GDG- Why GDG?

[Robert Lawrence]

I always get nostalgic when we start this thread every year. I am reminded
of the early days of the group-we had no listserve software-Dennis and I
took turns forwarding the posts to an ever growing list of members. And in
those days we thought we could set up a topic to discuss and everyone would
follow along.

Well  all these years later we have not only state of the Art listserv
software we have two servers, a board of directors and are incorporated.
this group is truly a hobby that ran amok! -:)

So why did we start the group? Two reason (and Dennis will probably come in
and expand, revise and expunge my remarks):

The first reason was we had a great interest in Gettysburg(having been first
taken there by our parents in 1963) and enjoyed talking about it on the old
Prodigy message boards AND

The second reason was we didn't like the level of discourse on the net
(check out alt.war.civil.usa to see what we mean.) Lots of yelling , ad
hominen attacks , foul language and very little intelligent discussion.

So we started this group with only two simple rules:

1. we will be cordial
2. we will discuss Gettysburg only.

Number 2 is often violated-number one remains the hallmark of our group.

I am still amazed at the level of scholarship fund in this group. Two
examples come to mind . I was once involved in a heated discussion about
Pickets charge and grabbed a book off the shelf that I KNEW would back me up
and refute the man I was debating. As I opened the book it suddenly struck
me that the man  was arguing with was the author of the book. I beat a hasty
retreat.

The second was when someone criticized communications at GB and made the
offhand comment the army had the same problem in Desert storm. That elicited
a pointed reply from a member who revealed he was in charge of communication
during desert storm and it worked just fine, thank you very much.

So now it is time for all of you to step up to the plate and help keep this
group going. memberships start as low as $10-where can you have so much fun
for a under a buck a month.

I need to add the standard disclaimer at this point-you don't have to be a
dues paying member to participate in the discussions or attend the muster.

However you can register and contribute at
http://www.gdg.org/Support/Muster2007/memberreg2007.htm






Robert W Lawrence CPA
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1Peter 5:7