure of Echo 360, or the movement of content online to venues like Coursera. It will happen without us, and it will happen because of you, and it will be amazing.

Meanwhile, we'll be a thousand miles away, though we hope the distance won't keep those of you who want from keeping in touch. And we'll have our own Adventures, and I hope great things are ahead of us as well. We'll sign off here, where we began, saying that Carole and Alan's Adventures was about keeping in touch with family. And you all definitely belong here. Thanks for helping make the great adventure we have shared these past years. It has been the ride of our life.

Carole and Alan